Painting Small Spaces
Before you start painting you need to decide whether you intend your new decorating job to reflect the focal point of your room or whether you prefer it to be a background that brightens up your walls but allows your focus to be caught by pictures and furnishing. It is not always necessary to stick with pastel colors when painting small spaces: you can use a blue with a bold hue or a yellow that is deep and rich. Either of these colors will reflect light and make your room appear larger. Whatever you do, avoid reds and rich purples as these two colors will absorb light rather than reflect it back and your room will feel quite claustrophobic. Another guaranteed way to make your room feel closed in is to paint your ceiling in a dark color: either leave it white, or paint it a paler shade of the color you use for your walls. The best way of all to make your room look larger is to make the most of natural light.
When painting small spaces it is always as well to remember the association color can have with mood. I am sure you wouldn't want to walk into a room that exudes a cold and depressing ambience, so be careful of the colors and shades you use. Could you be happy living with passionate red - or even the hint of aggression some shades of red give off? Some colors enhance productivity and others a sense of lethargy. Blue, meanwhile, gives off the sense of strength and trust. To clarify and focus your brain you couldn't choose a better color than light blue or mint green. Despite the connotations attached to the color red you could use one wall as a focal point and paint that one wall crimson as an accent for the rest of your room.
If your room is too narrow you can always paint one of the walls dark, leaving the remaining walls light enough to reflect the natural light entering. This will give the impression of a wider space by causing an optical illusion that can change the room's proportions. You can change the proportions in other ways too: paint a ceiling in a dark color to lower its height or in a lighter color to make it appear higher. Painting small spaces needn't be all about optical illusions. I live in a cottage and my own rooms are absolutely Lilliputian in size - all of them. If you have an eye for detail and a flare for color shades you can really make the most of one or two colors right through the whole house.
Just as important when you are painting small spaces is to make use of texture and also take into account whether the room you are decorating gets daily sun shining through the windows or not. A bathroom which has little natural light would look much better painted in one of those paints with a shiny finish rather than a mat. When painting small spaces always remember the end result needs to be a room that you want to go into and spend time in: bear in mind, when you are painting that some effects would perhaps look better if used elsewhere - you can't make a room into what it's not, no matter how much you paint it or alter its color scheme.
When painting small spaces it is always as well to remember the association color can have with mood. I am sure you wouldn't want to walk into a room that exudes a cold and depressing ambience, so be careful of the colors and shades you use. Could you be happy living with passionate red - or even the hint of aggression some shades of red give off? Some colors enhance productivity and others a sense of lethargy. Blue, meanwhile, gives off the sense of strength and trust. To clarify and focus your brain you couldn't choose a better color than light blue or mint green. Despite the connotations attached to the color red you could use one wall as a focal point and paint that one wall crimson as an accent for the rest of your room.
If your room is too narrow you can always paint one of the walls dark, leaving the remaining walls light enough to reflect the natural light entering. This will give the impression of a wider space by causing an optical illusion that can change the room's proportions. You can change the proportions in other ways too: paint a ceiling in a dark color to lower its height or in a lighter color to make it appear higher. Painting small spaces needn't be all about optical illusions. I live in a cottage and my own rooms are absolutely Lilliputian in size - all of them. If you have an eye for detail and a flare for color shades you can really make the most of one or two colors right through the whole house.
Just as important when you are painting small spaces is to make use of texture and also take into account whether the room you are decorating gets daily sun shining through the windows or not. A bathroom which has little natural light would look much better painted in one of those paints with a shiny finish rather than a mat. When painting small spaces always remember the end result needs to be a room that you want to go into and spend time in: bear in mind, when you are painting that some effects would perhaps look better if used elsewhere - you can't make a room into what it's not, no matter how much you paint it or alter its color scheme.
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