Paint ceiling white? Ryan rebuts ‘myths’

LITTLE ROCK — Designer and author Elaine Ryan challenges some established interior design beliefs in her Elaine Ryan Home Decorating Kit: Everything You Need to Know to Become Your Own Interior Designer ($69.95), which includes a 158-page guidebook, two fan sets of color samples, a grid board and reusable furniture shaped stickers for creating floor plans, a booklet about designing a child’s bedroom and another in which Ryan questions popular design beliefs. Such as: Myth: Rooms should “flow.” Ryan: Rivers must flow. Your home is not a river. Treat each room individually, using different colors in each to create different moods, using colors that complement each other.

Myth: Homes should follow a theme.

Ryan: A home that follows a theme looks self-conscious and contrived. Ryan suggests avoiding that pitfall by mixing and matching periods and styles, patterns and furnishings.

Myth: Foyers are “not that important.” Ryan: Foyers are the introduction to your home. For that reason they’re very important.

In choosing colors for the foyer, select a softer tone of the primary color being used in the next room. Softer colors are more welcoming and especially attractive, Ryan says.

Myth: A black-and-white color scheme is hard to live with.

Ryan: Using black and white together is beautiful.

Adding a third color as an accent in the room takes the edge off the starkness of the black and white and makes the trio of colors pop and the room surprisingly inviting, Ryan says.

Myth: Ceilings must be white or much lighter in color than the walls.

Ryan: Light reflected from the ceiling is insignificant.

The white ceiling doesn’t offer the room any additional life and it only serves to draw the eye away from the room and decor and upward instead, Ryan says. She suggests painting the walls and ceiling the same color, which, she says, will actually make the room feel larger because there’s no visual division between the two.

Myth: Only big is beautiful.

Ryan: Small is also attractive.

Deep-toned rich colors will turn a small space into a charming room. If a patterned fabric is desired, selecting one with a background in a rich jewel tone, limiting the pattern repeat to no more than 27 inches wide, and holding the number of solid colors to two will keep the room’s decor from becoming overwhelming.

Adapted from Myths, Truths, and Tips: Secrets Interior Designers Do Not Want You to Know, part of the Elaine Ryan Home Decorating Kit.