Express Your Holiday Cheer with a Bright New Paint Job

PHILADELPHIA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The year-end holidays are a joyful time when we use colorful lights, shiny ornaments, and pretty gift-wrappings to make our home environment more festive. Why not go a step further this year and celebrate the season with a bright new interior paint job?

“If you fall in love with the color, you can always paint the other walls later on.”

“Many of us seek to give our surroundings a special feeling at the holidays, so it’s a perfect time to spice things up by adding some color to the walls,” says Debbie Zimmer, paint and color expert at the Paint Quality Institute.

“From a psychological standpoint, any new paint color will freshen up the home interior, but if the color is bright and festive, it can do even more by actually helping to lift the spirit of family and friends who enter the space,” she says.

In keeping with the season, variations of red and green are obvious choices for interior walls, and psychologically speaking, they work beautifully at the holidays and thereafter.

Red in all its iterations – from rose to burgundy to rust -- is one of the warmest colors, perfect for adding coziness to any part of the home. It also is an appetite enhancer, making red a wonderful option for dining rooms, where holiday entertaining often takes place.

Green has other winning attributes: Studies have shown it to be among the most calming and relaxing colors – a welcome counterpoint to the hectic holidays. At the same time, green calls to mind many of the foods we eat, so – like red -- it’s a fine choice for kitchens and dining rooms.

That’s not to say that pre-holiday painting shouldn’t be done in other hues. Today’s interior paints come in hundreds of colors, and you’ll want to apply one that you’ll be happy with when the decorations go back into storage.

If you don’t have enough time to re-paint an entire room before your guests arrive, Zimmer suggests that you think about painting just one or two “accent walls” in a holiday color.

“Accent walls are actually quite chic and can often create a completely different appearance for the entire room,” she says. “If you fall in love with the color, you can always paint the other walls later on.”

While it’s true that interior painting isn’t free, the cost is something of a “gift” when compared to other types of holiday re-decorating, no small consideration when your budget may already be stretched. Do-it-yourselfers can re-paint an entire room for about the cost of a nice new shirt, designer pajamas, or that reindeer sweater you saw at the store.

So, if you’re feeling especially festive this year, consider giving your guests (and yourself) a holiday treat for the eyes: a more colorful home interior.

To learn more about interior painting and color selection, visit blog.paintquality.com or www.paintquality.com.

About the PAINT QUALITY INSTITUTE^(SM)

The Paint Quality Institute was formed in 1989 to educate people on the advantages of using quality interior and exterior paints and coatings. The Paint Quality Institute's goal is to provide information on the virtues of quality paint as well as color trends and decorating with paint through a variety of vehicles, including television appearances, newspaper and magazine articles, and instructional literature. Please be sure to visit the Paint Quality Institute at www.paintquality.com. PAINT QUALITY INSTITUTE and PAINTQUALITY.COM are trademarks of The Dow Chemical Company (“Dow”) or an affiliated company of Dow.

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