DEAR DÉCOR DIVA: I am having a lot of difficulty choosing a wall color. My carpet is a very light oat straw color; my tile is off-white with very light taupe colors and dark brown grout. I want to add a lot more warmth in my wall color but do not like bold colors. Some of my walls connect from one room to another with cathedral ceilings. The rooms I want to paint are my kitchen, family room and living room. What’s your advice?

— Pittsburgh

DEAR PITTSBURGH: What about the other elements in your rooms? If you are working with existing pieces, then you definitely need to consider those colors and not just your flooring. If you are starting from scratch, then you need to select your fabrics and woods as well as your new wall color.

With the neutral floor choices you have already made, you could go in many directions. If you look at the photographs of our work in our catalogs and on the Web, you can see that painting your walls in the gold or taupe family will add the warmth you are looking for. We use a lot of unique faux texturing techniques that combine colors to achieve additional warmth and texture. But please, never, never select one item for your interiors without considering how everything will work together.

Bath blahs

DEAR DÉCOR DIVA: I have a problem. We purchased a new home and hired a designer. Unfortunately, she didn’t complete my bathroom and I’m still struggling to give my bathroom the look I have seen in photographs of your work. I’m really frustrated and can’t think what to do.

— Yasmin

DEAR YASMIN: When we design a space, whether it’s a bathroom, a master suite or a whole home, we spend a lot of time and effort selecting all of the elements so that they come together in a unified scheme, with proper scale and proportion. Everything is planned and coordinated on paper before we purchase the pieces and install.

What you may be missing in your master bathroom are some of the faux painting effects that we often incorporate on bathroom walls and ceilings. Or, you may be missing the custom marble and tile work that we use to create unique floors, walls and bathtub enclosures.

There’s often more going on than meets the eye, such as indirect lighting effects or unusual light fixtures that are used to enhance the space. And then, finally, there is the “jewelry” of any bathroom which is the decorative hardware.

Adieu, not goodbye

DEAR READERS: It is with great sorrow that I announce that this will be the last regular weekly Décor Diva column in this newspaper. I plan to continue the column on my Web site — www.perlalichi.com — but it will take a few months before the new design of this part of the site is complete.

Meanwhile, you can always refer to the long archive of weekly columns that is posted on the site. It has been my great pleasure to answer your questions on a regular basis since February 2000. I hope that my words have been an inspiration in your life and that you have learned some techniques that will enable you to incorporate better design into your surroundings.

Always remember: You deserve beautiful rooms.

— Perla

Perla Lichi is a Florida state licensed professional interior designer and syndicated columnist. Submit your questions directly by visiting www.perlalichi.com or e-mail decordiva@perlalichi.com.