HOME DECORATING : Feast on Color at the Table

Question: We have just moved into our first apartment, and we’re trying to brighten up our dining area.

The ceiling is white, the walls are honey beige and the carpeting is beige. We are not allowed to change any of this.

Our own draperies are white, and our dining table and chairs are French Provincial. The chairs are upholstered in beige but could be done over.

Incidentally, the colors in the living room are mint green, lavender and beige.

DOROTHY HUDSON

Answer: The dining room offers less opportunity for color than any other room. Therefore, a multicolor print, strategically used, can be the answer. I’d begin by selecting a bright print to use for valances above your white draperies--a good color combination would be mint green, lavender, plum and sky blue. Trim the draperies with a plum border. Reupholster the chairs in a practical, sky-blue fabric.

For final spots of color, top off your beige carpet with a lavender throw rug or two.

Q: What colors should I look for in a bedspread and set of draperies for our master bedroom?

The walls are bone white; the furniture is dark mahogany, and the wall-to-wall carpeting is antique gold.

LOUISE BETTENDORF

A: Your bedroom needs life. Find a quilted bedspread with a gold, delphinium-blue, melon and emerald-green floral print on a white background. A soft-melon bed skirt would make a lovely complement.

Use this same soft-melon fabric on the curtains, and trim them with a panel of the bedspread print. Then install swag-and-jabot valances made of the print and lined in gold.

Author’s note: There are as many different kinds of bedrooms as there are people who sleep in them.

But whether you’re decorating a room with a baby’s crib, a teen-ager’s futon or a king-size water bed, it’s important to keep the personality of the occupant in mind. After all, the bedroom is the most personal room in the house.

It’s also the first room you see each day. Use color to get the mood you desire.

Do you want it to sing you awake with bright cheer? Then fill it with sunny, country garden colors. Do you retreat to your bedroom during the day to put your feet up and relax? Then choose soft, cool colors.

Children should always be consulted about color when their rooms are being decorated. And certainly a teen-ager should be involved in planning his or her room.

You may be starting from scratch with an empty bedroom and a fat purse, or you may be working with old furniture and a limited budget. You may be planning a guest room or a seating arrangement in a corner of a master bedroom.

Whatever kind of bedroom you are working toward, your success will be measured by how effectively you use color.

Unless you are starting from scratch, you must decide how many color areas--walls, floors, curtains, bedspread--in your bedroom you can or should change. Perhaps painting or papering the walls is all that is needed to transform your room. Or it could be new spreads, draperies or carpet? Does your furniture need refinishing or repainting?

Green is a favorite color for the bedroom. But beware of that institutional green that is so dull and dreary. It is a bad bedroom color, because it pales the skin color.

But a bright-green works well into a larger color scheme. Picture a bright-yellow, white and emerald-green master bedroom scheme, for instance.

Of course, the finish and style of furniture must be taken into account when redecorating a bedroom. But I am against matching bedroom suites. You should mix the furniture’s wood finishes and paints and treat them as part of the color scheme. Play up the wood tones.

The bed is usually the focal point of the room. I usually choose a multicolor print, one that combines the colors in the room’s total scheme.

And most bedspreads should be quilted for that soft, warm look. When your spread is removed from the bed, the bed linens and blankets should blend into the room’s color scheme.

You will have no difficulty finding sheets, pillowcases and blankets to match or complement any color in your room.