After spending ten to fifty thousand dollars, most homeowners give up and settle for second best. This is unfortunate, because with a few designer tricks, any home can be turned into a showplace.



The first trick to creating a magazine quality room in your home is to understand the concept of direct and indirect lighting. Many of the rooms in magazines use ambient lighting with soft bulbs, often golden hued, to give the room a warm glow.

A white light can leave the most beautiful room looking garish. In fact, if you take a look at many ?before and after? photos, the ?before? room is flooded with a harsh white light. The window treatments are pulled back so that the outside landscape contaminates the room.

Any richly decorated room will be ruined if a large picture window floods the room with bright greens and street black. Take a second look at the after pictures. Often, the outdoors is filtered out. This could be accomplished by putting a reflective coating on the window, or photographing the room at night and then ?imposing? the outdoor scene back in the window.

Graphic artist play a major role in creating those perfect rooms. A careful look at some rooms may show that the artist put a blue, gold, or beige film over the picture. While this cheating can result in a major disappointment for most home decorators, it does not mean that you cannot recreate the same effect in your home by playing with light, changing light shade colors, exchanging direct light for ambient light.

Many rooms can be improved by eliminating the ceiling light, or drastically changing it. Think mood when looking for a ceiling light. Most decorators think of ceiling fans, or decorative ceiling lights.

Color should be the first focus when purchasing a light. The room defines the type of light. A bedroom should have the lowest lamination in the light. The dining room and kitchen should have the brightest.

The shade has a major impact on the light's ability to create mood. Many rooms can be improved by removing a clear glass, or white gloss, ceiling light for a dull, gold shade.

Lampshades that refract light add color to the room and highlight dull areas. Smooth, mute shades blend the colors in a room, letting the eye rest and creating warmth.

Before changing the furniture and lighting, take a look at the walls. The slightest color change on the wall will change a room dramatically. Many ?perfect? bedrooms have textured walls that absorb the light instead of reflecting it back into the room.

There are several easy ways to add texture to a wall. Adding a thin coating of stucco and sand to the wall, then painting over it, will destroy a large wall's ability to reflect light. This type of treatment is used in rooms that need to be dark ? even when illuminated.

The opposite is true for bright rooms. Use gloss paints, bright colors, and glass or metals that will twist and refract the light, breaking up the colors, and adding an almost invisible brightness to the room.