If you want a high-end design on a budget, try faux finishes on the walls. In addition to giving your home an updated look, faux finishes add color and depth to rooms. Although every faux finish project you tackle will be different, choosing the right colors should always be one of your first design choices. Regardless of the room you’re redecorating, your choice of colors will need to take into account a wide variety of criteria.
For example, are you looking for a bold primary color modern statement or a muddy dark earth color Victorian look and feel? Are you trying to blend the wall with your existing decor or are you looking to create an accent wall that brings its own texture and drama to the room? Are you trying to hide the flaws in a room or is your ultimate goal to make the wall work within the existing strengths of the room? Will you try to make the room seem bigger or smaller? All of these questions will need to be addressed before you even begin your faux finish project. In fact, choosing colors is really the first step in the process.
I know it may sound intimidating, but it’s not something you can’t successfully tackle with a little thought and a little research. One of the easiest ways to do this is to visit your local library and pick up some decorating magazines and books. Go through them and find rooms that have the kind of look you’re hoping to achieve, paying particular attention to color combinations that might work in your own room. You are trying to create a particular look or atmosphere, and color will be an important part of creating the effect you are going for. Does the room need a dynamic kinetic feel or do you want a relaxed and comfortable feel?
There are no hard and fast rules and your own color choices will ultimately depend on your unique and personal taste and style. You’ll also want to keep your existing furniture in mind when choosing the color, that is, unless you also plan on buying all new furniture to match your new color scheme. Is there a particular color in the window coverings or upholstery that you’d like to enhance? That might be a good place to start.
One of the basic things to understand is that darker colors will make a room appear smaller, while lighter pastel colors will reflect more light, giving the room a larger appearance. If you really have a desire to make a statement with a bold color in a smaller room, consider doing just one accent wall, intended to serve as a piece of art once you’ve done your faux finish job. That way you can leave the rest of the walls a lighter color to give the room a larger feel and add some drama. However, a darker faux finish over a lighter color could have the opposite effect, but sometimes you need to paint an entire room to see this phenomenon. And a word of warning: if you only do one wall in a room as an accent, the room could feel unbalanced.
In a Habitat for Humanity project house featured in Flip That House, the office was painted a golden wheat color because the room felt like a cave. Homeowners were concerned when decorative painter Kari Barron wanted to add old-world color to the walls with a brown powder. After wetting the sponge and applying the mixture all over the walls and ceiling, the room seemed bigger! This happened because the walls gained the illusion of depth.
Above all, don’t be afraid to experiment. The worst that could happen is that you end up painting over your experiment. That should take some of the pressure off you if you’re having trouble making up your mind.