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Many homeowners decide to make updates to their homes and change up their interior designs during the spring and summer months, but according to the Huffington Post, interior designer and author of the new book “Decorate Fearlessly” Susanna Salk has revealed that there’s one thing that a lot of people forget — the ceiling.

Most people spend time picking out the perfect wood for their flooring, the exact right shade for their carpeting and area rugs, and the paint color for the walls, but Salk says that painting the ceiling can make a huge difference in the overall design of a room.

Changes in furniture and elegant drapery can change the entire look and feel of a room, but Salk says that painting the ceiling — even just a few shades different from the color of the walls — can make a huge impact.

Not only does painting the ceiling draw the eye upward and make the room seem bigger, it is also much more visually interesting than a plain white ceiling.

“I don’t mean suddenly going crazy and making it a super dark color if you have light colors on the wall, but just another shade that’s different, that kind of draws your eye up,” Salk explains. “It also makes the room feel bigger and it gives that sense of whimsy that every room needs.”

If a homeowner really wants to add interest with prints and patterns on the ceiling, Salk warns that there is a right and wrong way to do it.

“If you do a pattern ceiling, you just have to make sure that pattern and color is somehow echoed in pattern of the fabric or the rug or the colorations that you use below, so it doesn’t stand out so much that it detracts from the rest of the room,” Salk cautioned. “It has to harmonize somehow while still bringing your eye up and calling attention to itself.”

Beauty may only be skin deep, as the saying goes, but as research shows, looking good can also correlate with feeling better about oneself — especially at work.

The New York Times profiled individuals who have undergone cosmetic treatments, ranging from cosmetic dental work to facial reconstructive surgery.

Philip Fear, a 49-year-old physician from Saratoga Springs, NY, had been miserable with his teeth up until last fall, when he shelled out $60,000 for porcelain veneers. Before his treatment, he’d had a gold crown tooth, but he said it drew too much attention to the rest of his teeth, which were discolored by antibiotics used as a child.

Allie Wu, a 31-year-old actuary with a life insurance company, had to have cosmetic dental surgery after previous treatments had left her teeth misaligned and made her chronic jaw pain even worse.

Yet both Fear and Wu say that since their surgery, their lives have improved.

Fear no longer hides his smile and said that he feels a lot more confident in his appearance.

For Wu, she could only chew on one side of her mouth before having corrective treatments. But now, she says that the cosmetic treatments she received have helped boost her confidence.

“My smile looks natural,” she said. “My speech is better. I don’t have a lisp anymore. I can eat. The veneers corrected the color and the functionality.”

And science backs up these claims: This January, two University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee scientists assessed the facial features of 667 chief executives and found that appearance mattered when it comes to getting a high profile job.

It also explains why more people, especially in the United States, are looking for a small but simple approach to improving their appearance, rather than more invasive work with longer recovery time.

In 2012 alone, the number of Botox injections increased 8% to 6.1 million total procedures performed; it’s no wonder, considering that these treatments take just minutes to administer and have lasting effects for up to four months. Over the past few years, more and more Americans have been looking for ways to reduce scars and wrinkles with other non-invasive treatments, such as skin tightening and photofacials.

Yet cosmetic surgeries are still performed worldwide, and sometimes with disastrous results. That’s why TV shows like Botched, which airs on the E! network, profile these plastic surgery disasters and try to have them corrected.

It’s not an issue unique to the United States, either. Lejla Zvizdic, a Bosnian TV presenter, recently went under the knife in the hopes of enhancing her already pretty looks when appearing on camera.

But she was left with something that she now says “ruined her life.” Graphic photos of Zvizdic were released to the press, showing the talk show host with a puffy upper lip, swollen cheeks and infected wounds along her nasolabial folds.

The doctor who performed her surgery claimed that it wasn’t his fault. He blames the results on an anti-allergy treatment for a bee sting Zvizdic suffered while on a vacation, which she took shortly after having her surgery.

Perhaps these incidents make the case for getting small work done to help boost one’s confidence.

As Wu said of her procedures, “I work in the insurance industry, and appearance is not as important for me as it is for someone in modeling. But I feel it gave me self-confidence. I feel more confident going into work.”

A little more than half — 53% — of homeowners agree that now is a good time to renovate a home, a fact that is reflected by the boom experienced by the U.S. home remodeling industry in recent years. However, although now may be a good time to renovate your home, is it worth ruining your relationship?

While renovating a home may seem like a great opportunity for a couple to bond, it can easily turn into a nightmare. A simple trip to a furniture or home improvement store can get ugly, and fast.

In fact, the newly named “IKEA meltdown” is a actually a real thing and can spell trouble for couples who may already be experiencing relationship stress, according to a new report published in the Wall Street Journal. Those couples may enter the store hand-in-hand feeling hopeful, but may leave angry, drained, and tearful.

In couple’s therapy, it’s common for couples to discuss fighting while home improvement shopping or while assembling furniture, said clinical psychologist Ramani Durvasula. In fact, it’s become so common the Santa Monica, CA-based therapist has now embraced these tasks as communication exercises for her patients.

As the world’s largest furniture retailer boasting over 367 stores in seven countries, IKEA might seem like a domestic wonderland brimming with the latest and greatest home goods — not to mention those meatball. However, it can quickly become a domestic minefield rife with hidden triggers. “The store literally becomes a map of a relationship nightmare,” explains Dr. Durvasula, who is also a professor of psychology at California State University Los Angeles.

Just browsing in an IKEA demo kitchen, for example, can serve as a reminder or spark disagreements over who does most of the cooking and cleaning. Or walking through the children’s section can lead to a heated discussion over when is the right time to start a family. The next thing you know, you’re in the throes of a full blown “IKEA meltdown.”

Based in Almhult, Sweden, IKEA understands that the entire home improvement process can be emotionally taxing and may lead to arguments, says Janice Simonsen, design spokeswoman for IKEA U.S. “While IKEA has no set philosophy on couples shopping together, we want everyone to have a good experience,” she explains.

While IKEA doesn’t have counselors or mediators on standby for couples, they do have home-furnishing consultants at roughly 85% of their U.S. stores who can provide design advice. After working as an IKEA furnishings consultant, Simonsen compiled a list of guidelines for couples to help them prepared for an IKEA visit.

Couples with existing communication issues are most likely to experience an “IKEA meltdown,” but no relationship is entirely immune. A 2013 survey conducted by home design site Houzz revealed that 46% of couples tackling remodeling projects together considered the experience frustrating, while 12% of couples surveyed admitted to considering separation or divorce during the remodeling process.

One of the biggest new trends emerging in dentistry might also be the most dangerous.

As a growing number of videos depicting do-it-yourself dentistry hit YouTube, more and more people are avoiding the cost of visiting a dentist office to perform advanced dental procedures on themselves. What many of these people don’t realize is just how harmful DIY dentistry can be to one’s teeth.

According to an April 15 CBS New York article, many of these DIY dentistry videos show the viewer how to straighten his or her teeth at home using rubber bands, wires or even hair elastics. Some of these videos have received hundreds of thousands of views since being uploaded.

“I have seen more than one instance where harm has been done,” Dr. DeWayne McCamish, of the American Association of Orthodontists, said.

There are also a growing number of individuals who purchase over-the-counter dental first aid kits when they have an emergency in lieu of visiting the dentist, according to the UK Guardian. These kits, which are intended to serve as only a temporary fix for lost fillings, caps and crowns, are being used as permanent treatment.

It might seem like common sense to avoid the dangers do-it-yourself dentistry; but many people who can’t afford to visit a dentist or orthodontist feel there is no other alternative.

For Tina Hicks, who couldn’t afford to pay an orthodontist to fix her tooth gap, paying $20 for a set of “gap bands” seemed like an affordable solution, CBS New York reported — yet they soon became too uncomfortable for her to use.

“They were cutting into my gums. It was super painful,” she said.

Do-it-yourself dental treatments might seem like a major cost savings, but there is no substitute for dental treatment from a trained professional.

According to a new survey conducted by the Pew Research Center, black immigration trends are on the rise, and black immigrants are expected to become one of the fastest-growing demographics in key areas of the U.S.

The Washington Post and Breitbart News Network both note that 3.8 million black immigrants residing in the U.S. currently make up 8.7% of the total black population in the U.S.; by 2060, according to estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau, black immigrants are expected to comprise more than 16% of the country’s total black population.

The majority of American citizens with black heritage, according to the Post, can trace their heritage back to African ancestors who were brought into the country during the 1700s and early 1800s in the transatlantic slave trade. Although Africans didn’t make up a significant portion of the 30 million immigrants who came to the U.S. between 1870 and 1930, African migrants began traveling to the U.S. in earnest after the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 was passed.

The trend has continued to play a large role in the overall influx of migrants, and the population of black immigrants from Africa rose by 137% between 2000 and 2013.

Current immigration trends, however, suggest that the majority of new black immigrants will be coming from countries in the Caribbean. The Pew Research Report claims that the majority of black immigrants now come from Jamaica (18%) and Haiti (15%).

The report also noted that the new wave of black immigrants differs from the previous generation of African immigrants in more than just heritage; current trends suggest that “new” black immigrants tend to be older and are more likely to live above the poverty line, compared to other foreign-born immigrants in the U.S. In fact, although black immigrants in the U.S. overall are less likely to earn college degrees compared to U.S.-born citizens, the percentage of African-born black immigrants with college degrees is actually higher than the percentage of all U.S.-born citizens with college degrees.

Certain cities are naturally more likely to feel the effects of more immigration, as the report also found that black immigrant communities have begun springing up in concentrated areas, such as in Washington, D.C. and Miami.