Many people are looking for easy ways to make their home more light, bright, cheerful, and happy.

One way to make a home feel more happy is to add more color.

If you have a bookcase in your living room, home office, bedroom, game room, or library, consider adding some colorful hardback books to brighten your bookcase.

Here are a few tips for selecting the best colorful books for your bookcase.

Many of my clients have mass produced suburban homes with generic light fixtures of basic quality.

There is nothing wrong with these light fixtures, but almost everyone in their neighborhood has the exact same ones.

They are not special.  They are not memorable.  They provide light, and that is about it.

In order to customize my clients' homes, I suggest replacing their basic light fixtures with nicer ones that better reflect their personal style.

Many of my clients own a dark wood bedroom furniture set, however their bedroom accessories make their room look dark and dated.

These bedroom furniture sets are typically a classic traditional style and good quality, which is why my clients wish to keep their furniture but update the room styling.

Plus, the dark color of the furniture often compliments their dark wood floors.

They want their rooms to feel more light and bright while retaining the traditional classic style.

Luckily, there are many ways to freshen up these bedrooms and give them a completely new look and feel.

Video conferencing has become very popular recently, so having a good video conferencing background created before your first video meeting is essential.

Using a blank wall as a background looks very sterile and boring, and shadows on the wall often look odd.

A well designed background can help your coworkers and clients relate to you better.  If a client sees a book about golfing in your background and they are a golfer, then you just created a stronger connection with that client.  If a coworker sees a photo of your son in your background and the coworker has a son around the same age, then they might feel more connected to you.

Some video conferencing software offers blurred backgrounds or virtual backgrounds, however most people prefer the authenticity and personalization of a real background.

Whether you use Zoom, WebEx, GoToMeeting, Google Hangouts, Skype, or another video conferencing software, you should ensure that your background represents your position in your company and looks professional to your coworkers and clients.

Here are a few designer tips and tricks to help you create a beautiful and unique background for video conferencing.

photo courtesy of StockSnap pixabay.com/photos/computer-browser-research-study-2562651/

If you are considering painting your walls, have you considered painting them white?

I am not referring to off white, light gray, or light beige.  I am referring to pure white.

Pure white walls have become very popular over the past few years, however not everyone has been overly excited about white walls.

I believe that the main concern people have about white walls is that their basic builder home started with light beige walls and they do not want their home's walls to look like that again.

First, there is a big difference between light beige and white.  There might not be a huge difference in color when looking at a small paint sample, but there is a big difference in color when that color is over the huge expanse of many walls.

Second, if your home was built by a production builder (a builder who builds many homes using his own floor plans, typically in the same subdivision), then your wall paint is probably poor quality since builders typically go for the cheapest option to make the most profit.  Any quality paint job using quality paint (even in the same color) would be an upgrade from basic builder paint that is usually watered down and sprayed on.

Here are a few things to consider when considering painting your walls white.