Once upon a time, decorating meant agonising for weeks over paint charts and making numerous pilgrimages to the DIY shop for tiny sample pots to test out colors at home. Then, after finally committing, there would be an unspoken agreement with the decorator, who would gain creative control of the ceilings and woodwork—and paint them bog-standard white.
But these components—the supporting cast of a room, if you will—are forgotten no more, thanks to the ascent of color drenching. This method involves painting the ceiling, skirting boards, doors and architraves in harmonising or contrasting tones—ergo, using anything but white. It’s an easy move which brings an immersive quality to rooms; a scroll of Pinterest and Instagram confirms that you can inject every and any surface with color.
Kensington Leverne
Naturally, interior designers have been way ahead of the curve. “I love the boldness and playful effect that color drenching can bring,” enthuses Rachel Chudley, who wrapped a bathroom using different textures in golden yellow in a project and likens the result to “being in a butter dish.” For Nicola Harding, who never falters when covering a ceiling in even the inkiest of blues, extending a color overhead is “a wonderful spell for solving low ceilings, disguising where the wall stops and the ceiling starts.” Dark colors lend themselves particularly well to smaller spaces: Lizzie Green used a soft brownish red in a TV snug for a cocooning atmosphere, and ensured the radiator was color-matched too.
