Choose your ceiling colour carefully

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This article was published 02/10/2010 (5575 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Dear Marc: I am repainting my bedroom and am looking at possible paint colours for my ceiling. I’m a little at a loss when it comes to ceilings, as I am the traditional type who used to think ceilings always had to be white! Now, with all my friends repainting their ceilings a dark colour, I want one, as well. I’m seeing spaces with coloured ceilings in magazines and on TV, so I am getting used to the idea. Any tips for a rookie ceiling painter? — Andrea

Dear Andrea: If all your friends jumped off a bridge, would you? That seemed like the right thing to say when I read your question. Once all your friends are doing it, designers change the styles to spice it up and you have something new to aspire to.

Ceilings are what I like to call the fifth wall in a space. The fifth wall? Yes, that’s right: The ceiling is also considered a wall. It’s a large surface that we paint, so why not consider it when we’re planning our colour schemes? There are a number of different ways to add that je ne sais quoi to your ceiling.

If you want to go with the traditional white ceiling but are a little concerned that the white will look harsh contrasting with the colourful hues of today’s colour schemes, simply tone down your white by adding a little bit of your wall colour in your ceiling paint. Not a lot of wall paint is needed to achieve this effect. Simply add a dab of paint so your paint colour is still in the shades of white but, once applied to the ceiling, it will be what designers call a warmer colour.

To understand what I mean by warm colour, let’s touch a little bit on colour theory. In colours, we have warm and cool hues. Out of the colours we find in a colour wheel, half of these colours are warm and the other half are cool colours. Warm colours absorb natural light, thus making a space feel warm and cozy. Cool colours reflect light, thus making a space feel cool and airy.

If a ceiling paint is a cool colour such as white, the space will seems more open and spacious. If a ceiling is painted in a dark colour, the ceiling will seem lower and the space rather cozy. Some spaces with very high ceilings are the perfect fit for darker colours, as they look too impersonal with cool colours.

Marc Atiyolil is the editor-in-chief of Canadian Home Trends — Canada’s Home Decor & Lifestyle Magazine, and a regular contributor to numerous TV, radio and print media. To submit a question for Marc Atiyolil, visit CanadianHomeTrends.ca.

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