How-To

-Ideas for Great Rooms, Sunset

Walls and ceiling account for most of your room's square footage, offering large, often blank canvases on which to make an artistic statement about how you live and how you perceive your space. Your wall and ceiling treatments can hide problems, enhance strong points, and pull together a design scheme better than any other element.

Assess your room's basics before making decisions on wall treatment. Start with the quality of light (both natural and artificial), the proportions of the room, and architectural features you may want to downplay or highlight. Soaring ceilings can be "lowered" by painting them a deep, warm color, low ceilings "raised" with a color much lighter than that on the walls. If a room is small and dark, light colors lend a spacious, airy quality. Or the same space can be enlivened with warm, rich colors and textures to give it a cozy feel.

Paint
Paint is what everybody thinks of first when considering the numerous options for wall treatments. Even with paint, your choices are myriad, from a neutral palette to quiet colors or strong ones. Many paint shops and home improvement centers now offer designer-chosen palettes that allow you to mix wall, ceiling, and trim colors from room to room with confidence. The hand-sponged and marbleized paint effects that were popular in recent decades have given way to quieter decorative applications, such as combing and color washing, that add depth and texture without calling undue attention to themselves. Some designer paints add fibers that transfer denim, suede, flannel, or other feel-good textures directly onto the wall.

Paint finish affects its color and determines its durability. Flat or matte paints absorb the most light, creating an opaque color, and are usually the best choice for ceilings or living areas. Semigloss and gloss finishes reflect a lot of light and can take vigorous scrubbing, making them ideal for trim as well as food preparation areas, but they do highlight any texture or imperfections in walls.

Water-based latex paint is today's preferred choice over alkyd (oil-based) paint. It is nearly odorless, dries in hours rather than days, and cleans up with soap and water. Alkyd paint has excellent durability but takes longer to dry, requires a paint-thinner cleanup, and may make you choose to vacate your house until the odor dissipates.