CEDAR FALLS - It's beginning to look a lot like spring in the Cedar Valley.

Soon, flowers will be blooming in shades of red, pink and yellow, and once-naked trees will be clothed in vibrant green.

There's no reason you can't carry the freshness of the season into your home, which may still be stuck in the darkness of an Iowa winter.

Rosie Sorensen, manager of Diamond Vogel, says there's a trend in which people looking for paint and home interiors are matching their choices to the seasons.

"It kind of seems like in winter people are going with darker colors, and as spring comes they're doing more lighter colors," says Sorensen.

Of course, most people don't have the time or money to decorate every six months, but Sorensen says customers are slapping fresh coats of paint on the walls more often than they used to.

Both Sorensen and Suzanne Dutcher, owner of Dutcher's Glass and Paint, say the color of choice for many is still a rich, vibrant red. Also popular are bright shades like yellow and green and rich tones like deep browns and metallics. Mixing patterns can also give an instant breath of fresh air to a room, though Sorensen says some customers may be scared to do too much mixing.

"The most different thing is that people are caring about color now," says Dutcher. "They can see how spectacular it is and how good things look with it."

Inside Dutcher's the walls have been painted with some of the most popular shades so customers can see how an entire wall will look in one color. Also at Dutcher's, sample jars of Benjamin Moore paints offer customers a way to try out a color before investing in an entire gallon.

If you're worried about a color being too dark against your white woodwork, Dutcher offers reassurance: "They don't need to worry. It brightens up the vibrancy of the color."

The vibrant colors sweeping through homes can also be seen zooming down the highway or strutting down the runway.

Last month, Benjamin Moore teamed with clothing line Chaiken for New York's Fashion Week. Benjamin Moore colors were featured on the runway backdrop as well as on the runway.

According to ARA Content, updated 1960s-influenced motifs are showing up on the floors of retailers such as Saks Fifth Avenue and pages of fashion magazines such as Vogue.

In the automotive world, Ford Motor Company has unveiled the redesigned Mustang in Screaming Yellow and Legend Lime, and even appliance manufacturers are getting in on the trend, offering traditionally white goods in vibrant colors - like the Sears Kenmore washer in Sedona Orange.

Though current wall colors may mimic those of the past, Dutcher says the resemblance is only a passing one.

"These are new colors. Here we have Tangerine Fusion, and here's Firefly - it's like a harvest gold. That's a brand new color," says Dutcher. "There's no resemblance in names. They're cleaner and brighter."

Even the array of shades in one color family offers limitless options.

"People will come in for sage green … we take them through the whole range of new greens," says Dutcher. "They fine tune what they're thinking … sage means one thing when they come through the door, but we talk about what they feel they're trying to accomplish. And they're most wanting vibrancy, strength, depth, change."

New types of wallpaper on the market also offer an excuse to freshen up a room or two.

"One of our newest wallpapers is called nonwoven," says Sorensen. "What that means is you can put it on with water, and it will strip off and won't leave a backing on the wall that will take forever to get off."

If you desire a change but don't want to overhaul an entire room, little things can go a long way. Sorensen recommends changing pillows on the sofa or hanging up different pictures to go with the season.

"People in general are decorating a bit more as the seasons are changing rather than leaving things out all year and then changing them for Christmas," she says.

Kelsey Holm can be contacted at (319) 291-1464 or kelsey.holm@wcfcourier.com.