This guest post is written by Jay Harris. Jay is a Home Depot sales associate and a regular contributor to Home Depot’s blog. His interests include home lighting, home automation, and solar panels.

The kitchen is one of the most active and important rooms within your house—one that gets quite a bit of attention when it comes to home makeovers. You’re in and out of the kitchen constantly. Between preparing meals each day or just grabbing a quick snack, it seems like you end up in the kitchen more than any other room. With this much foot traffic, it needs to be a room that looks decent and represents your home properly.

Lighting can play a big role in helping this come to fruition. Lighting also plays a big role in how your color scheme will set the mood for the room. Kitchens are meant to be inviting rooms—they entice the appetite and help you to relax and unwind from your day.

Let’s illustrate how light can play a role in making kitchens stand out.

Take the photo above for example (source: homedepot.com). Notice how drastically the look of the room can change, just from simply modifying the lighting that you have in the room. It can have just this same effect on your colors, so bear this in mind as you pick out your new color scheme.

Greys and Browns

(source: glidden.com)

These subtle and calm colors give a very contemporary feel to the room and make it feel very fresh and new. The light paint colors accented with darker brown wood cabinets give the room a look that goes very well with most other color schemes that you could hope to incorporate around the house. To get the best look for this type of palette, a Soft White bulb is your best bet. It gives off a warm and yellowish glow that will help accent your darker shades and give them an even calmer feel.

Green and Silver

(source: glidden.com)

This trend is a bit more on the retro/modern side of things, but it’s been making a recent comeback lately. With people desiring looks from a simpler time, these shades give just that. Varying from shades as dark as pine green to the ever famous “avocado appliance green,” this palette can get quite varied. It works great with stainless steel appliances as well, which help to pull in the greys in this scheme well. As for your bulb choice, a Bright White bulb will be your best choice. Like the name suggests, it gives off a cool white glow to it, which enhances greens and makes other cool colors in the room more crisp.

Black, White, and Vibrants

(source: glidden.com)

Black and White are the ever fashionable palette, never out of style but never quite at the forefront of it either. These are however, mainstay colors for the kitchen. A more contemporary trend going on right now, though, is taking these two colors and mixing them with vibrant colors like bright candy apple reds or lime greens to create dramatic pop effects in the kitchen and really amp up the mood in the room. For this particular palette, I shouted out red since it’s a popular color within kitchens due to its intrinsic ability to promote hunger. When using these types of colors, like with all vibrant colors, I would suggest a Daylight bulb. This bulb gives off the most natural looking light and helps promote crisp, clean colors which are not changed by the tint of your bulb and shows them in their purest forms.

(Header image source: homedepot.com)

Thanks for another great contest everyone! We're excited to announce the talented winners and show off their winning designs. First, let's take a moment to thank the great folks at Drift Studio that helped put this contest together.

Drift Studio is an incubator for design and product ideas. Their mission is to create elegant and thoughtful products that marry form and function while offering something more – the ability to personalize. Attention to detail, quality materials and craftsmanship form the foundation of furniture you can be proud of.

And now time for the much anticipated contest winners!

First Place and winner of a Drift Studio table:

Fancy Stripes by Any Palacios

Second Place and winner of a small Drift Studio table:

Hold the Line by dazzlement

Third Place and winner of $100 towards the purchase of a table:

Fairy tale land by sherrydee846

Fourth Place and winner of $50 towards the purchase of a table:

Music Chaos by Ivy21

Congratulations to the winners and thanks to everyone that entered!

Just a quick reminder that anyone that entered the contest can download your entries and upload it to the Drift Studio website to make a table from your very own design. To download your file, simply click the "Drift Studio Contest: Download" link found under your pattern details. And voila! This download is configured to be just the right size for a Drift Studio tabletop. Who knew making your own furniture was this easy? :)

Stay tuned for the next contest and opportunity to show off those design skills. Have a great weekend!

Howdy COLOURlovers! It's been so great to watch all of your amazing tabletop designs come in over the past week -- inspiring, to say the least. As with all good things, the entry period must come to an end so that we can continue with voting and get to those awesome prizes from the folks at Drift Studio.

Drift Studio is an incubator for design and product ideas. Their mission is to create elegant and thoughtful products that marry form and function while offering something more – the ability to personalize. Attention to detail, quality materials and craftsmanship form the foundation of furniture you can be proud of.

One of their unique product offerings is the ability to upload your own designs to their website and create a table featuring your very own artwork. Talk about a great conversation starter when you have house guests!

With 600 entries for this contest, there's plenty of great looking tabletop designs to browse through. Careful though, we claim no responsibility for the hours lost during your browsing. Don't forget to show a little love to your favorites -- the voting period will continue until Thursday, 11/15, at 10pm Pacific.

Here's a quick recap of how winners are chosen and the prizes they'll receive from Drift Studio:

- First place (chosen by Drift Studio) wins a Drift Studio table made from the winning design!
- Second place (based on loves) wins a small table from Drift Studio!
- Third place (based on loves) wins a $100 gift certificate towards the purchase of a table!
- Fourth place (chosen by COLOURLovers) wins a $50 gift certificate towards the purchase of a table!

**Important shipping note: although the contest is open to our global community, Drift Studio is only able to ship domestically at this time. International winners will need to have a US-based friend receive the product and handle the overseas shipping.**

Have fun voting! We'll be back on Friday to announce the winners. :)

Howdy COLOURlovers! It's been a little while since our last contest, but we have a great excuse -- we've been working with the folks at Drift Studio to cook up something special we think you're going to enjoy. :)

Drift Studio is an incubator for design and product ideas. Their mission is to create elegant and thoughtful products that marry form and function while offering something more – the ability to personalize. Attention to detail, quality materials and craftsmanship form the foundation of furniture you can be proud of.

For this contest, Drift Studio is excited to engage the COLOURlover's community to help design tops for its new line of coffee tables, Riff Tables. A coffee table can be one of the most central focal points of a room's decor. Use your creative juices to create a conversation piece that will look great and display your unique personality!

How to enter

This contest is open to all COLOURlovers. To enter, visit the Drift Studio Table Design Contest page and submit your best patterns and color palettes to design a tabletop. Entries are limited to a maximum of three per person.

Contest dates

The entry period for this contest starts today, November 5th, and ends on Tuesday, November 13th. Voting for submissions will remain open until Thursday, November 15th. Winners will be announced here on the blog Friday, November 16th.

Voting process

The first place winner will be chosen by the team at Drift Studio. Second and Third place will be determined based on the number of "loves" received from the community. A Fourth place winner will be chosen at random by the COLOURlovers team.

Prizes

First prize: a Drift Studio table made from the winning design
Second prize: a small table from Drift Studio.
Third prize: a $100 gift certificate that can be used towards the purchase of a table from Drift Studio.
Fourth prize: a $50 gift certificate that can be used towards the purchase of a table from Drift Studio.

**Important shipping note: although the contest is open to our global community, Drift Studio is only able to ship domestically at this time. International winners will need to have a US-based friend receive the product and handle the overseas shipping.**

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As an added bonus, you can save your tabletop designs and upload them at DriftStudio.com to purchase a table with your very own design. How cool is that!

Have fun everyone, can't wait to see all of your colorful tabletops. :)

Check out the Drift Studio Table Design Contest entries

This guest post is written by Alex Jackson. Alex, who is a keen interior design follower, wrote this blog on behalf of Bathshop321 and frequently offers advice on interior trends, household improvements and repairs.

Are you wondering which colour will be modelled by bathrooms this year? Whether you’re looking to update a main bathroom, powder room, or master bathroom, you’ve probably been pondering on which colours are trending this year. Easier said than done, right? Well in this post we’ll be seeing creative ways to replace tiles with textures, graphics, and colours -- ranging from dark and dramatic to ultra bright and vibrant. While large renovation makeovers require massive amounts of money and time, a quick lick of paint can brighten and update a bathroom in minutes. Here’s the low-down on the interior design and colour trends for 2012 and beyond.

Source: bhg.com

Bold feature walls

Why not try adding a twist to a traditional bathroom design by contrasting eye-catching fittings with boldly coloured walls? Fuchsia pink makes the perfect backdrop to an elegant mirror or rustic hand hammered copper sink. Have fun adding a splash of colour, fresh lime green inserts a refreshing ‘pop’ and adding expansion mirrors will create a double impact impression to the walls and fixtures. ‘Wow’ factors are hard to come by, especially in compact bathrooms. If it’s the ‘wow’ factor you’re looking for, combine jet black floral wallpaper or paisley blue patterns with toned down simple colours on the walls surrounding.

Source: housetohome.co.uk

Smart styles

To match a glamorous personality, monochrome bathroom designs are perfect. This season slate and darker backdrops are in top demand. Add a bit of ‘Zing’ to your bathroom by juxtaposing matte, sleek walls with glossy, eye-catching fixtures for that smart streamlined look. Hot reds add energy and character to a tranquil modern bathroom design. Achieve this by adding red glass shower screens, towels, bathroom mats, or even a selection of vibrant flowers to your windowsill.

Source: housetohome.co.uk

Soft pastels

A bathroom is for relaxation, a place to unwind...so why not create this soothing atmosphere by merging white floorboards and fixtures with chalky walls and accessories. This combination can produce just as much impact as a brightly coloured feature wall. If you’re looking for a cheap and less time consuming way to keep up with this seasons bathroom colour trends, then simply update the theme you already have. Contrast your tile or paint colours with large pastel blue or purple mosaic tiles and coordinate this with pastel accessories, paint cupboard doors, or a feature wall to allow a colour theme to run throughout. These trouble-free changes make a dramatic difference when trying to create a striking, yet peaceful bathroom area.

Remember when choosing your interior wall colours not to neglect your own preferences; choose colours which are going to make you feel relaxed and satisfied with the space. Your choices could lead to a soft earthy atmosphere or a bright energised bathroom space, both holding elegance and sophistication. Use colours which suit your taste and personality, and use them as accents around the room. After all, it is your bathroom and your space so choose colours which are suited you.

Source: Alex Jackson

This guest post is written by Annie Josey. Annie is a blogger for Pegasus Lighting, a specialty lighting retailer committed to helping everyone have a positive learning experience in lighting. Annie is also a fellow color enthusiast, and has made it her goal to use lighting to brighten up the lives (and living spaces) of everyone she meets.

Color-loving homeowners can have some of the most attractive abodes around. Their houses have vibrant front doors and their yards gush with lively flowerbeds. Perhaps they have colorful bird feeders hung from porches or trees, or bold mosaic tiles around swimming pools and along walkways. They outfit their decks with bright chairs and whimsical umbrellas to shade them from the sun, but what happens when the sun goes down, and all that lovely color falls into shadow?

If you’re one of these homeowners, losing out on all your favorite shades the minute the sun sinks down might seem tragic. But, with the right outdoor lights, you can keep your favorite colors looking vibrant AND compliment your décor with even more color.

Here are 4 ways to add to and enhance your yard’s hues with light:

1. Work with what you’ve got.

This first tip is the most obvious – add accent lights to your yard’s most outstanding features. While this won’t work to spotlight every beautiful detail, picking a couple of focal points will go a long way. Try a few simple upward facing white lights to illuminate the best, most colorful features of your landscape like flowerbeds or trees (especially with autumn on its way!)

2. Liven up those guiding lights.

Perhaps you have steps in your yard leading up to a patio or down to a garden. It’s always a good idea to have lights around to keep you and your guests safe, but why not use this necessity to add some more color? If you’re feeling festive, try some color changing LED step lights. You can find them in a rainbow of hues to turn your backyard into a striking, unique oasis, perfect for hosting big parties, intimate get-togethers, and everything in between.

3. Accent your structures.

Colorful accent lighting on your deck, porch, or patio is the perfect way to create that quirky ambiance that will keep you and your guests feeling giddy late into the night. A strip of weatherproof LED tape lights in your favorite color along handrails and other architectural features will infuse your outdoor living area with fresh verve. Since you can trim tape lights to whatever length you want, you can even use them to backlight any of your favorite outdoor decorations – even your table!

4. Take the plunge for aquatic lights.

If you have a pool or pond in your yard, you’re losing out if you’re not lighting it up at night. Usually it doesn’t take much to make water look beautiful when it’s dark. If you’re ready to make a big commitment, you should install some underwater lights. Color changing lights are a really fun option here too - what could look neater than a magenta swimming pool, except a magenta swimming pool that slowly fades to green, then red, then blue? If you want something a little more temporary, you can decorate your water feature with DIY floating luminaries. Just put glow-sticks in your favorite color balloons and let them drift off for the evening!

Read more about lighting tips and information on the Pegasus Lighting blog.

Today's guest blog is written by Jay Harris. Jay is a Home Depot sales associate and a regular contributor to Home Depot’s blog, where he provides advice on topics such as standard light bulbs and LED light bulbs, as well as other home-lighting themes.

Picking out a room’s colors can be quite an ordeal. Most of the time, you’re struggling against a common opponent—lighting. However, I’ve found that most people only concern themselves with being aware of the lighting in the paint store, and how that changes the color they see in front of them.

When you bring your color home, there is a pretty good chance it can vary from room to room as well, all due to different color temperatures in your bulbs. Now…why would they do such a thing? Aren’t all the light bulbs in my house supposed to be the same color?

With newer lighting technology come new advancements in color and a wider array of choices. CFL and LED bulbs are available in at least three different values: Soft White, Bright White, and Daylight. Each provides you with the light that you need, but offers it at varying “temperatures.”

source: homedepot.com

So what’s the strategy for getting your color palette to match up with your lighting? First, you’ll want to plan out the look you want for the room in question — the rest falls into place from there.

Vibrant & Energetic

source: glidden.com

This is for all the bright and bold colorists; those who like to make a statement with their colors and have them jump right off the walls. Great rooms for this color scheme are bedrooms, game rooms, playrooms and dining rooms. Since we’ve got such bright colors to work with, you really want to accentuate them, and a Daylight bulb is best for making them pop. This type of bulb mimics natural sunlight and shows colors in their truest form.

Romantic & Deep Tones

source: glidden.com

Rich, deep colors can be difficult to work with on the walls, as red can be a fickle color to paint with. It works out though, because this romantic palette is mainly relegated to only a few rooms throughout the house, such as bedrooms and family/living rooms. Since the point is to set a “mood,” your lighting shouldn’t be distracting. Your room’s light should be complementary. I’ve found that Soft White style bulbs work best because they offer a warm and yellowish glow to a room, which helps give a very relaxing feel and mimics that candlelight glow to help build the ambiance.

Cozy & Subtle

source: glidden.com

A popular color theme in contemporary décor is subtle tones — colors that don’t need to be so bold to make you feel at home. They can give a cozy feeling while still remaining in the cool color palette, making it a great spot to bring out the blues, grays and greens. Since it’s a relatively tame selection, you can place it almost anywhere throughout the house; however, I mostly see this style pop up in living rooms, bedrooms and bathrooms. Since we’re talking cool colors here, a Bright White (or sometimes called cool white) bulb will be a prime choice. It gives off a crisp, white light and enhances those blues and greens, helping to give them an even cooler feel.

When planning your next home painting project, don’t take lighting for granted. Fortunately, a few simple bulb choices can make a world of difference toward creating the exact look and feel you’ve been imagining.

Today's guest post is from Susi, a writer for Arcadian Lighting. Founded in 2002, Arcadian Lighting started selling decorative home lighting fixtures and lamps online, and has become one of the top Internet retailers for home lighting products. Visit their website and cool blog for more information.

No matter the season, classic coastal inspired interiors can work year round. Gorgeous seaglass, the beachcomber's treasure, is a fantastic palette for a coastal interior. Blues, greens, whites and browns recall warm days spent at the beach.

The most common colors of seaglass are white, green, and brown, but it is blue seaglass that most of us think of when we imagine seaglass. This living room has a lively mix of seaglass colors.

Green seaglass comes in a range of hues from deep bottle green to pale citrus green. Bottle green walls and curtains make the bright blue accents pop in this dining room.

The most common seaglass is white in color. It begins its life as clear glass and the color comes from the pummeling of sand over time. Matte white with sparkling blue glass accents give this dining room the look of seaglass.

Warm woods look perfect next to seaglass colors and recall the beaches where seaglass is discovered. The warmer tones of the wood are a nice complement to the cooler blue and green tones. Even one of the lovely vintage light fixtures is touched by a seaglass blue.

Seaglass blues and greens give this bedroom beachside charm. The onion pattern of the headboard also reminds us of the organic shape of seaglass.

Pale blue painted furniture with an aged finish is inspired by coveted blue seaglass. Warm toned accents along with deep greens turn this entry into a lovely seaglass inspired space.

Pale buttery cream is a lovely neutral to pair with seaglass colors. Blue and greens stand out against the yellow undertones. Crisp white is the perfect accent color.

Pale seaglass blue and white form the foundation of this traditional style bedroom with its stylized ceiling light. The matte finish of seaglass is carried over to the wall color. Images 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8

Discover even more perfect sea-inspired light fixture†products and design ideas by visiting Arcadian Lighting's website today!

Today we are interviewing a budding interior designer with an eye for style and a love for interiors. Make sure to check out her interior design blog and portfolio at HOP Interiors. Ok, let's get started.

First up, why don't you tell the community a bit about who you are, what you do, how long you have been doing it, and your background.

Hi COLOURlovers ladies and gents! I am Mary-Ellen Paul, Editor & Founder of HOP Interiors. My creative interiors blog is my platform to share my thoughts, personal style and design aesthetic.

(Me with Interior Designer, Potter, TV Presenter Jonathan Adler)

What past experiences do you think have contributed the most to where you are now?

My passion for interior design has been an immense contributing factor. When you have the passion you are more likely to take the bold risks needed to succeed. Through my passion I am continuously seeking to develop my knowledge of interior design, taking risks with colour and exploring its effects.

What colors do you think we will see a lot of in 2012?

I think that bold strong colours will push through this year such as cobalt blues, bright yellows and fiery oranges and tangerine. In a contrast to that, pastels will start popping up, lots of sugary tones of pinks, greys and blues, will be coming through this year.

(Image credits – Main: trendenser.se, Top: etsy.com, Middle: farm6.static.flickr.com, Bottom: savedbythesouthernbelle.tumbr.com)

What patterns and trends do you think will be big in 2012?

There seems to be a lot of the iconic zig-zag Missoni style print which has segued into the interiors stratosphere. Simple prints with both bold and subtle colours will shine through too.

 Which colors, patterns & trends are you personally most excited about?

Cobalt and Navy blues are my favourite colours but I always enjoy designing with colours I’m not used to – taking me out of my comfort zone.

When you are feeling stumped, where do you turn for inspiration?

When I’m stumped I tend to take a break from it. I go through loads of magazines, tearing out anything that fits into my idea and then build upon that.

What is your favorite website or app right now?

At the moment I’m addicted to the Pintest app. I also adore decor8 as Holly is immensely inspirational. I use housetohome.com for inspiration for images for a particular space, be it the living room or the bedroom.

When decorating your home, what are the top three colors you turn to for the space?

What is your favorite paint color?

When decorating a space in your home it’s vital that you assess the space for its size and the amount of light it receives. The more light it receives, the cooler the shades, the less light it receives the much warmer the colour may be used (interior design 101). The colours I tend to use most are Night Jewels, Velvet Truffle and Cocoa Blush – colours from the DULUX paint range. However my fabric choices for my last interior project did encompasses rich reds and lush silver tones.

What's the best home design-related advice you've ever received?

If in doubt, always go back to the brief. The brief is the central core to any interiors project. When designing a space in your own home try writing a brief, detailed statement of what you want and don’t want to include in the project. This will be your blueprint to refer back to. There may be times when your eyes go into interior overload with so much choice out there, but if the products and colours you choose do not relate to the brief or the ethos of the scheme then it’s a no-no.

For someone that is just beginning down the rode to create a better home, what resources or advice would you give to them?

One of my mantras is that ‘a room must not only look great, but feel right’. The room must be right for you, it must be comfortable and feel just right for you. There are so many fads and trends but instead of going with the flow I would advise going for that is right for you and your home. When embarking on a better home or a redesign I would advice taking it one step at a time. It’s easy to get carried away and so my advice would be to slow down and take it room by room. If you are unable to do a complete redesign you can always add a few little changes to make a room appear brand new. For example, you can add a new splash of colour to your room or a change of colour to your fabrics and textiles. My blog will give you a lot of handy tips on making changes to certain rooms in the home.

I was on the hunt for about 6 months looking for the perfect color for my bedroom. After such a hunt, I realized there probably isn't a perfect "Robin's Egg Blue" that fits each and every room or piece of furniture.

Many people in the blogosphere have talked about their quest in finding the perfect paint color. I checked out every single one of those blog posts and tested every single one of those colors. Unfortunately for me, none seemed to fit just right. So the search continued and I finally found the perfect color.

Source: Nursery, Bedroom

I was looking for something like the bedroom above on the right or something like this bookcase below. To me, this color is a warm blue tone that is subtle yet inviting. I was coming across either icy colors, baby blue colors or just bright blue tones which I didn't want. Since I wanted something warm, it needed a hint of green to soften the tone up just a little.

Source

Centsational Girl talked a lot about finding the perfect Robin's Egg Blue paint color, and I must say, she did a lot more research than I did! I mean, check out all those paint swatches!

Source

Red Bird Cabin suggested "antiguan sky" from Benjamin Moore.

Source

And now, it was time to try all of these samples on the wall.

Source

I choose tried 4 different paint colors. As you can see, some were not quite what I was expecting when I opened the can. None the less, I tried them all on the wall to see the results.

The runner up was "Bird's Egg Blue" by Benjamin Moore. It was a tiny bit too blue for me, so I decided to jump over to the next swatch which had a little more green in it, "Antiguan Sky" from Benjamin Moore. This ended up being the perfect color for the wall!

The room isn't done being decorated yet, but check out the overall color on the wall. It is the perfect mix of blue and green and offers a warm feel in the room.

Do you like the final color? Are you in search of the perfect Robin's Egg Blue color? Which ones have you tried?