decoration | Outside The Lines

“Color is the spice of life,” says interior designer Mario Buatta. “It’s a mood-changer. You change the color from room to room to create a new mood.”

This statement epitomizes the impact color has on our emotional wellbeing and points to the importance of surrounding ourselves with home décor that encourages positivity.

Many people view their homes as sanctuaries. What do you consider your home? Does your interior design reflect the mood you want to set when in this unique environment?

If you want your home to be a sanctuary, it begins with incorporating colors that can influence your mood and the moods of others.

In a recent AOL.com article, top designers offer advice on color schemes that enhance mood. Here is what some experts are saying:

BUNNY WILLIAMS – DEFY TRENDS

“It’s important to choose colors that are easy to live with, which means ignoring trends. What’s timeless is to invent your own color schemes.”

MILES REDD – BE BOLD

“I love disparate rich colors paired next to each other—like taxicab and indigo. The tension that they make on the color wheel is dazzling. Each color makes the other more vibrant than when they stand alone.”

KELLY WEARSTLER – GENDER EQUALITY

“Pink-and-black is confident and chic. I always love to play up the sexy tension between masculine and feminine elements in design.”

STEVEN GAMBLER – ALL EYES ON THE KITCHEN

“Kitchens now act as a part of a house’s public space… It’s important that the kitchen feel as warm and friendly as a sitting room.”

TIMOTHY CORRIGAN – GREEN HARMONY

“I find it important to create homes that serve as our places of sanctuary from the outside world, so I often use green in a prominent role. It’s a color that represents harmony and balance, and you can’t help but feel a little bit calmer after spending time in a room surrounded by green.

Do you view your home as a sanctuary? If so, what colors do you use to highlight the essence of this matchless location?

After reviewing the philosophies of famous designers, it clear to see that beautiful homes come in all sorts of color schemes. As a personal oasis, your home ought to reflect your character and surround you with colors that encourage you and lift your mood.

Color is a powerful tool that can influence mood. When it is applied to the right location, it can have a positive influence on you.

Read more Segmation blog posts about color theory:

What Color Should You Paint Your Home?

Decorate Your Home Office to Inspire Creativity

Make Your House a Home with Color Blocking

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Mosaics are images or patterns created by way of placing small stones, pieces of glass, or other small materials together to form a piece of decorative art.

The earliest known mosaics were found in a temple in Mesopotamia, dating all the way back to the second half of the third millennium BC. Their significance in religion, story telling, and decoration are evident in nearly every culture and corner of the world.

How to Lay Mosaics

There are over a dozen techniques for laying mosaics, but the three most common are the direct method, the indirect method, and the double indirect method.

The Direct Method

In the direct form, images and designs are constructed by directly gluing each piece to the supporting structure. This method works very well for shaped surfaces such as vases or pottery. One of its disadvantages is in work on larger scale pieces. It is less practical for an artist or assembler to remain on site working for hours in this way, especially if the pattern is to cover entire walls, ceilings, or other large surface areas. For jobs like this, the indirect method is often employed.

The Indirect Method

The indirect method is when an artist is using a backing paper or mesh to adhere the stones or materials to, and then adhering the finished parts of a piece on site.

The Double Indirect Method

Some of the most famous mosaic works belong to cathedrals, temples, castles and museums across the world.

The Irano-Roman floor mosaic in the palace of Shapur in Bishapur is famous for its intricacy, while pieces like “A Deer Hunt” found in Greece at Pella are significant culturally for their portrayal of man and gods.The double indirect method is similar in that it involves using a separate medium to place your materials on, but requires that you don’t adhere them right away.

This way, for more complex images, the artist can see his work as a whole, instead of just as its being developed. From there the operator must place another piece of paper on top of the finished work so it can be transferred to its final surface. This process can damage your work and requires much practice before it can be executed properly.

Mosaics offer a fun and creative way to represent events, ideas, and people. What will you make?

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