What color "family" (warm or cool, collective, primary…)?
What color hues and combinations work together-for you?
What color intensity- how much white or black is added to the color?
Which direction does your house face and what’s the available sunlight in the room?
When are you in the room the most?
Which way the room faces the sun matters (north/south/east/west) because of how much lighting you will need to control or add-- and that can get expensive!

Charting your road map

     I do "layout boards" for clients.  They give people a plan for their decorating project.  When I make these layout boards, I want the client to be able to visualize what the house will look like when it is finished.  We rarely do everything on the boards at once.  We almost always work a room at a time.  The house may take five years, it may even take ten years to finish, but there’s a method to the madness.  The layout boards provide a master plan they can when they’re ready to move forward.
    Since I’m not there to help you get started, how do you begin creating your master plan?

Pick one color to "travel" through your house!

     Picking a travel color before you buy gives your rooms a consistent look and feel, especially in newer, open houses and floor plans.  If you have an open floor plan, you need to make sure the colors in each area (kitchen open to the great room, which opens to a walkway on the second floor, for example) work together.  Otherwise, you’ll have a “chopped-up” look that makes everything close in on you—which defeats the purpose of having an open floor plan to begin with!      Now, here’s the icing on the cake: do you want to make your decorating as “goof proof” as possible?  Then pick a collective color for your travel color (blue, green, or brown)!  They can’t clash, they offend no one, and they go with anything.  Once you have your “travel” color, everything else becomes so much simpler!  Picking one color to "travel" through the house (or, to use in every room) is the easiest way to make things work together.  This doesn’t mean every room will look the same; it means there will be a relationship between the rooms.  You’ll have a decorating scheme that works together instead of random pot luck!
    Remember: you want your colors to flow together (that’s why I call this chapter “Color Flow”).  You can have harmony, interest and variety at the same time!  Anchor your house around what's

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important to you—your things, your lifestyle, your likes and dislikes.  Then, your decorating supports what’s important to you, not the other way around.
    Use your travel color in different materials-paint, fabric, upholstery, window treatments, accent.  Go ahead and mix patterns (types, sizes) and solids to create variety and interest.  Here’s an example of how I did it for a recent client.  I picked green as the travel color, and here’s how I used it in different rooms:

Living room—an area rug.
Dining room—in coordinated wallpaper and drapery design
Kitchen—countertops and chair seat upholstery
Den—carpet
Porch—painted porch furniture, and the ceiling painted green.
Sunroom—green wicker furniture.

    Rather than making the house dull and boring with one style, using this approach will actually let you tie different styles together!  When you’re trying to use what you already own, color flow can be the easiest and most economical way to pull everything together!
    Use your travel color as the glue that holds everything together and makes your decisions work for you.  Weave it through your house.  All your materials (fabric, carpet, accents) can now be purchased with confidence: you know they'll work together! You can get those throw pillows you want and not worry about having to drive cross-town to return them.

Figure 42- Before: This table, though smallish
for the room, was important to the client. They wanted a light and open look to balance the dark finish of the furniture…

Figure 43- After: I used wallpaper with LOTS of  open background, new chair backs and seats, and a tall mirror, all at eye-level.  I also painted the ceiling green like the pattern in the paper.  The table runner is orange to match the floral the client had bought.

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