Pencils all over the world are coloured yellow ever since the 1890s.You might think it's for the ease of visibility. But the choice of colour has a different story altogether. Back in 1800s, the best graphite in the world was from China. American pencil manufacturers wanted to convey that their pencils were made with Chinese graphite. The Chinese associate the colour yellow with royalty and admiration. And hence, American pencil makers began making bright yellow pencils to attach this "royal" feeling and connotation with China. But Henry Petroski's history of the pencil has another story to tell, according to him, European producer Koh-I-Noor was the first to introduce a yellow pencil.

Ever wondered why your favourite cheddar cheese is orange in colour? Firstly, it's orange because they dye it orange. The question remains, why orange? The cheese historians recall that the practice began many years ago in England; the reason being that milk comprises varying amounts of beta-carotene, the yellow-orange pigment also found in carrots. Cow's milk after eating pasture has higher beta-carotene levels in spring and summer compared to fall and winter, as a result of eating less hay. This results in varying colours of natural cheese over different seasons. So as a solution for this problem, cheese makers began adding colouring agents.

United Parcel Service, Inc., the world's largest package delivery company in the US, chose to use basic brown coloured delivery vans. Do you ever wonder the reason behind this? Turns out that this decision was taken for practical reasons; UPS first delivered packages using bikes and as the company grew, they opted for trucks to deliver parcels. Co-founder, Jim Casey, wanted to colour the truck fleet yellow. But one of the partners suggested brown, as the colour wouldn't show dirt as prominently. And thus, UPS has brown delivery trucks.

When painting the ceilings, it's easy to lose track of the sections you've already painted. The trouble comes from the fact that you've been looking up, hurting your neck. So, the trick here is trying to work in square sections, by picking up small spaces at a time. You can do two light coats, after it dries a bit, come back to it and leave your roller out. Now, carefully see if any spots are left behind, and then retouch those left out spots. You will be absolutely sure this way and not repeat the spots you've already covered, saving you the time.

Yes, it's essential to scrape off things that are cluttering your ceiling to have a clean slate before painting. Make sure you clean it well before starting, but you don't really have to sand the whole ceiling and then mud it, and then sand it all over again for it to look good. The trick is that no one notices the small hitches in the ceiling. It is expected to be a clean ceiling and unless there's anything major that draws attention, it is good to go. People just notice the walls of the room and expect the ceiling to compliment the colours well.

The usual way of thinking when painting is that those big, heavy wide rollers get the job done faster, but what we do not anticipate is that once the paint is on, it is even heavier to handle. This might leave you exhausted midway. You can opt for the more common 4-6″ foam rollers which will make the job much easier. You will be able to paint full rooms with them because they are easy to handle, and in much lesser time. Try rollers with longer handles when painting the ceilings.