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Can't miss color tips: Linking rooms with color may not seem very important if your rooms can be separated by closing doors. If you can see from one room into another, however, the color relationships between those rooms affect whether your living space feels smoothly harmonious or jarringly chopped up. Using unrelated colors in adjoining rooms can make the house feel like a disjointed series of spaces, while colors that relate to each other draw the eye from one room to the next and create a pleasing flow.
Creating a Flow: In a house with an open floor plan or one in which rooms connect through wide openings, it's even more important to choose colors that relate to each other in a pleasing way. In this situation, the challenge is to give each space its own identity according to its function and still achieve a feeling of unity.
Color Cues: Give each room its own color personality while ensuring a cohesive feeling by using a single hue as a theme that runs throughout.
Select Your Favorite: If you love lots of color, you can still achieve flow by choosing one hue to be a unifying thread that runs from room to room. Usually this unifying element is the woodwork -- baseboards, door and window frames, and molding at the ceiling. The connection can be more subtle, too, such as a recurring color in the fabrics, accessories, and furniture in each room. You also can achieve a feeling of continuity by limiting your palette to two or three colors that you use in different amounts and applications throughout the house. Each color can be used in different values and intensities to produce a wide range of effects.
Crosslink with Color: New houses often feature kitchens and great-rooms that connect physically and visually, separated only by a partial wall or counter. To paint each area a different color, use the partial wall or peninsula as the dividing line. Unify the two areas by using the same trim color throughout, and reinforce that connection by bringing touches of each area's color into the other. For a smooth transition, choose two colors that are closely related and similar in value.
Landscape Design Tips: Plan Before you Plant. To best utilize the space you have for your landscaping project, sketch your design ideas out on paper first. Create a quick drawing of what you'd like to plant where, and then just follow your guide.
Structure. Large trees provide a great framework for your landscape plan. They have multiple benefits including shading and structure. It is common practice to plant them in "3's" for the balance it provides, and in the event one of the trees does not take well to the soil.
Focal Point. Your design should have one major focus that the rest of the landscape showcases. A backyard pool would be a perfect focal point, as would an old oak tree, or a dramatic architectural element of the house itself.
Enthusiasm. If you are planning on tending to your garden with enthusiasm, then do not hesitate to plant vegetables and flowerbeds. If you enjoy the color a garden provides, but not necessarily the labor, then focus on collecting a vibrant assortment of easy-to-maintain potted plants.
Careful Inspection. When buying plants for your garden, take your time and inspect them for parasites and disease. Buy your plants from nurseries - they tend to take better care of their plants than large retailers.
Keep your Distance. Maintain a proper distance between each plant when planting them into soil. This will help air flow and prevent issues related to disease and insect infestation.
Climate. Generally your local nursery will stock plants and flowers best suited to your climate. But if you are ordering online or through a catalog, their stock will include everything, so be sure to check for the plant's ideal needs for sunshine and temperature.
Peek in on the Neighbors. Great inspiration may come from peeking in on the neighbors. Take a look at what their landscape plans entail and see which plants and trees are thriving. Also keep in mind that there may be a value in designing in a similar style to the homes nearest yours.
Frequent Visits. Don't plant and forget. It takes constant care to maintain a beautiful landscape. Wander your yard daily and enjoy the fruits of your labor, plus you can survey which plants may need extra attention and even pull a few weeds (before they get out of hand).
Good Investment. A nicely landscaped yard will add value to your house, and the "curb appeal" that helps sell homes quickly.
Home Decorating Tips
