A space lift: tips for turning your home into a haven.

• Author: Ostermiller, Pamela
• Position: Executive Living

Conventional wisdom decrees that spring is the season to spruce up rooms and put a new face on your space, but winter doldrums can also be cured with some fresh paint, bright colors and newly organized rooms.

Whatever your motivation, if now is the time to make your home the haven you desire, you must first gather your thoughts, your magazine clippings, your random swatches and paint samples, and channel all of this into a design scheme. But how?

First, "look at how you live," says LaMar Lisman of Lisman Studio in Salt Lake City, and ask yourself some fundamental questions. "How are you going to use the space? What is your lifestyle? Do you entertain or are you a homebody? Are you formal or casual?" Answer these questions before replicating a room in a magazine or taking the plunge into a gallon of high-gloss, hot pink paint.

Color Comfort

Discovering who you are and the true function of a room can gently guide you through the rest of the decision-making process. For example, how much color can you handle? Are you at ease with mixed textures and patterns, or must you see wall-to-wall solids?

"People like to surround themselves in shades of their environment," Lisman says. A native of Waikiki, for instance, welcomes the vibrant reds of a ginger blossom and the azures of a lagoon, while a Utahn, in general, would rather nestle into a room of neutrals. "We are surrounded by a lot of brown--even our greens are brown-greens!" he says.

Even with a cozy Great Basin palette, one must still make sure to keep a room crisp and fresh, says Greg Hodson of Johnson and Hodson, also in Salt Lake City. "Don't try and blend everything into a mud bowl! Especially in hard times, it's refreshing to brighten things up. Don't be afraid of white and get some contrast."

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If you only bring in one new dimension, Hodson adds, "I don't care what room it is, any room looks great with white lampshades."

Tie it Together

After incorporating these basic but integral ideas, you can now move on to "decorating." But what is decorating?

Essentially, says Hodson, good design at its core is a function of organization, something we can all comprehend. Chances are, you lead a busy, executive lifestyle and crave order, symmetry and balance in your home retreat. This can be accomplished to any taste, but doesn't have to be sterile and boring.

"Through accessorizing, through cabinetry and display, decorating has a lot to do with grouping and organizing a room...