There are two types of people in this life: those who plan their next color scheme the minute the final coats of interior paint are drying and those who pass out at the thought of painting on their own. Well, I have a secret for you: half painted walls can be the happy medium for those of you in the latter crowd – and the result will be a living space that has all the benefits of a fresh new look, and added architectural interest.
Here are examples of how and why half painted walls can be a wonderful design solution for your interior spaces.
The literal half-painted wall. Meaning you measure how high you want the line, tape it off, and start painting above or below the tape line – is our first example. Like accent walls, this can be a good option for those of you who want to add a bright or bold color, but worry it will be too dramatic on an entire wall space. By painting the brighter color on the bottom, the boldness will be broken up further by furnishings, so the exposed areas become a nice pop of color. If your ceilings are low, painting the bottom half of the walls the color you want and leaving the top half white will make the room appear more spacious.
Half-painted walls also work if you want to provide a textured bottom to your wall, such as beautiful wood wainscoting, beadboard, or other wall applications; then you can paint the top half the color of your choice.
Precise sections of wall. You can also tailor specific sections of your wall for painting. For example, this living room in Amsterdam uses bright orange on the section of wall framing the grey couch. The grey and orange look great together. Cutting the orange section short of the door way keeps it a more distinct and intentional part of the design. What could have been garish becomes totally stylish when you know how to balance proportion and impact, and half painted walls can accomplish that.
Artistic interpretations of the half-painted wall. What is most appealing to me is some of the style-forward artistic ways that people are using color on their walls. Treating the wall as a blank art canvas, and using fun color combinations, unique application techniques and/or non-traditional boundaries (or lack thereof) is such a creative way to add color, texture, dimension and a whole lot of interest to your space. Look at these examples from decoesfera.com. The site is in Spanish, but you can easily cut-and-paste it into Google Translate to read the full blog. Here are some of my favorite examples:
- Purposely uneven. Forget about the tape. Just roll or brush your color of choice in the general dimension/shape you want and let the loose and feathered edges become their own design statement.
- Water color. Look how gorgeous it is when you make a section of your wall a watercolor canvas. It’s a wonderful and soft way to add color and becomes a modern work of art on its own.
- Get a little funky. Check this idea out: one color is applied (almost traditionally) in a section behind the bed. The other color was applied with a textured technique on the top third of the wall and moves to the adjacent wall. It looks fantastic and will definitely solicit appreciative comments from guests.