If you’re planning ahead for 2012 and want to know what is happening in terms of colours, the Color Marketing Group (CMG) suggests Boyz-N-Berry, a “deep rich purple with slight red undertones. It is mature and elegant yet has a youthful edginess. It reflects our changing mindset on so many issues — off centre and unconventional, spiritual, meditative yet impulsive. It is serene and in control.” It is also able to blur the line, being both masculine and feminine and appealing to everyone.

How do you feel about your home and how does your home feel about you? It is a well-known fact that different colors in the home can have an immediate impact on our mood. Changing a color is one of the most exciting and economical ways to transform a space; alternatively, choosing a color can be a very overwhelming experience, since there are as many colors available on the market as there are grains of sands on the beach. Understanding color is vital to creating your perfect space.

You may have noticed the return of bright colours over the past few months. Perhaps most prominent among them is pink. Not the dusty rose hues of the early 80s, or the fluorescents from a few years later, but a bold, fuchsia-like tone. So it is not terribly surprising that Pantone has named it their 2011 colour of the year.

Until recently, contractors, homeowners, and the general public in the U.S. had little knowledge of the dangers around them as they worked on older buildings. Many historic restorationists who focused on buildings from the 19th and early 20th century knew that the lead commonly used as a binder and colorant in old paint could poison them. In 1971, the U.S. Housing and Urban Development agency (HUD) enacted laws to reduce lead in house dust in federally-assisted housing. It wasn’t until 1978 that the US outlawed the manufacture and application of lead-based paint. Most European countries had done so decades before.

Caulking is an extremely underrated task. People either don’t know about it, or don’t appreciate the difference maker that it is. The objective of this article is to either introduce you to caulking, or reinforce it’s importance.

The color scheme that you select for a room has the ability to create the mood of the individuals that enter the space.