I'm not talking about PAINTING anything red! I'm taking about red accents. For instance, in my kitchen the walls are very pale yellow, the cabinets/trim are a creamy white, and my curtains (which my mom found for me) are white with a wide natural linen-y band; on the band are big red embroidered ladybugs spaced all in a row. I also have a bright red KitchenAid mixer.

So once you've got your kitchen painted the way you like, just look around for a couple of small things in red--to test my theory you can even find a pretty clear glass bottle and fill it with water colored red with food coloring. (That's a good way to test all kinds of accent colors.)

As for Trading Spaces, I prefer the original English version, Changing Rooms, which isn't as outrageous; they actually aim for useful spaces. True, they come up with some doozies sometimes, but quite often they come up with truly lovely rooms. I've learned the most from basic color theory, really, and a book called Color: Natural Palettes for Painted Rooms by Donald Kaufman and Taffy Dahl. Expensive, gorgeous book, but boy did I learn a lot, and I've applied it to all sorts of crafts, not just home decor.

Do a web search on "color theory" and you can learn a great deal on your own. It's not hard, and it's very fun to play with. Just ignore the $10 words.

Lynn Siprelle, Editor