Magic with colors – that’s easy with “Colour Drenching”. We explain how the interior trend works and why it makes small rooms appear larger.
Quite a few people believe that small rooms should be painted lightly – preferably white – so that they don’t appear even smaller than they already are. But we advise: Get out the paint pots! Because there is a much more effective way to make a room look larger and more elegant with wall paint than with white.
With color drenching, the rooms are “soaked” in color
The living trend that has been around in Great Britain for some time in vogue is called color drenching, which means something like “soaking in paint”. And that’s what you simulate with color drenching: you drench the room with color. That means: you paint the walls and objects in the room in the same color – i.e. radiators, baseboards, doors, window frames, curtain rods, ceiling, stucco and even furniture such as cupboards, beds or chests of drawers if you like.
In the end, the room looks as if it has been doused with paint. Nice side effect: Unloved objects such as the radiators disappear optically. Depending on whether you use soft pastel tones, dark or bright colors, a room with this technique not only appears larger, but also calming, dramatic or stimulating – and by no means boring.
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“Even if you limit yourself to the walls and moldings, the room will immediately appear calmer and tidier,” color expert Patrick O’Donnell of “Farrow & Ball” is quoted as saying in AD magazine. This is especially true in rooms with multiple doors. If you paint the doors and frames in the same color as the wall, everything seems more spacious. A similar effect is created if you paint the skirting boards in the same tone as the wall. “Especially in small rooms, this creates the illusion that they are taller,” says O’Donnell.
Another finesse: playing with surfaces
The interior look is even more refined and elegant if you use different finishes, because the combination of matt and glossy surfaces creates subtle contrasts despite the uniform color. For example, you can bathe a room in a powdery rose or deep dark green, but vary the surfaces by choosing a shiny lacquer in the same tone for radiators or windows.
Sources used: AD Magazine, Homes & Gardens