colors
Use color to play up or play down features. Sometimes the house that you call home is as uncoordinated as a growing teenager. Additions built when space was in demand can confuse the overall design. Proportions in one part of the house may be different than those in another, which can make certain features stand out when you wish they’d recede. Doorways that are too large make others look small. The visual presence of architectural elements can be controlled by the value and intensity of their color. Want something to stand out and make an impression? Paint it the most saturated or contrasting color in the room.
Simplify angles with color. Keeping the flight path through your house free and clear includes diminishing harsh ceiling angles and edges. A grayed color on the walls and ceiling can unify shadows and take away the hard lines that come with the intersection of forms. Softening the angles with color can redirect the emphasis from the awkward to something else — say, a painting or series of family photographs. Streamlining architecture by minimizing color shifts works for all parts of the house. One client told me that she went to bed each night looking at icebergs overhead. Clearly the “ceiling white” used to color the series of odd triangular forms of her cathedral ceiling had created an ominous focus that kept her up at night. A quiet tone of a green-white on the ceiling and walls did away with the arctic landscape while bringing the attention to the soft furnishings that supported a sound sleep.
One big watercolor-esque wall in this bedroom is unique and soothing. While one might think this wall was painted during a creative spurt involving tossing paint on the wall straight from the can late one night, this bohemian look was created in a modern way. It is a digital image taken from a small watercolor image, printed on canvas.
you have already decided to paint your walls white and your home has a breathtaking view, consider painting the trim to match. Eliminating the delineation between the walls and woodwork with white paint will allow the landscape to remain frameless, expanding the view’s presence in your home. This strategy (painting both walls and trim the same), used to drop out the architecture obstructing the view, can be used with any color, but it is most effective with white because of its reflectivity.
The same white color, though, would not work in a north-facing family room in New England. White’s visual relationship to the snow and ice outside the windows would be visually chilling. Instead, try tinting your white with red, yellow or orange or selecting a color from Benjamin Moore’s Off-White Collection for rooms where you plan to eat, socialize and linger.
But the same white paint that makes one room seem magical can make another look frighteningly chilly. As with all colors, white has an associated temperature, mood, light reflectivity and style, along with maintenance requirements and history. Ignore these elements, and your seemingly fresh, crisp white paint can make your space feel completely off. But worry not. Oftentimes all it takes is just a little addition of another color to warm things up or tone them down. Here’s what to consider before you paint your walls white.
This living room design allows us to forget the structure of the sofa while still providing a warm seating area with a view.
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