Colorfully fearless: Alex's Bedroom

I'm a big supporter of being daring with color in the home, but it wasn't always that way. For years, I kept my walls boring white and tried to decorate using throw pillows and upholstery. I was too afraid to commit to a particular palette. But what actually happened was that my place became very cluttered with things that were trying to be decoration.

Then, after almost 10 years in white hell, I decided to mix it up a bit. I painted the living room a cloth-distressed bright yellow ochre and the bedroom a calming periwinkle blue. The effect was astounding. My place looked more formal, yet more fun—more like me in many ways. I've since learned, through stories in TOH like this one, a lot about how color has a profound effect on the way we feel, physically and emotionally—like that blues and greens are calming while reds and yellows more enlivening to the senses.

This is a picture of my bedroom. I've carried a lot of the colors from my old places to my current apartment, including the periwinkle blue, which is a great bedroom color because it makes the room feel so relaxing. This time, though I've added some orange to pop against the blue and green theme. The painting, called "Off-Season Smoothie" by my friend Jim Sperber, was the crowning touch, pulling it all together. Visitors always comment on the colors in that room, and I think it's the perfect representation of my style.

So here's an invitation: show us your colorfully fearless room, and we'll post it here. Or, if you're still a little colorfully timid, send us a pic of your place and our readers can help you get ideas for how to bring out your daring side. Using great tools like TOH's Digital Designer, we can show you some ways to make it a whole new room, all for the price of a couple of gallons of color. Don't be afraid—it's only paint. You can always paint over it, you know.