Honestly, I am always drawn to neutrals.  I adore them.  But unless neutral palettes are done “just so”, they can be very boring.  And who wants to live in a boring house?  Here’s where the whole thing gets a bit complicated, however, because many people are afraid of color.  Or, let’s put it another way.  When it comes to decorating, many people are afraid of how to put colors together or even which colors they should use.

But using color in your home doesn’t need to be scary.  In fact, there are many tools available to help you look at and choose colors in an educated way.  Today I’m going to share with you a couple of tools to help you get your feet wet in the world of color.It’s actually quite easy to look at a room and date it based solely on the colors that are used in the décor.  Why is that?  Well, there is actually an entire industry devoted to color forecasting.  Yep.  Groups of individuals get together, look at the current trends in color, and forecast where those trends are going.  They decide what the popular colors are going to be for the year.  So how does the average homeowner learn what these trendy colors are?  Virtually any paint company can offer the answers.  Pick a paint company, find its website and you’ll be able to see its color forecasts for the year.So now that you know what the “in” colors are for the year, how do you go about putting them together?  Well there’s a tool for that too.  Try running an online search for free color scheme generators and you’ll get a myriad of websites that will help you generate color schemes.  Some base them on photographs, some base them on a main color you want to use.  Regardless of the method they use, each is a valuable tool to help figure out a workable color scheme.

Now that I’ve shared with you two valuable color tools, you are ready to face that boring beige interior with confidence.  So go out and color your world!

~Wendy Hyde

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