It’s a recurrent feeling. You look around your apartment and just wish the walls would push out a little bit. Perhaps you’re dreaming of bringing that tall ceiling of your house down.
Well, what if I told you you don’t need a full remodeling process or demolition? Professional painters have been holding a secret: You can actually change the “perception” of your space just with paint.
That’s right: You can achieve Perfect Walls and change the spatial perception of any room by applying colors strategically. The art of optical illusion is the governing principle behind this secret.
Forget about expensive remodelations. If you want to change your spaces just by painting, follow these tricks that painting experts provide, and redefine your home’s geometry.
1. Creating Larger Spaces
If your goal is to achieve bigger and wider rooms, here are some tips you can apply:
First of all, embrace light colors. Try using shades of white, light blue, and soft green tones to create the feeling of an open space. Painting the ceiling with a lighter color will make the room appear more spacious as well.
Experts recommend using the same colour in the room. Applying different shades of the same color eliminates visual breaks and creates a sense of expansion. Try painting the trims as well to enhance the effect.
Have you considered stripes? Stripes are helpful to direct the eye. You can make a room look taller by painting vertical stripes, and horizontal stripes are perfect for widening a room.
Moreover, painting the lower half of a wall with a dark colour is another option. The upper part and the ceiling go with a lighter color. This strategy will create an expanded room.
For narrow spaces, like hallways, what you have to do is paint the back wall and the ceiling with the same dark color. This trick helps to expand the view down the long wall, making a narrow space look much broader.
2. Reducing Spaces
On the contrary, if your goal is to have a smaller room, darker colours will be your allies. Dark colors absorb the light, so the idea is to reduce light reflection to make the space feel enclosed.
Darker or warm colours, such as reds, browns, and dark greens, will make your rooms look smaller, and they will feel more intimate and cozy.
Another technique to get an enclosed space is to paint one wall in a darker colour. That way, attention will be drawn to this wall, creating an optical illusion of a smaller room. Matte finishes will also help to absorb ambient light.
Moreover, painting the far wall of a room is a great way to visually contract the space. Doing this will create a more intimate space.
Finally, if what you want is to narrow a space, paint opposite walls with a dark color, and then the far wall and ceiling lighter to shift the room’s geometry. This will create a sense of enclosure.
3. Manipulating Verticality
Do not underestimate the power of painting a ceiling. Strategically painting it can also help to reduce or expand spaces and control a room´s height perception.
For a maximum height, paint the ceiling in a light color. The light reflection will create the sensation of openness. Additionally, to make the ceiling appear more distant, it is a good idea to use reflective paints. The room will feel larger and more spacious.
On the contrary, painting the ceiling in a dark color will absorb light. If your walls are lighter, the ceiling will look more reachable. Another technique to lower a ceiling is to paint it darker and extend the colour down the walls, from 6 to 12 inches. This tricks the eye into perceiving that the ceiling line is lower.
It’s a Kind of Magic
Painting to alter the perception of space feels like a magic trick. When you decide which colors to use, the direction and styles of your painting can create different optical illusions, making rooms appear bigger, smaller, wider, narrower, and more.
If you’re planning to change the look of your rooms, or you’re deciding how to paint your new home, consider these expert tricks to strategically change the perception of your interiors without expensive remodelations.
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