Oh, what a feeling… when we’re dancing on the ceiling!*

…but it doesn’t have to be a white ceiling. And that’s helpful if you are planning to dance on it fairly regularly.

This week I thought I would share some tips for painting your home to create a natural flow within the entirety of the space and to make your home feel bigger… operative word being ‘feel’ – paint cannot actually make your house bigger. In fact, logically, it will make your house millimeters smaller.

There are three ways that you can paint your walls and woodwork.

1. The traditional (and therefore most common/standard) way of painting our homes is to have coloured walls and white gloss on the woodwork – this is ok and a safe option, but it’s pretty boring…

2. A trend that is becoming increasingly popular (which interior designers use a lot) is to swap this around and put the light colour on the walls and the darker stronger colour on the woodwork. By doing this you will create a more impressive impact and the house will feel bigger (and finished to a higher standard)

3. Alternatively, another technique that interior designers use is to paint the entire room the same colour (including the skirting boards, dado rail and picture rail) – in the right space this can be very effective and make the room feel even bigger. You have to bear in mind that you may need different types of paint for different surfaces and the accuracy of colour matching is absolutely critical

With respect to the ceiling, there are again three ways in which it can be painted.

1. Lots of people ignore the ceiling and just paint it white – it makes a very clear distinction with the walls and highlights where the ceiling starts, which unfortunately has the effect of lowering the ceiling – by softening this transition by using a tone of white you will instantly create the illusion of more height

2. An effective way of creating the illusion of more height is to consider taking the wall colour over the cornice and onto the ceiling

3. A further alternative it to paint the cornice the same colour as the woodwork and then paint the ceiling the same colour as the walls – again, in the right space this can be very effective and creates an impact

If you are renovating your home or simply redecorating a room, choosing the paints can be a daunting task. There are no rights and wrongs (other than hideous taste), but hopefully these tips and decorative styles may help with your choices.

*Lionel Richie

(Image from John Lewis - Sanderson Paint)