Home Design with Kevin Sharkey

This year, Martha and I attended The Home Depot's Manager Meeting in Las Vegas. With more than 3000 employees and vendors in attendance, Martha gives a few demonstrations and we introduce incredible new merchandise that will be placed in stores next season.

With beautiful architecture in the hotel, a trip to the Hoover Dam, an amazing breakfast, and cute local stores, I found myself taking lots of pictures. You will not want to miss a moment of the adventure.

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1 After visiting the Hoover Dam, we stopped for breakfast at the Coffee Cup Cafe in Boulder City, NV.

2 Our team got up early to catch the sunrise at the dam, so we were definitely ready to eat.

3 A quintessential American diner, The Coffee Cup is a destination in its own right.

4 The cafe's eponymous mugs.

5 After breakfast, we had only to walk down the street for the next adventure.

6 Hacienda Interiors was brimming with color. Bright metal sculptures like these add such vibrance to a desert landscape.

7 These beautiful blooms are shaped of thin sheets of metal.

8 A garden of metal flowers seems almost lifelike in the morning light.

9 At the Home Depot's Manager's Meeting, Martha demonstrated different techniques for applying texture to painted surfaces.

10 The Martha Stewart Living 8-Piece Decorative Painting Tool Kit comes with all kinds of tools for getting a textured look, such as a faux bois roller and linen dragger.

11 Martha used shimmery Precious Metals paint from the Home Depot in the demo. (It comes in over 20 metallic hues!)

12 Clockwise from upper left: basket weave, linen, stripes, and wavy graining techniques.

13 We covered all that ground in just two short days! Needless to say, returning to our fabulous rooms at THEhotel at Mandalay Bay was always a treat in itself.

14 I was transfixed by this modern chandelier every time I passed under it.

15 A gorgeous art installation in THEhotel's lobby. It is hard to avoid inspiration in a city like Las Vegas.

Spring officially started March 20 and it's time to freshen up your walls with a new palette. This season I am drawn to the sophisticated, pure, and slightly warmed Picket Fence white (MSL057), the color Ash Bark (MSL211), and the deep, nearly black Silhouette (MSL280).

Pops of more playful colors add contrast to these chic neutral palette. I like a cheery blue like Bluebird (MSL158) and a more traditional green, Salvia (MSL130), like in this Wedgewood-influenced room with blue tins and a green umbrella holder.

All of these colors and more, are available at The Home Depot in the Martha Stewart Living paint collection. I would love to hear if you use colors from the The Martha Stewart paint collection in your Spring projects!

Choosing paint colors is daunting for anyone (so many choices! such a permanent decisions!). So every now and then, I try to pull together a palette that speaks to me -- and explain why it works so well in a room. This month, I'm loving the above combination.

This palette started with Purple Heliotrope -- a plummy color that so many people gravitate towards but that isn't always truly livable. In order to make it appropriate for a room, you need Seal (a charcoal gray) to ground it a little. Bayou (a sage green) and Sharkey Gray (a pale gray neutral) let purple become the accent color, and allow you to use it with confidence.

In this case, I think of Sharkey Gray like the friend-in-common who connects two people that would otherwise be strangers. It works with the purple and the green individually, and pulls everything together in a cohesive way. It also works beautifully as an unexpected ceiling color.