Let’s just ignore the bizarre weather that has left parts of the country stunned the past few weeks and welcome spring, a magical time of year when homes are reinvigorated by warming weather and bright colors. (Quick poll: Is there any better feeling than the first night you can choose to leave the windows open?)

Of course, spring time is when various around-the-home projects are revisited or thought up. But hold your paint roller right there, because a recent story from the folks at House Beautiful shows how the softer colors of spring can make for a great choice for your bedroom walls.

Steal some inspiration from spring and check out some of these great paint schemes from the House Beautiful story that could work year-round (including the photo above):

Via HousingZone.com, a leading news website for home-building and remodeling professionals, we learned of the Sherwin-Williams Colormix 2012 forecast, which presents a range of 40 colors the company’s “color experts” foresee being popular, trendy or just downright cool in the year ahead.

So what do we learn from this new Colormix forecast? “The 40 hues highlighted in colormix 2012 stay close to home with earth-inspired, color family groupings: Reds, Blues, Greens and Neutrals.” More specifically, Sherwin William’s Jackie Jordan says:

Colors that are analogous, or adjacent on the color wheel, are a dominant trend. We discover a fresh array of combinations within color families ― be it fiery reds, watery blues, grassy greens or organic neutrals. … Just hone in on a color you love and the ideal, natural complement will be right nearby.

See the colors in all their glory here. Anything you see inspire you?

No, we don’t mean flexing your biceps. We’re talking about inside your house. Let’s jump right into today’s link love.

Considering Exposed Pipes
Curbly
Over at the home improvement/do-it-yourself site Curbly.com, the DIY Maven has an overview of some things to think about if you’re considering exposed pipes as a design option or to perhaps save some energy on building something to cover them up. As the Maven points out, exposed interior pipes can just as easily be a nice bit of character or be really ugly and obtrusive. Sometimes, just a bit of paint makes the difference.

10 Things You Can Recycle You Didn’t Know You Could
Re-Nest
From the great green blog Re-Nest: “If you’re like us you hate throwing anything in the regular garbage. It seems like such a, pardon the pun, waste. But there’s some stuff you just don’t know what to do with. Check out our list plus a refresher on what can go in your city’s recycle bin…” Potato chip bags, old medicine, wine corks and more — recycle ‘em!

Most Asked Questions of Home Improvement Contractors
National Association of the Remodeling Industry
“Contractors share the short list of questions they are usually asked by homeowners and offer a list of questions they recommend you ask.” Talk about valuable information! If you’re planning a remodel or any other project working with a contractor, this is a must-read.

Photo courtesy of Coastal Living by way of Curbly

For today’s how-to post, we have a great — and simple — demonstration from the Remodeling Guy, Tim Layton, who is on a “quest to find the best ways to completely ignore the ‘manufacturers recommended use’ section on your average paint can.” Be sure to check out his post for more photos.

He has a few posts in this series, but this one creates perhaps the most interesting effect. By violating the most basic rules of painting — using exterior paint on, you know, the exterior of your house and making sure to apply smooth, solid coats of paint — Tim and his wife put a finish on their deck that strikes a beautiful contrast from the typical stain-and-waterproof approach.

Tim writes:

The process was so simple we didn’t even take pictures. I replaced the broken board with a new one while Kim very lightly painted over the deck using a foam brush and interior Ralph Lauren Paint in a Aegean Blue.

The trick was just to use a very light touch with the brush so as not to get the paint into all the worn crevices and the wood. The result is a worn look that will look even better as it weathers over time.

What’s the lesson? Be creative and try new ideas. Who knows what you’ll discover?

Photo courtesy of the Remodeling Guy

Home Décor taught us about different types of color schemes and provided inspiration for a previous blog post, and we’re back to share some tools to help you pick the specific colors to bring your vision to life.

It was helpful to learn about monochromatic, complementary and triadic color schemes in that earlier post, but we’d like to make it even easier to pick the perfect color scheme for your home by sharing the following links:

• Kuler is a downloadable application made by Adobe to help you explore, create and share color schemes. You can even create a color scheme based on an image that you upload from your home or find on the photo-sharing site Flickr.
• ColorJack is a color scheme generator used mostly by Web designers to find the right combinations of colors to use online. It can also be a nifty guide for homeowners, as there are more than 200 different color schemes.
• The Home Know-it-All blog directed us to the Color + Design blog, which had a great post about the palettes created by some of the greatest artists ever. The artists “show a little of how they were inspired by color … or perhaps, how they inspire us with color.” The post shows the color schemes created by famous painters for the signature pieces of art. The post features paintings such as da Vinci’s “The Mona Lisa” and Van Gogh’s “Starry Night.”
• Benjamin Moore Paint is also a nice resource for picking color schemes, as it offers several insightful posts on picking color schemes based on moods, nature, room sizes, etc.