If you’re looking for quick ways to add a little pizzazz to your palace, check out the new title from Sunset: Make it Your Own Paint & Color: 50 easy weekend projects. For the most part, they mine familiar DIY veins; but some of their projects are eye catchers. All of them are well illustrated with step-by-step instructions. These are some of the things I liked the best:

• A painted stair runner pops some colour to the climb and coordinates with the area rug at the foot of the stairs.
• A pretty, girlie room has a floor painted with broad pink, rose and mauve stripes.
• The blackboard wall is a staple that is more or less attractive depending on what has been chalked onto the surface. Here they offer a formula for creating a chalkboard with any colour of paint and show a lively chalkboard wall in soft green-gray.
• A simple leafy branch is stenciled onto a plain white roller blind.
• Maps cover a wall like wallpaper in a patchwork pattern. (I’m always attracted to projects featuring maps.)

I’ve said it before and I still believe it: happiness is a can of paint and a brush.

- Jane

If you think that happiness comes in a paint can (and I do), there’s no such thing as too many books about colour. Here's a new one for your reading list.

In The Right Color: Finding the Perfect Palette for Every Room in Your Home, author Eve Ashcraft undertakes the task of explaining the complexities of colour selection. She is a colour expert who has been dubbed the “paint guru” by the New York Times.

Ashcraft begins with a story to explain the process of creating a colour scheme inspired by a porcelain saucer. You quickly learn that matching is for amateurs and she’s a pro.

In the section called Color in Context, she considers the impact on colour of many elements, including light, setting, contrast and surface materials. She explores other options for ceilings besides white and discusses whether or not to highlight trim. Here, she also explores colour “rules” that may needlessly limit your thinking on the topic.

She looks at colour choices room by room and, at the back of the book, offers a selection of “28 colours that work” from her own paint collection.

- Jane

Dave's Two Cents:

Have you ever wandered into a big-box church of home improvement looking for a simple can of paint and been blown away by the rainbow of colour chips displayed? The author gives us the benefit of her expertise to choose among this amazing variety.

When all is said and painted, the “right colour” is your choice, whether you pay the painter or the paint store. Why not invest a gram of research to prevent a kg of regret?

- David Ramsey

Today's blog comes from Candace Weir, Central Library staff:

There are people who can use a paint roller and not end up with more paint on them than whatever it is that they are painting. For those of us afflicted with the “covered in paint” handicap, a book on faux finishing could turn a behavioral quirk into something constructive. All it takes is a little creativity and some paint.

Designer Faux Finishing: Ideas and Inspiration for Sophisticated Surfaces by Victor DeMasi lives up to its title. The examples provided may not be for the faint hearted; but nothing ventured, nothing gained. Some of the finished examples remind me of Roman trompe l’oeil. The Met in New York has great examples of this type of wall art.

On a more practical side, It’s Faux Easy by Gary Lord starts out with a number of finishes that catch the light in intriguing ways. He demonstrates techniques starting with the simple layering of colour that is finished using cheesecloth, as well as more complicated techniques such as embossed stenciling. In each case, in this well-laid-out book, the materials list is followed by photos of the colour palettes and then step-by-step instructions. Watch the following video for a quick glimpse of Gary Lord in action.

Decorative Painting Techniques for Walls, Floors, Ceilings and Furniture by Elise C. Kinkead and Gail E. McCauley is another great source. There are loads of examples of what can be done using paints and stains to transform just about anything in the house.

Now, when you are covered ear to ear with multicoloured flecks, you will have something to show for it.

-Candace