Eye-Popping Color

1. Find your inspiration.

Take a cue from artist, author, and entrepreneur Carol Bass, who used everything from wildflowers to a bar of soap to find the perfect colors for her Maine cottage. Carol painted the walls of her dining room the color of sunflowers. "I enjoy developing spaces that surprise. That's the reason I painted the dining room yellow -- it's warm and rich and surprising," Carol says.

Why it works:
Beautiful colors can be found in the most unexpected places, but the people who come up with paint colors have yet to tap into them all. With today's technology, you can order paint in almost any color you can find; just bring a sample to your local paint store to get a match.