No Title 2878

Supplement to “Creating a Bedroom Oasis”

Contemplating your bedroom oasis? You can get impressive results with a few strokes and a little bit of time and money.

“Paint is the least expensive way to transform a room in a dramatic way,” says Sarah Easton, the Louisville district designer specialist for Sherwin-Williams. “Just changing your wall color from dark to light or vice versa will have a huge impact. On a really tight budget, consider a feature wall or a wall with large horizontal or vertical stripes.”

Begin by considering the mood you want to evoke: peaceful, energetic, dramatic, natural, etc. Look at magazines and online resources to find images that speak to you and your style. Consider the quality of the paint, as this will affect the outcome of the room.

“Higher quality paints cost more but provide better hiding—meaning fewer coats of paint are required and therefore less labor,” says Easton. “Higher quality paint also has better adhesion and ‘washability,’ and stain- and fade-resistance.”

Depending on the size of the transformation and whether it is a single room or multiple rooms that can be seen from different vantage points, Easton follows this general guide: one wall color for a single room with a white ceiling or a color that is lighter than the walls. If there is a particularly interesting wall, this can be painted with an accent color. For room-to-room transitions, colors should be in the same saturation—meaning the brightness of a color—and you can vary the value or lightness or darkness to create bold, balanced, or subtle transitions.

“The HGTV HOME collection by Sherwin-Williams palettes do this very well and will give great examples to achieve the look you desire.”

The HGTV HOME collection provides eight different lifestyle palettes that contain 20 colors each, all designed to work in tandem with Sherwin-Williams’ room images. These, along with hints and tips, can help DIYers create single room transformations as well as room-to-room transitions throughout a home.

“In addition, you can use our Color Visualizer tool, www.Sherwin-Williams.com/Visualizer, to upload images of your own room and try out colors chosen by our design experts or try it on your own,” says Easton.

Sherwin-Williams just launched a tool called Chip It!, www.LetsChipIt.com, that lets you instantly turn any picture from any Web site into a palette of Sherwin-Williams paint colors. Chip It! will identify the shades and save them for later.

“You create a color palette from any image on the Internet that inspires you: a landscape, a flower garden, fashion, art—anything at all.”

Painting your way to a bedroom makeover is easy and inexpensive. Besides painting, swap out the accessories in the room. This can completely change the mood.

“You don’t have to spend a lot on these items and there are bargains to be found everywhere from thrift stores and discount retailers,” says Easton.

To read the Kentucky Living May 2012 feature that goes along with this supplement, go to Creating a Bedroom Oasis.