RELATED STORIES Sherwin-Williams presents: Color Inspiration for Your Home There Are Many Variables to Color To match patterns, colors take one step at a time Color Choices Have an Impact Within the Home Bringing Color to Your Home

Color is perhaps the most important decorating element of all and the one that usually strikes the eye first when you look at a room. Muted, pastel colors have their fans, as do striking, vibrant hues and all the shades and gradations in between. No matter what your personal color preferences are, there are many ways to integrate them into your decorating style and create beautiful, colorful rooms that you will be happy to live in every day.

Sherry Koppel is an interior designer and color consultant who has been creating unique personal spaces for 25 years. Her homes have appeared in House and Garden and Metropolitan Home and she has been featured in the Chicago Tribune Magazine. Here she offers tips to help you create a personal space that reflects your personality and taste:

• Paint.
  Painting your walls is the cheapest and easiest way to incorporate a new color into your decorating scheme. With just a simple coat of paint, entire rooms can be transformed and renewed.
  
• Fabrics.
  You can also have a chair or sofa reupholstered with a favorite color, have new window treatments made, or just add color accents with throw pillows.
  
• Ideas.
  Decorators are coming up with new color ideas all the time, so Koppel looks to books and home magazines for inspiration. You may resist the idea of using a certain color in your home, but after seeing it in a photo, you could change your mind entirely.
  
• Samples.
  Most paint stores offer premade color chips of the paint colors they sell, or will paint a piece of cardboard for you to take home. Tape a square up on your wall and live with the color for a few days before you decide if it’s right for you.
  
• Plan ahead.
  If you’re going to work with painters, says Koppel, you should have all your room colors planned out in advance and samples ready so the crew will simply have to follow the numbers to make sure your walls have the perfect colors for your overall decorating scheme.

For more information about decorating with color, check out the following organizations or websites:

HGTV.com: Decorating with Color
www.hgtv.com

All Things Frugal: Decorating with Color
www.allthingsfrugal.com

Decorator Secrets: Color Scheme Guides
www.decoratorsecrets.com