Pops of color pump up homes

If any home decor element is an indication of mood, it is color. And one quick and easy way to brighten the mood of your home, say interior designers, is with bold, inventive pops of color.

If you dare.

Atlanta interior designer Wendy Blount admitted that some homeowners are afraid of diminishing the resale value of their home with bursts of color, especially in the current economy.

“I have found that people very much look at their homes as an investment, and they’re tending to stay more neutral because they’re not willing to take financial risk,” Blount said. But the beauty of using color in a strategic way, said Blount and other metro Atlanta interior designers, is the ability to go as bold or as subtle as you want by using smaller elements such as pillows, rugs, paint and lighting to big effect.

“I think quantity is where you have to be careful. People are usually a lot more brave in powder rooms and vestibules and smaller areas where you won’t spend a great deal of time that are much easier to use strong color in than big rooms,” Blount said.

Interior designer Rachel Greathouse of Greathouse Design in Milton has used color in numerous ways in her home projects, for a festive surprise inside drawers, in bookshelves, or on an accent wall.

This spring, Greathouse integrated a bold use of blue into a teenage bedroom suite created for George Schall, who owns a finance company and lives in Milton.

Greathouse did a whole home design for Schall but saved the most vibrant use of color for Schall’s 12-year-old daughter’s room, a conversion of two bedrooms and a Jack and Jill bathroom into a large bedroom and bath teen suite.

“I said, ‘Go ahead, girls, carte blanche, do what you want to do,’” Schall told Greathouse and his daughter.

Greathouse worked with Schall’s daughter to choose a unique shade of blue, Sherwin Williams’ Spa, for the room. “I encourage people to really be surrounded by what they love,” Greathouse said of her young client, and “she really loves color.” For the adjoining bathroom, Greathouse used an equally intense hue, Sherwin Williams’ Lime Rickey.

“Her room looks nothing like the rest of the house,” said Schall, who tends to favor darker colors, especially light to midrange browns, and has a predilection for leather furniture. “It is not a color I would choose for the other part of the home,” Schall said with a laugh, “but seeing her walk into her bedroom for the first time after the color was put on the walls was enough for me, because she loved it.”

Greathouse said, “That’s probably the most pronounced use of color I’ve used.” She recommends that when working with a bright color, also painting the ceiling in a 50 percent diluted version to make the space warmer.

Some have tied a preference for bright, cheerful colors to a need for emotional escape during an economic downturn.

“Your home is a place to be really happy. And with everything going on right now, I think it’s a great way to transform it, just add a little bit of your favorite color ... something that will make you smile when you walk into your home,” Greathouse said. “If you want to paint it a neutral when you go to sell it, that’s an option. But while you’re living in your space, I think you should be surrounded by things that make you happy.”

Blount agreed. “If color makes you smile, find a way to use color, and more than likely, it will make other people happy, too.”

Ways to use color

Metro Atlanta interior designers offer their tips for making color work.

Rachel Greathouse’s tips

• Use a lighter touch when it comes to open floor plan homes, where variations on one color rather than a riot of different hues work best. "You don't want your house to look like a Rubik's Cube," said Greathouse.

• Try painting the interior of a medicine cabinet, armoire or drawers in a bold color, the design equivalent of those musical greeting cards that sing when you open them.

• Use a combination of high-gloss paint and paste wax to achieve a modern, lacquered look when you paint furniture.

• For a bold touch, consider painting your floors, either a solid color or in a diamond or checkerboard pattern.

• To add a pop of color around your fireplace, use a bright-colored tile on the apron.

Wendy Blount’s tips

• A pop of color works wonders on ceilings. "You can go a lot stronger on a ceiling because it doesn't dominate your field of vision," Blount said.

• Edge your curtains in a really bright color.

• Lamp bases and shades are a great place to add color.

• Accent chairs "kind of stand alone like an art piece," Blount said. Find a chair with great form, and use spray paint to rev up the color.

• Colorful mattes or picture frames spray-painted a colorful hue are easy to switch out and can add a nice pop of color.

Raymond Goins’ tips

• Limit color to an accent. "It has so much more impact, and you don't tire of it," Goins said.

• "If you do it, go all the way. If you love red, don't try to soften it up and end up with some hideous pinkish thingy. Make it really count. Lacquer it or gloss paint it," Goins said.