Five Reasons You Should Colour Wash Your Rooms

Okay, so technically, you could accuse me of writing another post about Colour Drenching not long after the last one, and I did mention this in the Colour Drenching post, but I'm talking purely about paint on walls, trims and ceilings here, rather than what's in the room.

Everyone should at least consider painting their woodwork (doors, window and door trims, skirtings) and even cornicing and ceilings the same colour as their walls.

Try painting the skirting, doors, window and door frames, and even the ceiling the same colour as your walls for a dramatic, contemporary look.
Image: David Cleveland / The Guardian
Why, I hear you ask? What's wrong with my lovely fresh white trims? Well, I'm going to tell you...

1. Unless you live in a brand new, pristinely finished building, chances are the lines where walls meet ceiling, skirting and door and window frames are less than perfect. Trying to paint a straight line where there isn't one, is somewhat frustrating. When you're painting it all the same colour, this issue is eradicated. It feels totally liberating when you're slightly OCD about these things. It also cuts down on painting time because there is less faffing around with trying to get the perfect straight line.

Try painting the skirting, doors, window and door frames, and even the ceiling the same colour as your walls for a dramatic, contemporary look.
Image: Tempo da Delicadeza 
2. You don't need to buy one paint for your trim colour and a different one for your walls. So if you use the same finish on both, it could be argued that it's more economical. Of course if you want to use matt on the walls and eggshell on the woodwork, that argument falls down, but I've recently painted a room in eggshell all over to avoid the difference in finish. And I love it!

3. Contrary to popular belief, painting the ceiling the same colour as the walls doesn't make the ceiling feel lower. In fact, because you haven't got a massive expanse of white floating above your head and drawing your eye to it, it can actually make the ceiling less noticeable and therefore higher. Or INVISIBLE even!

Try painting the skirting, doors, window and door frames, and even the ceiling the same colour as your walls for a dramatic, contemporary look.
Image: Sarah Ruffin Costello
4. Once you start, suddenly white trims feel a bit twee, and dare I say, old fashioned. Painting everything (not the floor, although they have in the top image) the same colour, gives a room an uninterrupted dramatic look.

5. It looks COOL, CONTEMPORARY and GLAMOROUS. Now who doesn't want that?!

This revelation has now added hours of extra painting time to my DIY list, but it will be totally worth it. Eventually.

Have you already taken the plunge with your woodwork and/or ceilings? Or would you? It's not as scary as it sounds, and it's so transformative. As you can see above, it's still really effective just doing the trims and leaving the ceiling white if that's a bit too scary!