10-15-nw24.jpg fallcolors4.jpgName: Christine Location: Fair Oaks, Ca Type of Home: Cottage What inspired you to use color? My budget! I have a cottage with ancient cabinets, plywood kitchen flooring and no interesting architectural features in the rest of the house. I couldn't afford to upgrade so used color (lots of it) to disguise the flaws. I stained the plywood turquoise, painted the floor red, then rubbed some of the red away (where I had put on wax) exposing the turquoise...

...This gave the look of a worn kitchen floor that matched the old cabinets. I painted the cabinets five colors to camouflage their age. The living room pink is neither sugary or babyish - a relaxing color that has added punch with turquoise accents. I stained wide planks brown for the bookshelves and used other brown touches to make the room more masculine in spite of the pink. The bedroom is a soothing green with thrift store oil paintings and multicolored fabrics providing color and interest.

Color Tip: Have a vision - this "idea" is something that you can go back to when the color choices seem confusing. My image was of a Caribbean Island, full of color and brightness but also light and airy. The sheer white curtains in the pink living room, the warm yellow kitchen walls and the tropical ocean blue of the guest bedroom all remind me of "Island time". We all have different preferences in regard to color, an image will help you design a cohesive scheme - be it the lilac fields and orchards of Provence, an Indian bazaar, a Mondrian painting, the choices are limitless.

Colors Used: Most colors were custom mixed or matched, but the kitchen walls are ACE "Smiley Face" and the bedroom walls are Pratt and Lambert "Sherwood"

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