The first time I saw “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy,” I was amazed by the transformation in straight guy du jour, Richard M.

Sure, the glasses were a fabulous touch. And it was great that he ditched his toupee. But what really resonated were the colors in his home. Gone were the soaring off-white walls. In their place, Thom (aka the Design Doctor) chose a rich chocolate for the dining room and a celestial blue in the bedroom.

Chances are, the Fab Five won’t be coming to your house anytime soon. But it doesn’t take an arsenal of men with impeccable taste to make wise color choices. All you need is a bit of courage and a paintbrush. If it doesn’t work, you’re out a day’s work and a few cans of paint. If it does work, you’ve made a bold new statement in your home.

“One can of paint can change the whole room,” said Lara Feige of Silver Tools Creative Interiors in Orono.

“It’s the first thing you want to get right,” Debbie Dall, Feige’s business partner, added. “Color overall is the most important factor in a room.”

It’s a message that homeowners and apartment dwellers are taking to heart. Whether they feel empowered by the bold choices they see on “Trading Spaces,” the tasteful tones in the Pottery Barn catalog, or the great hue in their friend’s living room, people are embracing color more now than ever before.

“I think that gives people the guts to go out and do it if they see it on TV and like what it looks like,” John Burnham, manager of the Sherwin-Williams store in Bangor, said recently. “The colors are much darker, and when I say darker colors, I mean burgundies and reds, but nothing in between. The light colors are even lighter than they used to be.”

Burnham said shades of green, red, and burgundy are popular locally. Aimee Desrosiers, a color expert for California Paints, predicts that nationally, there will be a rise in the use of blue, “from fresh, cool and tranquil to deep or warm.” The ubiquitous sage green is on its way out, as are purple and yellow, but brown is on its way in – big time. Paired with pink, berry, apricot, green or blue, brown may be the new white. And ethnically influenced palettes including spicy reds and oranges are hot, according to Desrosiers.

While trends come and go, Feige and Dall of Silver Tools encourage their interior-design clients to make conscious color choices that will make their home a warm, welcoming place to live.

“Color and textile are a big part of making your home comfortable,” Dall said. “People want their homes to wrap around them and give them comfort.”

Conversely, the wrong shade can cause discomfort, regardless of how much you like the color. A powder blue sweater may be gorgeous on you, but that same blue may not work on a wall. A certain color could look splendid in a magazine or catalog layout and horrid in your living room.

“Pottery Barn gets a lot of people in trouble,” Dall said, laughing. “It’s a matter of getting the right tone.”

The right tone may be one you never imagined. Blue can be warm. Red can be cool. In the right setting, orange can be neutral. The key to good color lies in the way that you light it, the furnishings that you pair it with, and the way that you live in a room.

The brown dining room that worked so well for straight guy Richard M. may not fly in your home, but that doesn’t mean you should ignore the message on “Queer Eye,” or “Trading Spaces,” or whatever home improvement show you choose: Bold is good.

“You can’t wimp out on colors,” Feige said. “Even for people who think they want pastels or light colors.”

Kristen Andresen can be reached at 990-8287 or andresen@bangordailynews.net.