Looking to make small areas in your home more attractive?

            If you lived in a major metropolitan area, you probably have far too little space to achieve anything with painting or putting a wall covering on the walls, so you purchase a piece of art and use the wall to display your selection.  In reality the beautiful focal you purchase makes the area smaller. Put your art where it can be appreciated such as the entry to your home, above your fireplace, or even in your dining room above your server.

There rooms also are usually deprived of good lighting.  The best idea I can give your for such rooms is to go minimal and thus achieve a look of the area being larger and more comfortable. If you do wish to paint, the most popular color for the past four years has been Kilim Beige from Sherwin-Williams (SW 6106).  The paint does not have to be from Sherwin-Williams. Most colors can be matched by paint retailers, with the exception of colors that are tinted using a deep or ultra deep base.  It is my suggestion is you wish to use these colors to use ICI paint as ICI has deep and ultra deep bases that are truly designed for this usage and usually will cover in no more than 2 coats of paint. Benjamin Moore has a wonderful product the Aura Paint line which is also wonderful for these colors and many times covers fantastically in one coat.  The paint sells for $50 a gallon but the savings in labor compensates for the higher cost.

My personal color suggestion is Pratt & Lambert 110-1 Ivory Mist or Sprit’s Mist 18-2.  These colors are soft and reflect light to give an illusion of an area being larger. My personal suggestion for these areas is to have the paint in either low luster or pearl sheen.

            Many times these rooms have high ceilings, which instead of making the room larger tend to make the room feel smaller. The idea, which we have been suggesting is to put a chair railing 4” to 6” down from the ceiling on the wall and painting the area above the chair railing the ceiling color.  We have been suggesting using the color “swiss coffee” on the ceiling rather than using a ceiling white.  This effect makes the room softer and more comfortable. The idea is also great for a hall or guest bathroom.

            If you do not like that additional cost of installing a trim board then the same effect can be achieved with the usage of color.  You can purchase a “sample” of the same color you are using on the wall in an eggshell or satin for $5.00 or under and this change of sheen from the wall sheen you have selected will give the same effect when you bring the ceiling color to this band of color.

Two new suggestions:

            Have a 1” stripe wallpaper installed in a small room will give the illusion of a much larger space.  Wallpaper has made a comeback in recent years and for such an area might run a similar price to painting.  You probably would not spend over $11.99 per roll of a quality paper.  Painting this small of a stripe would require much more work than and paint cost than wallpaper. A good place to learn how to calculate how much wallpaper you would need to purchase can be found at http://www.ehow.com/how_2293695_calculate-how-much-wallpaper-need.html.  Wall covering installers generally charge by the roll. 

            ***Instead of my suggestion of installing a trim board 4” to 6” from the ceiling, a more dramatic way would be to install a smaller version of crown molding at the ceiling line and the trim board again 4” to 6” below.  You can now use that area as a focal area with using a complimentary color to your wall color.

            My suggestions  for this idea from Pratt & Lambert are the following:

            Wall: Ivory Mist (11-1) with Rivera Sand 12-28)

            Wall: Oyster White (10-1) with Honey Butter (8-30)

I am very happy to show you these colors or you can find them on line at prattandlambert.com or see them in person at Strothkamp’s, 14390 Manchester, Manchester, MO 63011. Pratt and Lambert is one of the highest quality paints and has very little retail displays. Pratt and Lambert offers 2 ounce color samples.