What makes this bedroom’s design feel cohesive and inviting? To create a cozy environment, it’s important to think inside the box.

Every room has six surfaces: the four walls, the floor and the ceiling. You need to take all six into account when you’re planning a space.

This bedroom has every element needed to make a room feel comfortable. The oak-brown carpeting is almost an exact match for the warm brown walls. Cream and brown bedclothes stay in the same color family while using texture and pattern to keep the room interesting.

The most exciting design decision, however, is the ceiling. By choosing a very dark brown combined with the cream-colored wide crown molding, the sixth surface moves from an afterthought to a powerful design feature.

This is an old fashioned room, from the plates on the wall to the furniture and accessories. But the ceiling is daring and takes the space out of great-grandma’s house to a bedroom that would work in an expensive country inn.

Look up. Are your ceilings white and forgotten? Next time you redo a room, work with all six sides of your box.

For many people, the best part of winter is over, and now there’s a long hard wait until spring. This is a great time to think about updating a room. A new coat of paint and new flooring can make a space feel fresh and exciting.

Traditionally, winter is not the best time to paint or carpet a room. The smells required several days of open windows to dissipate. But with the paints and carpeting that are available now, those powerful odors can be a thing of the past.

Volatile organic compounds, often called VOCs, refer to chemicals that are often part of the contents of various products. They release into the air over time, a process called off-gassing. If you remember the concept of the “new car smell,” the bad news is that you’re talking about inhaling VOCs with every new vehicle. Those chemicals created the smell we connect with new paint and carpeting.

The good news is that many of today’s home products have no or low VOCs as part of their makeup. You can actually paint or carpet a bedroom today and comfortably sleep in it tonight.

For more insight into the products that offer this feature, ask us for more details. You’ll find that choosing a low or no-VOC option won’t limit your choices. And you can keep your windows closed!