The Sentinel

Redecorating your home |
Tips for Choosing the Right Color Palette for Your New Home's Interior

SNS - Moving into a new home is an exciting opportunity to create a space that reflects your personality and style. Selecting the perfect color scheme for your interiors is one of the most important choices in shaping your home's ambiance. Colors shape a home's aesthetic and influence emotions, creating a comfortable and inviting atmosphere. Whether decorating a cozy apartment or a spacious house, understanding how to select and combine colors can transform your living space into a true haven.

The Psychology Behind Colors

Colors carry meaning and evoke emotions, making them a powerful tool in interior design. Warm tones such as red, orange, and yellow can create a sense of energy and warmth, ideal for communal areas like the living room or dining room. On the other hand, cool tones like blue, green, and purple promote relaxation and are perfect for bedrooms and bathrooms. Neutral shades like beige, gray, and white are versatile, providing a timeless backdrop that complements bold accents. When choosing the right color palette, it’s helpful to consider how different hues can affect your mood and the overall feel of your home.

Consider the Size and Lighting of Your Space

Room size and lighting play a crucial role in how colors appear. Lighter shades make smaller rooms feel more spacious, while darker hues add depth and coziness to larger spaces. Natural light can enhance warm tones, making them feel more vibrant, while artificial light often works better with cooler shades. Before deciding on your color scheme, observe how light interacts with your walls throughout the day. This insight will help you choose hues harmonize with your home’s unique characteristics.

The Importance of Harmony in Design

Harmony ensures that the colors in your home flow seamlessly from room to room. Sticking to a unified palette with complementary shades creates a cohesive look that ties your space together. For example, if you choose earthy tones for your living room, consider carrying a similar theme into adjacent areas. This approach doesn’t mean every room must be identical, but a consistent theme will make your home feel more cozy.

Choosing Accent Colors for Depth and Interest

Accent colors are a fantastic way to add personality and flair without overwhelming the space. Once you’ve settled on a base palette, choose one or two accent colors to highlight specific areas or features. For example, a neutral beige room can come to life with teal cushions or a mustard-colored rug. These pops of color can be easily updated over time, giving you flexibility as trends and personal preferences evolve.

Choosing the Right Color Palette: Experimenting with Color Swatches

Before committing to a specific shade, experiment with color swatches. Paint small sections of your walls or use peel-and-stick samples to see how different options look in your home. This step lets you visualize the final result and ensures that your chosen palette complements the room’s furniture, flooring, and decor. Sampling is invaluable for avoiding costly mistakes when choosing the right color palette.

Using Texture to Enhance Your Palette

Color isn’t just about paint; texture is important in how hues are perceived. Matte, glossy, or textured finishes can dramatically alter a color's appearance. For example, a matte navy wall exudes sophistication, while a shiny finish adds a modern, polished touch. Incorporating texture through fabrics, rugs, and decorative items can enrich your color palette, making your home feel layered and inviting.

Adapting Trends to Your Style

Trends in interior design change frequently, but it’s essential to focus on what resonates with your style. While bold, bright colors may be fashionable, they may not suit your home or personality. Instead of fully committing to trends, incorporate them in small doses, such as through accessories or accent walls. This approach ensures your home feels timeless while allowing room for experimentation.

Moving to a New Home

Relocating provides a clean slate to design your dream home. However, moving can be complex, especially when dealing with fragile items like furniture and decor.

Hiring professional movers can make the transition smoother. Heart Moving is a reputable moving company that handles the logistics, allowing you to focus on the exciting aspects of settling in, such as creating the perfect color scheme. Their team ensures that your belongings are packed, transported, and unpacked carefully, giving you peace of mind. Also, the company offers tailored services to accommodate special requirements, such as handling antiques or oversized items, ensuring a seamless moving experience from start to finish. Entrusting this part of the move to experts ensures your belongings arrive safely and reduces stress during a busy time.

Planning a Color Palette for Every Room

Each room in your home serves a different purpose, so it’s essential to plan your color palette accordingly. For the kitchen, consider shades that promote energy and cleanliness, such as whites, yellows, or soft blues.

In living rooms, warm tones or neutrals create a welcoming environment, while bedrooms benefit from calming colors like lavender or sage green. Bathrooms are a great place to experiment with crisp, refreshing hues like aqua or pale gray. Tailoring your choices to the function of each space ensures your home feels both practical and aesthetically pleasing.

The Role of Accessories in Enhancing Colors

Accessories can tie a room together and emphasize your chosen palette. Curtains, throw pillows, artwork, and rugs are excellent tools for reinforcing your theme. Adding houseplants or decorative vases in complementary colors can further enhance the visual appeal and bring a touch of nature into your space. These items also allow for easy seasonal updates, giving your home a fresh look without the need for major renovations. When selecting accessories, aim to balance bold and subtle to avoid a cluttered appearance.

Creating a Home You Love

Choosing the right color palette is about more than aesthetics; it’s about creating a home that reflects your taste and lifestyle. By understanding the psychology of colors, considering lighting and size, and planning for harmony, you can craft an interior that feels cohesive and personal.

Experimenting with textures, accessories, and trends ensures your design remains dynamic and adaptable. Whether you're starting fresh or updating your existing space, choosing the right colors will transform your house into a place you’re proud to call home.

Commentary |
Beware of Tax “Bipartisanship”

Op-Ed by Dr. Todd J. Barry

In 2012, United States President Barack Obama faced a choice regarding how to legislate the permanency of the President George W. Bush Tax Cuts. In some ways, the dire economic growth of “the Great Recession” called for one obvious path, of making the tax cuts permanent. But, in other ways, President Obama was “suckered” into supporting this path, because of exhortations that economic calamity would otherwise result (then termed the “fiscal cliff”) which was largely an exaggeration. Mr. Obama opted to push to make some of the tax cuts permanent, for the middle-class, but this policy still greatly increased the United States (U.S.) deficit and debt.

Trump tax cuts will cause excessive demand, much of it going to people who do not need it, leading to higher prices.

Currently, Democrats in Congress will have to decide whether or not to be “suckered” into Mr. Trump’s tax permanency proposals, which are reminiscent of Mr. Bush’s. But, the economic situation today is different. Illinois Senators Dick Durban-(D) and Tammy Duckworth-(D) have, previously, sent letters to Republican leaders calling for tax “bipartisanship.” More recently, a similar letter from Michigan’s Senators was vague, though saying than that the tax cuts’ “permanency” would increase the U.S. deficit from $1.9 trillion dollars to $2.9 trillion.

America’s economy grew in 2024’s 3rd quarter at 3.1%, a very strong number. However, several Republicans, including House Speaker Mike Johnson-(R-LA), have said, paraphrasing, that “we have to get the economy going again,” but the problem is not that the economy is sluggish, but that it is overheated.

This situation also has little to do with the absence of shovel-ready projects, that outgoing-President Joseph Biden lamented about. Consequently, a best-policy approach would not be one that is expansionary, but one that is actually contractionary, yet at the same time helps Americans buy more at the grocery store.

Hillary Clinton’s economic team created a novel idea, of giving tax credits for businesses that would share that money with workers.

To put it simply, the Trump tax cuts will cause excessive demand, much of it going to people who do not need it, leading to higher prices. These prices are on top of the proposed tariffs, whereby it is unfathomable that since the middle of the 20th Century presidents have had powers uncheckable by Congress. Also, the inflation is largely due to the dovish policies of the Federal Reserve, which continues to cater to gullible investors on Wall Street. Deficits will soar, leading to higher interest rates, to even more inflation, and eventually to greater unemployment.

In 2016, presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s economic team created a novel idea, of giving tax credits for businesses that would share that money with workers. The plan, though, was ambiguous, and poorly promoted. Alternatively, a supply-side approach, of giving tax credits to businesses that cut prices, risks becoming bureaucratically complex in American’s capitalist framework, an enforcement conundrum.

Wage controls, vis-a-vie the President Nixon era, are equally complex, as are anti-price-gouging measures. While making the middle-class tax cuts alone permanent is feasible, it could engender political challenges. And, unfortunately, these topics did not arise during the 2024 presidential election, because political leaders misinterpret economics, albeit 16 Nobel Laureate economists sent a petition to Washington warning about the economy’s’ health.

Yet, today, I propose an idea similar to Mrs. Clinton’s, which could help Americans to buy more, while costing the government less. Congress could provide a tax credit to businesses sharing 50% of the credit to workers’ wages. Here-named “demand-supply-side economics,” the supply-side aspect would expand production, but even if some resources ended up in CEO’s pockets, the other half going to blue collar workers would increase demand. The combination of the increase in the demand and supply curves at the same time, albeit disregarding their elasticities (the slope of the curves), would result in little changes to prices, but a greater output for Americans- more “bang for the dollar” at the grocery store.

Unfortunately, unresponsive companies might experience labor strikes, but the labor market helps to keep wages consistent with inflation. Furthermore, the government could choose the size of the program, and its time-length, without adding as much to the debt, which is now $31.5 trillion dollars and growing, every time one blinks.

The permanency and details of the Trump tax cuts, including those for the middle-class, need to debated, carefully, before mistakes are made that lead to even higher prices, and to even greater deficits and debt into the future.

Dr. Todd J. Barry holds a PhD from the U. of Southern Mississippi, and teaches economics, with Hudson County Community College in NJ, USA. Sean R. Barry holds a master’s degree in public administration, and has served on town committees in Branford, CT.