How to Select Paint Colors
Written by Coral Nafie, About.com's Guide to Interior Decorating found at http://interiordec.about.com.

When it comes to decorating, choosing paint color can really be a challenge. While you may feel that there are so many choices you're bound to find the right one, you may end up feeling that there are so many choices you don't know where to start! The tips here will really help you if you feel stumped by this important choice. After all, the paint color will set the tone for the room. Be Patient It's great to collect paint chips when planning a room, but hold off making final choices until you've developed an overall room scheme. Paint is available in literally an infinite array of colors and is the most versatile element of your room decor, the easiest to change, and the least expensive. Get ideas but make the final decision after rugs, wallpaper, and fabrics are finalized.

Get Comfortable With Cottage Style
Written by Coral Nafie, About.com's Guide to Interior Decorating found at http://interiordec.about.com.
Technically speaking, Cottage Style isn’t really a style. After all, a cottage is meant to be lived in, to be enjoyed, and is usually the recipient of all the cast-offs from the real home. But Cottage furnishings and accessorites have grown in popularity in recent years. In Cottage Style anything (and everything) goes. Furniture The furniture in a Cottage Style home is often recycled, purchased from a flea market, or collected from family rejects. Nothing really needs to match -- and it shouldn’t -- yet the overall effect is charming and comfortable. Anything found can be painted or recovered to help it fit into your scheme. Reuse Vintage Items In Cottage decor, pieces are often adapted from one use to another.

Preparing Your Home for a Special Delivery: Feng Shui, Baby!
By Angela Scott

With the baby due in less than two months, time for completing the nursery is winding down. Although every piece of décor has been meticulously placed, something isn't quite right. You circle the room, checking and double-checking for beloved baby shower gifts or possibly missing trinkets passed down from the in-laws. But everything is in its place. Eggshell walls match perfectly with the crib's soft yellow layette. The multicolored animal mobile hanging above the changing table and bright red toy chest are definite visual stimulators. Maybe the nursery is fine, but the rest of the house is in disarray, says Laura Forbes Carlin, co-author of The Peaceful Nursery: Preparing a Home for Your Baby with Feng Shui (Bantam Dell, 2005). "If the energy flow is off balance, then the environment feels all wrong. It's like you feel it instinctively," says Carlin, who, along with her sister and co-author, Alison Forbes, are owners of an interior design consulting company called The Art of Everyday Living.