Time for a Paint Job

Time for you to paint you bedroom?  Not sure what color to choose?  Don't worry!  This or That will help you choose the perfect color for your new room.
Bright colors in bedrooms can sometimes make you lose your concentration or even get headaches.  Even if your favorite color is neon, it might not be the best idea to paint your room that color.  Instead, try a darker shade of that color, or even paint a front wall neon, just not the whole room.  For a full-color boom, painting only one wall neon can make your room complete.  Of course, if neon doesn't affect you, that's great!
Dark colors are also not the best idea for bedroom walls.  They can make the space seem dreary and small. If you have bright furniture and a bright bedspread, it might not be as bad, though.  I've heard that dark colors affect your sleep patterns and your mind.  But if you have your heart set on painting your room dark, at least buy vivid furniture or even stencil your walls (more on that later) with a brighter color.  Also, glow in the dark stars or other stickers would look cool in a dark room.
Light colors can look good sometimes, too.  Choosing your favorite color, only in a lighter form, can be great for stenciling over.  Be careful, though!  If you have a darker color in your room now, before you paint, light colors can let that color through.  The result?  Not very pretty.  You might have to paint your walls white first, which your parents/spouse might not allow you to do and which also could be very costly.  Light walls with darker, but not black, furniture can complement each other nicely.  Also, if you don't want your walls to be too intense, light colors lighten up the space.
Regular colors (the average shade of a color) are great if you just want to add color to your room.  If your furniture is mostly one color, or a similar shade of one color, pick a color that complements it nicely, and one that you would be comfortable sleeping in a room with.  Your favorite color, for example, would be a great choice, although not a necessary one.
Stenciling is the act of taking a cut-out (a homemade one or one from an art or paint store) in a shape you like (i.e. star, heart, moon, etc.) and painting over it.  The result is a shape on your wall, in a different color than your base color.  If you have a lot of favorite colors, buy mini-bottles of a few you like best, leave your walls white, pick a stencil you like, and paint different colors all over.  Stenciling can be good on top of dark colors or light colors or even medium colors, for that matter.  To incorporate your second-favorite color onto your walls, stenciling gets the job done right.
Chalkboard paint is fun, though not necessarily in a bedroom.  Chalkboard paint is like a chalkboard on your wall, that's built in.  Its color is not altogether appealing and if you don't need to write memos in your bedroom, don't get it.
Patterns are expensive and a lot of work, so they may not be the best decision, and wallpaper is very hard to apply.  If you'd like, these are possibilities as well.
Whatever you choose, I hope it turns out well and that you like your new room.  I hope This and That helped this time around!  Good luck with your bedroom improvement project!

Mani (Or) Pedi

This week I will post on getting a mani or a pedi: a hard decision and one that happens often.
A manicure is a great way to show off your color choice, whether it's bright or almost neutral.  Sometimes this is not a good idea, especially if there are rules against wearing nail polish in your office/school.  Also, wearing bright colors on your finger nails during a performance/presentation is sometimes not a good idea as your audience can get the wrong idea about your seriousness.  However, during "off-time" and vacation, having fun and getting a nutty manicure can be awesome!
Pedicures are perfect for work and school, and are a great way to feel like you're free when in reality you're not.  There are very few rules limiting pedicures, and even if there are, wearing shoes that cover your toes solve the problem.  Sometimes, manis wear off quickly, so a pedi can be great for long-lasting polish.  During summer, flip-flops and sandals allow your fabulous color to be shown!
Long (sometimes fake) nails are usually uncomfortable on toes, but are sometimes cool for finger nails.  Most offices/schools have very strict rules about these, so if you can't function properly wearing them, try to avoid them.
Of course, getting a mani-pedi gets rid of this decision completely, but if you can't, I hope This or That helped with your decision-making this time around.