How do you feel about color?

I was taking a trip down Memory Lane this week, looking at photos of our old house. We moved into our current home five years ago this spring. I took photos of our old house on the morning before it went onto the MLS.

You know how real estate experts often advise that you de-personalize your house and "neutralize" the colors before you list it for sale? That tends to be good advice, and the folks from whom we bought this house had done just that; everything was pretty beige when we moved in. But the first thing I did was to paint EVERY ROOM in the house. Want to take a look around?

Foyer (which leads to kitchen ahead, dining room on left, and library on right. How I loved my black banister!):

Dining room (It was really red. My favorite part was the subtle striping on the walls. I did this by painting the whole room with flat paint, then I taping off stripes and painting every other stripe with high-gloss paint in the same color.):

Study (Including Snickers, the beagle. We did a Ralph Lauren "leather" faux finish below the chair rail in this room.):

Den:

Kitchen and breakfast area (Bright green, anyone?):

Bonus room (with Snickers again):

Upstairs hall (with another glance at the black banister):

Master bedroom (How many pillows could I get on one bed??):

Child's bedroom (He loved his lighthouses back then.):

You can probably tell that I did NOT "tone things down" before we listed our house. I de-cluttered and cleaned, but that's about it. And our house sold the day it was listed.

What I learned from this experience is that buyers do not object to color. They just want color to be used in a way that makes sense. I can share two tips with you about choosing color for your rooms:

• Use a very neutral color in spaces such as hallways.
• Make sure that the color you paint a room coordinates nicely with any adjacent rooms.

Several of the photos above give a peek from one room into the next. I liked the way all my colors worked together. I tried to use fabrics and accessories that would work in several different rooms. And it all made good decorating sense to me. The colors in my current house are a little more subdued; the colors above are all choices I made back in 2002. Still, the guidelines for successful color selection don't change very much over the years.

If you're afraid of color, I recommend visiting a paint store and checking out a paint fandeck. Bring it home and walk around your house, looking for paint chips that work with your rugs or upholstery. Then hold those paint chips all together and see if you like the way they look. Do they make a pretty palette in your hand? Are they pleasing to you on paper? If so, they'll probably be pleasing to you on the wall. You can always buy a sample pot of different colors and give them a try.

**I'm linking this post to The Paint Challenge at The CSI Project. The CSI Project is the collaborative effort of three wonderful bloggers: Amanda (Imperfectly Beautiful), Beckie (Infarrantly Creative), and Jen (Tatertots & Jello). Each of these women is amazing on her own, and now they've teamed up to Create, Share, and Inspire (CSI). Their new site will showcase wonderful projects and host periodic challenges so that we can join the fun. This week's challenge involves paint. Be sure to check it out!**

English teacher: how to use apostrophes

Another Thursday, another little grammar lesson!

One of my readers asked me to clarify the use of apostrophes. Poor little things--such tiny punctuation marks they are, yet they get misused so often!

Apostrophes serve two important functions:

1. They're used in contractions to take the place of the missing letters.
2. They're used to make the possessive form of nouns.

The first use is pretty straightforward; we just need to be careful to place our apostrophes exactly where the missing letters would go. For instance, the words you and all form y'all by removing the letters o and u and putting the apostrophe in their place. So the contraction is spelled y'all, NOT ya'll. Most contractions are common words, such as don't, can't, and wouldn't. Some contractions are made up as we go--we often combine a word plus the verbs is or had. Rules for the use of the apostrophe are the same: use it to replace the missing letters.

She's (she is) going to be late.

I'd (I had) rather not do that.

The second use is a little more troublesome simply because of one of our spelling rules. To form the possessive of a singular noun, you add an apostrophe plus an s.

Did you read Amanda's post?

Kathy is Bonita's new assistant.

He borrowed his brother's car.

In each of these examples, the possessive is formed by adding an apostrophe plus s.

For plural nouns that do not end in an s, you form the possessive just the same way.

She chaperoned the children's trip to the museum.

For plural nouns that end in an s, you simply add an apostrophe after the s.

My sisters' families are wonderful.

The teachers' workroom needs to be painted.

The Smiths' house is on Mapleview Road.

Now here's one of the most important rules for using apostrophes: DO NOT use apostrophes to form the plural of words. For instance, don't write: "I have two sister's and two brother's." No, you don't. You have two sisters and two brothers. NO APOSTROPHE is needed to form the plural of words. Save your apostrophes for forming possessives.

And, of course, be careful with personal pronouns. Apostrophes are NOT used to form the possessives of personal pronouns. They're used to form contractions with personal pronouns, not possessives. For a review of that rule, click here.

I hope this little lesson has been helpful! As always, remember that perfection is not the goal; clear communication is the goal. Please let me know if I can ever answer any grammar questions for you; I'd love to help if I can.

Home is. . . sharing a family heirloom

Sandy at Reluctant Entertainer is having another Home Is. . . party today. Today's topic is "sharing a family heirloom."

The heirloom I love best is in my dining room. Actually, my dining room is the heirloomiest (that's not a word, but you know what I mean) room in my house. My dining room furniture belonged to my mom, several pieces of my crystal were my mom's, etc. All in all, I don't have many heirlooms: my husband and I both come from families who never had much. But we have a few prized possessions, and to me the very best piece is this:

It's a deacon's bench from my grandmother's little church in Belle Plaine, Kansas.

In 1876, my grandmother's forebears set out from Jamestown, Kentucky to seek a better life in the West. They settled in Kansas. Belle Plaine is one of those wonderful little prairie towns where the biggest attraction is the community swimming pool and the tallest building is the grain elevator. I have such fond memories of spending summers there when I was a child. Life in Belle Plaine was simple and fun, especially since my grandmother was one of nine siblings, all of whom lived close to her. Lots of cousins to play with; lots of aunts and uncles to keep an eye on us and make sure we didn't get into too much trouble.

The deacon's bench is from the church of which my grandmother was a member for all her adult life--the church where my mother grew up, was baptized, got married. I can still imagine the smell of that building. . . a mixture of flowers, old wood, and the damp earth of the deep basement. The old church building was torn down when I was a young woman, but a few pieces from the building were salvaged, including this deacon's bench, which became my grandmother's. My grandmother died in 1999, and this is one of the pieces my mother inherited. Then my mother died later that same year (not a good year, let me tell you), and somehow I was the lucky one who inherited the deacon's bench. I just love it.

Several years ago (and several houses ago), an interior designer friend of mine helped me with a few rooms in my house. It was his idea to put the deacon's bench at the dining room table. I've moved three times since then, but I've continued to use the bench there in every house. Now my kids argue over who gets to sit on it at holiday meals. I hosted a bridal shower a few weeks ago, and we moved the bench into the living room. Three young women sat there throughout the shower. It's pretty beat up, but still sturdy after all these years.

Here are a few more photos of my dining room. The walls above the chair rail are a deep, brownish red. I know, I know. . . red dining rooms are passe'. . . but I still love the color in this room. I guess I'm more of a tradition-keeper than a trend-setter.

How about you? Do you have any prized heirlooms? Join Sandy at Reluctant Entertainer to read about more--or share your own!