Warm Interiors

Benjamin Moore Fan Deck

The paint fan deck is a very useful tool for choosing paint colors. For example, Benjamin Moore and Sherwin Williams create fan decks that contain their colors for various collections. Often these colors are arranged by hue and tone to make it even easier to find colors that match and coordinate.

Bringing a fan deck into your home makes it really easy to see how all the colors will look in your own lighting and next to your furniture, flooring and other home accessories. This is a whole lot better than trying to “remember” your colors when picking colors at a paint store.

Volatile Organic Compounds, or commonly known as VOCs, are the elements of paint and other products that affect the air we breathe and the health of our environment. Environmental legislation and environmental groups use VOCs to measure the environmental friendliness of a paint product. To put this measure into perspective, a normal latex paint may have about 250 grams of VOC per liter of paint and an oil-based may have more than 400 grams/liter. As far as the environment is concerned, zero voc paint is best.

In recent years, several new paint products have emerged claiming to be environmentally friendly. While anything with 50 grams or less is considered environmentally friendly (such as the Benjamin Moore Aura), several products now claim zero VOCs.

VOCs aren’t in paint just for fun. Manufacturers formulate paint to achieve various characteristics such as coverage, dry time, leveling, durability and scuff resistance. Depending on the purpose of the paint and the quality level and price point they want to achieve, the paint will contain different combinations of ingredients. Not surprisingly, the VOC containing ingredients often provide better performance, too. This leads to a trade-off between a paints performance quality and its VOC content.

Paints that don’t have contain VOCs is nothing special. This formulation can easily be obtained by pouring some clay in some water and zero VOC paints have been available for years. But you might as well not bother painting because there will not be much durability in the paint film. And painting with something that won’t last isn’t exactly environmentally friendly - it is just waste of resources regardless of the VOCs involved because there are other materials and packaging used and energy consumed in its transport and manufacture. And there are also boring because the color selection is often severly restricted.

There is exciting news however, because Benjamin Moore has developed a zero-voc high-performance paint. Natura offers people the ability to have a high-quality, very durable paint and be very environmentally friendly. Benjamin Moore Natura provides a washable, durable, fade-resistant paint that is available in every and any color. Natura has zero VOCs and is practically odorless.

And it gets better…. Natura remains a zero VOC paint regardless of the color. The colorants don’t add any VOCs. This is completely unique to Benjamin Moore Natura - other zero voc paints add VOCS as colorant is added.  Benjamin Moore Natura is available in a flat, eggshell or semi-gloss sheen as well as primer.

Try living room paint colors with a touch of teal and see how fresh and unique your living room can become. Teal is a color that is in the middle of blue and green. It closely resembles cyan blue with a greenish tint.

Here are some characteristics of teal that you can use:

It brightens up the day
Being a light color, you can create a homey and gentle feel to your living room. The advantage of teal over other bright colors is that it can project a whimsical feel without going over the top. The lightness of teal is just enough.

It can be used as the main color
As the main color in a color scheme, teal can work wonders in how you decide to use your color scheme. You can do modern and you can do classic looks. The choice is yours - just use the proper furniture to complete the look.

It also works as a complimentary color
As a complimentary color, teal is very versatile. It can be partnered well with almost any interior paint colors. Beige, off white and cream seem to blend best with this color.

It is effective as accents
However, the best example of how effective teal can be is when it is used as accents to your living room. You can create a modern look by adding teal to old colors like brown. On the other hand, you can also create an old fashioned feel to a modern inspired room by adding teal paint colors to metallic tones like silver and chrome.

Whether you are going for a modern design or you are going for something classic, adding a splash of teal will liven up any living room paint colors.

Wall paint colors have different meanings. That is why you need to know how colors can help you in dictating the specific mood that you want to incorporate to the room that you have.

Here is a small guide to help you find out what the following paint colors mean:

Light blue
Lighter shades of blue are associated with cleanness and the natural flow of water. That is why there are many different places that you can put them on. One of the ideal places that you can use this paint color on is the bathroom.

Dark blue
Psychologists recommend that dark blue colors should be used in the bedroom. This is because dark blue colors can have a calming effect on people.

Red
Red is a tricky color to use because it is a very loud color that attracts plenty of attention. So you need to make sure that the place that you use it on is the correct place. One thing that you can do to tone down this effect is to use the color red in patches so that you can have a more balanced look.

Orange
Orange is one of the more versatile color that you can use in the different rooms. It is very warm and inviting so the living room or the dining room is a good fit.

Yellow
Yellow is another tricky color to use because it can be very inviting to some while irritating to others. The one thing to remember when using yellow is that you need to find the perfect tint.

Green
Green is very soothing when used on its own. However, it is very difficult to use in conjunction with other colors. Darker shades of green are effective when used with black and brown while lighter shades of green can be used with white.

Here are just a few of the wall paint color that you can use in your interior painting jobs. There are plenty of other colors out there so experiment and try them out for yourself.

Having more than one color scheme for the interior of your house is really not much of a problem, contrary to what some interior decorators might say.  Color combinations have a way of livening up or toning down a specific interior, depending on the prevailing theme and decor of the house itself.  All that’s needed is knowing just how to combine colors, so to create the effect desired and not end up with a disaster in color.

First thing to do is think about what colors you would want to be in the interior of your house.  You could probably make things easier if you try to pick a color that compliments the existing theme or decor of your house.  This precludes having to throw out everything you already have in your house and buy new stuff that would go with the interior paint color ideas that you have.  You do not necessarily have to stick to one color for the entire interior of the house.  Try to determine what the existing predominant color is within a specific room, and then work from that.

For the color combinations, here is a little technique often employed in determining what particular color scheme would go well for the interior of a house.  Listed below are the more common schemes employed in picking out color combinations for the interior of the house:

Single basic color - This makes use of a single basic color for the entirety of the room, and may even be used for the entire house.  While it may produce a soothing and uniform look all over, suggesting an orderly house, it may be viewed by some as being monotonous and boring, since there is no or little alternative color to look at.

Complimentary colors - The basic color wheel has a specific color that is lies opposite to another color in placement on the wheel.  Use of this scheme may result in a bold and brash type of color combination, providing a lively and provocative atmosphere, although this must be done quite carefully, as colors on opposite sides of the color wheel may also have a tendency to clash, and sometimes, clash quite spectacularly, resulting in a very tacky color scheme.

Adjoining colors - Colors lying besid each other on the color wheel can likewise be used in a color scheme for interior color combinations.  This particular color scheme can be quite tricky to use, as it will definitely result in very uncommon, extraordinary, and sometimes odd color combinations.  This particular color scheme requires particular attention be given to the intensity of the color, as colors of varying intensity and value must be carefully picked and matched to each other.

Tri-color scheme - Another uncommon color scheme used by interior decor experts makes use of three colors in the color wheel that are set at equal distances.  This is done by picking out one particular color as the primary and two others as accents.  This provides a color effect that is quite striking and dramatic, as the overall effect of three colors are felt at once.

With the ideas mentioned above, you may now have a clearer picture of what particular interior paint color ideas you may want to work with, and from there, get an idea of the color combinations you will want to see inside your home.  Just remember to pick out colors that you really like and will not get tired of looking at.

Did you know that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has warned that the air inside homes could be three time more polluted than the air outside? This in-house pollution has been attributed to a number of factors, but among the leading causes are common paints and finishes that have been know to release toxic emissions into the air we breathe inside the homes. This is why many paint companies nowadays have developed what they call environmentally safe paint, to ensure that homeowners everywhere can still pick a house paint color they like and not keel over after they had applied it to their houses.

Many have downplayed the impact of the hazardous compounds found in traditional paints available on the market these days, saying “if it were really dangerous, there wouldn’t have been as much people around as there are now”.  While the direct effect of these hazardous compounds may not be found immediately grasped by the common man, studies have isolateed the long-term effects attributed to the chemicals and compounds used in these hazardous paints.  Some paints contain varying amounts of toxic metals, solvents, and volatile organic compounds, also known as VOCs.  These chemicals and compounds have been found to promote the depletion of the ozone layer in the atmosphere, promotes production of choking smog, and affect health adversely, especially since they are used in the interior of the house, where air circulates less than outside of the house.

The huge amount of paint being sold containing these dangerous ingredients and solvents has prompted the government to take action against companies and factories that produce these types of paint.  Burgeoning consumer demand has paint companies constantly coming up with better and safer formulations of paint to ensure that the end users are protected from the hazardous compounds foundin paint.

The clamor for environmentally friendly paint has led to the development of paints that are now safer, lasts longer, and has more color selections to choose from , to boot.  This then, is a good time to invest and start in a project to better the interior of your home by beautifying it, using only, of course, environmentally friendly paint.

Having an interior scheme that portrays a warm and cozy atmosphere within the house is something that a lot of homeowners find quite preferable. This is mainly because of the inviting and appealing feel generated by a warm and habitable interior. Having this type of environ is more than simply picking out cozy furniture and fixtures or interior paint color combinations that portray a warm feeling, but rather a combination and good chemistry between all these.

Some things need to be kept in mind when seeking to create a living space that will generate that warm and cozy feeling. Some elements are those we tend to overlook as they are things we see and are exposed to everyday, and we pay them no mind.

Mood

What mood do you intend to generate when you plan the interior of your home? It goes without saying that staying inside a home with a predominant mood to it will definitely affect the disposition and general mood of the person inside that home. With this in mind, be very selective of what mood your room intends to convey when you design it. A lot of elements contribute to the general mood that becomes dominant in a room, such as predominant lighting, art work and decorative fixtures, curtains, and even the color of the room. These things create a “feel” to the entire room that can be either subtle or overly palpable to those in it.

Space

The size of the interior you plan to design is a huge factor in how an interior design project. Certain things can affect the inherent size of a room, such as furnishings, light, and predominant color. Lots of furniture, specially big ones, can eat up a lot of space and make a room appear smaller than it really is. Certain colors have the ability to either enhance or diminish the size of a room. Lighting also has the same effect, affecting the dimensions of a room, making it appear to be larger or smaller.

Color and Light

As mentioned before, interior paint color combinations and selected lighting have an impact on the overall interior design scheme. Not only affecting the size of a room, the combination of colors and light have the ultimate effect of generating the predominant mood. Dark colors can sometimes create a foreboding, brooding effect, even making people who are prone to depression quite depressed. Certain colors, like shades of red, can generate that warm feeling, while shades of blue and green have the opposite effect, creating a cool and breezy atmosphere.