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What Color Makes a Small Room Look Bigger? · Repcolite Home Improvement Show

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Hey, everyone. Thanks for tuning in.
• 0:03
  Speaker 2: You're listening to Home in Progress by Repco Light Paints,
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: sponsored by Benjamin Moore. And this week is a huge
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: episode on color and how to choose the right colors
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: for spaces in your home and all of that stuff.
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: And I know that's ridiculously vague. We're going to get
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: into just a ton of different things. Do dark colors
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: bring the ceiling lower? Do dark colors maybe make the
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: ceiling seem higher? What about dark walls? You know, what's
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: the best option if you're painting a tiny room and
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  Speaker 2: you want it to feel a little more spacious or
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: at least less chopped up? You know, all of those
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: little questions, things we deal with on a regular basis.
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  Speaker 2: We're going to hit all of those questions and more
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  Speaker 2: coming up in a few minutes here. But right now
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  Speaker 2: I want to go back and start the show by
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: talking or, you know, tapping back into the furniture refinishing
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: series that I started last week. Now, last time I
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  Speaker 2: talked about how to look at an old dresser table, cabinet, whatever,
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: that you found at a thrift store or on Facebook
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: Marketplace and decide whether it's actually worth bringing home. That
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: was last week. Today, let's say you found one. You know,
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: you found something pretty spectacular. Now, before you start sanding it,
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: stripping it, or really doing pretty much anything to it,
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: there's one question, one thing you should do, one question
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  Speaker 2: you should answer first. Is there lead in the finish?
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  Speaker 2: And if you're working on an older painted piece, the
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  Speaker 2: answer is possibly. In fact, the older the piece is
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: and the more layers of paint it has, the greater
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  Speaker 2: the chance that lead-based paint is buried in there somewhere.
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: And you need to know that.
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: You need to know if it's there so you can
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  Speaker 2: work accordingly or decide that the project isn't something you
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: want to take on. You know, lead paint is especially
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  Speaker 2: concerning during refinishing projects.
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  Speaker 1: Because you're disturbing it.
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  Speaker 2: You know, if you've got an old lead-based coating and
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  Speaker 2: it's intact on a dresser, let's say, and it's covered
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  Speaker 2: by newer paint, maybe a couple layers of newer paint,
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  Speaker 2: and you're leaving it alone, maybe you're just putting another
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: layer of paint over top of it, the exposure risk
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  Speaker 2: in that scenario is pretty low. But if you're going
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  Speaker 2: to start scraping it or sanding it or grinding it
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  Speaker 2: or breaking that coating into chips and dust and all
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: of that, you do that, you're creating airborne material that
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  Speaker 2: can be inhaled or spread around your home. And that's
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: when it gets to be more concerning. So before you
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  Speaker 2: do any of that, you want to make sure that
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  Speaker 2: you test the coatings on the piece that you just bought.
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  Speaker 2: Lead test kits, they're inexpensive, super inexpensive, readily available online.
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  Speaker 2: They're generally simple screening tests. You expose the coating, follow
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  Speaker 2: the directions, and then look for the indicated color change.
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  Speaker 2: Just watch a video. You'll pick it up in about
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  Speaker 2: four seconds. It's that simple. And just make sure that
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  Speaker 2: you're not testing just the paint that's on the surface
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  Speaker 2: right now. You know, that old dresser might have been
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  Speaker 2: painted white five years ago with perfectly modern latex paint.
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  Speaker 2: But underneath that could be another coat from the 70s.
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  Speaker 2: And underneath that, something much older. And if you're going
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  Speaker 2: to be sanding through all those layers, you need to
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  Speaker 2: know what you're getting into. And one more thing worth knowing.
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  Speaker 2: When we talk about lead on old furniture, paint is
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  Speaker 2: where most of the concern goes.
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  Speaker 1: And rightly so.
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  Speaker 2: But lead compounds were also sometimes used as drying agents
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  Speaker 2: in older oil-based varnishes and related finishes. So if you're
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  Speaker 2: working on something genuinely old, don't automatically assume that a
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  Speaker 2: clear finish means there's nothing to think about. Test that
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  Speaker 2: as well before you start, you know, sanding, scraping, doing
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: all of that. And if you do get a positive result,
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  Speaker 2: that's where you probably want to stop treating it like
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  Speaker 2: an ordinary refinishing project, you know. Don't just start sanding
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  Speaker 2: and toss on a dust mask, you know, figuring you're
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  Speaker 2: going to be.
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  Speaker 1: Okay that way.
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  Speaker 2: There are specific lead-safe work practices for dealing with those coatings,
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  Speaker 2: and the EPA has homeowner guidance online that walks you
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  Speaker 2: through them. You know, you can still do the work
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  Speaker 2: at home if you choose, but you're going to want
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  Speaker 2: to understand the best practices for protecting yourself and your family.
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  Speaker 2: So go online and find that. Today's not really about
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: going through all of that on air. I just want
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  Speaker 2: you to know enough to test first. Do a little research.
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  Speaker 2: Know what you're dealing with before you start creating dust.
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  Speaker 1: All right.
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  Speaker 2: You've probably heard the design idea or the design concept before.
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  Speaker 2: Dark colors recede and light colors advance. We've said it
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  Speaker 2: on the show many, many times. But what does it
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  Speaker 2: actually mean? Does it mean that dark colors will make
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  Speaker 2: a room feel bigger, you know, because they're receding, they're
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  Speaker 2: moving away from us? Or is something else going on?
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  Speaker 2: We're going to answer that question and a ton more
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  Speaker 2: right after this. Home in Progress is brought to you
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  Speaker 2: by Repco Light Paints and Benjamin Moore. You know, people
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  Speaker 2: often think of paint as just another line item on
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  Speaker 2: the project supply list.
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  Speaker 1: But here's the thing.
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  Speaker 2: Everything you do, every hour of prep, every stroke of
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  Speaker 2: the brush, all comes down to the quality of the paint.
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  Speaker 1: The paint is the project. Make sure it's the best.
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  Speaker 1: And we're back.
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  Speaker 2: You're listening to Home in Progress by Repco Light Paints,
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  Speaker 2: sponsored by Benjamin Moore. And last week, we spent some
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: time talking about color capping, which if you missed it
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  Speaker 2: really quickly, it's basically the idea of using several related
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  Speaker 2: colors in one room and then changing them as you
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  Speaker 2: move upward. So basically picture one color on the walls,
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  Speaker 2: another color on the crown molding, and another color on
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  Speaker 2: the ceiling, each one getting progressively darker as you move up.
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  Speaker 2: That's a cool idea, and we're starting to see a
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  Speaker 2: little bit more of it. But one of the things
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  Speaker 2: that I mentioned in that segment was that if you've
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  Speaker 2: got a small room, you know, with a lower ceiling,
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  Speaker 2: not a lot of natural light, I said, if you've
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  Speaker 2: got that situation, I'd probably give some thought to it
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  Speaker 2: before automatically putting your darkest color on the ceiling.
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  Speaker 1: And it bugged me to say that.
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  Speaker 2: Even, you know, as I was doing it, as I
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  Speaker 2: was recording it, I kept debating if I would say that.
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  Speaker 1: And it bugged me because it's kind of.
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  Speaker 2: Going against Some stuff that we've said multiple, multiple times
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  Speaker 2: on the show throughout the years. And basically what we've
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  Speaker 2: talked about is this design concept that dark colors recede
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  Speaker 2: and light colors advance. We've specifically brought it up. in
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  Speaker 2: terms of ceiling color, that dark colors recede. We've said it.
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  Speaker 2: Designers on the show have said it. Designers all over
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  Speaker 2: the internet will.
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  Speaker 1: Talk about it.
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  Speaker 2: They'll say that if you sometimes want to make a
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  Speaker 2: room feel more expansive and make the ceiling feel further away,
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  Speaker 2: a dark color goes up there, and that will make
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  Speaker 2: that ceiling recede and feel further away. And I know
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  Speaker 2: that we've said that. Like I said, I know designers
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  Speaker 2: have said that. But when I was working on the
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  Speaker 2: segment for color capping... I just couldn't get it out
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  Speaker 2: of my head that I've really not experienced that myself.
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  Speaker 1: Not consistently.
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  Speaker 2: You know, I've been in plenty of rooms, little smaller
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  Speaker 2: rooms with dark colors on the ceilings, dark colors on
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  Speaker 2: the walls, where that room feels really small. You know,
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  Speaker 2: the idea that dark colors recede would make me think
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  Speaker 2: it's going to feel bigger, more expansive. But in reality,
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  Speaker 2: I've been in a lot of places where that didn't
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  Speaker 2: play out. And so because of that experience, I kind
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  Speaker 2: of left my warning in there about, you know, just
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  Speaker 2: thinking it through before you put that darker color on
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  Speaker 2: a smaller room ceiling. But as I thought about it
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  Speaker 2: even further, I realized there are plenty of rooms that
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  Speaker 2: I've been in where they've had a darker color on
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  Speaker 2: the ceiling. And it has made the ceiling feel like
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  Speaker 2: it's further away. It feels like the walls are a
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  Speaker 2: little further away when they're dark. What in the world
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  Speaker 2: is going on with all of that? You know, it
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  Speaker 2: bugged me all week, so much so that I decided
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  Speaker 2: I'm going to dig into it for this week's show.
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  Speaker 2: You know, the thing that I'm getting at is if
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  Speaker 2: there is a design rule and there is a design
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  Speaker 2: rule that people talk about all the time, dark colors recede.
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  Speaker 2: If that's the case, if that's a rule that dark
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  Speaker 2: colors recede. Why don't they always seem to recede? Why
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  Speaker 2: does it seem to be such a hit or miss
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  Speaker 2: kind of a thing? We got to be missing something.
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  Speaker 2: At least Dan is missing something. So that's what I
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  Speaker 2: dug into. And when I started digging into it, one
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  Speaker 2: of the very first things that I learned is that
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  Speaker 2: the whole idea that light colors advance and dark colors recede,
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  Speaker 2: that didn't just come out of nowhere. You know, there's
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  Speaker 2: actually research in human perception that that supports that idea.
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  Speaker 2: You know, a lot of that earlier research work involved
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  Speaker 2: objects or shapes set against backgrounds. You know, basically lighter
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  Speaker 2: colored shapes or objects in front of a darker background,
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  Speaker 2: they tend to come visually forward while the darker material,
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  Speaker 2: the background, seems to fall further back. That's the idea,
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  Speaker 2: the observed phenomena. And somewhere along the way, that idea
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  Speaker 2: became a very simple decorating rule that light colors advance
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  Speaker 2: and dark colors recede. And it makes sense in a
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  Speaker 2: lot of situations. You know, we can imagine it very,
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  Speaker 2: very easily. You know, put a cream colored sofa against
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  Speaker 2: a deep navy wall, let's say. What happens when you
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  Speaker 2: do that? You know, just picture it.
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  Speaker 1: What happens?
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  Speaker 2: The sofa jumps out, right? Maybe there's some light artwork
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  Speaker 2: on the wall or a lamp or a couple of
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  Speaker 2: lighter pillows. Your eye is going to go to all
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  Speaker 2: of those things. And that navy wall, it's going to
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  Speaker 2: kind of become a background. So we say the navy recedes.
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  Speaker 2: And that's perfectly reasonable. But here's where this gets really interesting.
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  Speaker 2: A wall or a ceiling, it's not just another object
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  Speaker 2: sitting against a background. We might be thinking about this.
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  Speaker 1: In the wrong way.
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  Speaker 2: A wall or a ceiling is one of the surfaces
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  Speaker 2: that actually defines the size of the room. Not the
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  Speaker 2: same as an object sitting against a background. And eventually,
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  Speaker 2: researchers started honing in on that, and they started studying
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  Speaker 2: that specifically. In 2010, for example, researchers published a study
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  Speaker 2: looking at how the lightness of walls and ceilings affected
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  Speaker 2: how a room appeared, you know, size-wise.
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  Speaker 1: What they did was they created virtual.
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  Speaker 2: Rooms where the physical dimensions stayed exactly the same, but
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  Speaker 2: they could manipulate how light or dark the different surfaces
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  Speaker 2: appeared to be. And generally, when they did that, lighter
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  Speaker 2: ceilings to all the test subjects, lighter ceilings appeared higher.
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  Speaker 2: than darker ceilings. So that's the research that comes out
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  Speaker 2: of 2010. They continued the research, and in 2018, researchers
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  Speaker 2: started looking more broadly at the surfaces, all of the
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  Speaker 2: surfaces defining the room, you know, not just the ceiling,
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  Speaker 2: but the sidewalls, the wall at the far end, you know,
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  Speaker 2: and of course, they kept going with the ceilings. And
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  Speaker 2: what they found was really pretty interesting and right in
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  Speaker 2: line with the earlier findings. They found that brighter side
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  Speaker 2: walls tended to make the room feel, to the test subjects, wider.
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  Speaker 1: You know, it was pretty conclusive.
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  Speaker 2: They felt, you know, the people in the experiment felt
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  Speaker 2: like the rooms were wider. They explained, you know, they
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  Speaker 2: would give an idea, an estimate of how wide a
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  Speaker 2: room was. And when the walls were light, they always
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  Speaker 2: guessed that it was a little bit bigger and than
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  Speaker 2: when they put a darker color on those walls. That
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  Speaker 2: always shrunk it down a little bit.
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  Speaker 1: Brighter wall at the far end, same kind of thing.
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  Speaker 2: It tended to make the room appear deeper to the
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  Speaker 2: test subjects than a darker.
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  Speaker 1: Wall at the far end.
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  Speaker 2: So now when we've got all of that data, we're
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  Speaker 2: sitting here with kind of a contradiction. We've got the
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  Speaker 2: traditional design rule that says dark recedes. But when researchers
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  Speaker 2: specifically measured where people thought the actual boundaries of a
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  Speaker 2: room were, brighter surfaces tended to appear further away.
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  Speaker 1: So what's going on with all of that?
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  Speaker 2: Well, I think I've got an answer to all of this.
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  Speaker 2: And the first thing I think we need to do
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  Speaker 2: is clear up the word recede. You know, go back
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  Speaker 2: to that Navy wall behind the cream sofa, that example.
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  Speaker 2: Your eye goes to the sofa. It goes to the artwork.
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  Speaker 2: It goes to the lamp. And that Navy wall sort
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  Speaker 2: of settles into the background. And so we say it recedes.
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  Speaker 2: But that doesn't necessarily mean that your brain thinks the
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  Speaker 2: wall itself is further away. Okay, just saying it recedes
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  Speaker 2: doesn't mean that our brain thinks the wall is further away.
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  Speaker 1: This is a little.
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  Speaker 2: Complicated, but it does make sense when you think it through.
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  Speaker 2: It may simply mean that the wall is no longer
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  Speaker 2: the thing that's getting your attention. You know, the sofa
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  Speaker 2: is the star. The artwork is the star. The navy
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  Speaker 2: becomes the background. You know, it's not necessarily further away.
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  Speaker 2: It's just not prominent anymore. And that's a really, you know,
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  Speaker 2: a very real effect, but it's different because from actually
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  Speaker 2: making the room look deeper or bigger. That's the first
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  Speaker 2: thing I'd say in all of this. When designers, when
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  Speaker 2: people say dark colors recede, sometimes what they mean is
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  Speaker 2: the dark color takes a backseat, not that the wall
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  Speaker 2: now looks five feet further away. And once we accept
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  Speaker 2: that concept, a lot of what we experience regarding dark
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  Speaker 2: colors in rooms can start to make more sense. With
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  Speaker 2: that understanding of the concept of recede and what we
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: mean by recede, we can see how that Navy wall
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  Speaker 2: can absolutely become a background, you know, behind a light sofa. Well,
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  Speaker 2: at the same time, a lighter wall color behind that
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  Speaker 2: sofa might make the actual room appear a little deeper,
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  Speaker 2: a little bigger than that darker color.
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  Speaker 1: Okay.
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  Speaker 2: So I think that makes sense, but it doesn't even
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  Speaker 2: matter because there's another complication. A dark wall doesn't automatically
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  Speaker 2: become the background either.
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  Speaker 1: Just change the room.
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  Speaker 2: For example, take away the cream sofa. Take away the
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  Speaker 2: light artwork, the lamp, all the different things we talked about.
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  Speaker 2: Just leave that navy as one accent wall at the
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  Speaker 2: end of an.
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  Speaker 1: Otherwise really light room. You know, light walls on both sides,
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  Speaker 1: white ceiling, white trim.
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  Speaker 2: And sitting right in the middle of all of that
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  Speaker 2: is this huge dark navy rectangle. Well, if that's the
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  Speaker 2: room that you're looking at, does that dark color recede?
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  Speaker 1: At that point?
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  Speaker 2: Well, I would say probably not. Your eye is going
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  Speaker 2: to actually be drawn to that color. You know, it's
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  Speaker 2: the same blue as in the other room that we described,
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  Speaker 2: but now it's kind of the star of the show
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  Speaker 2: rather than just a background or supporting actor. So what
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  Speaker 2: in the world is going on with this? And trust me,
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  Speaker 2: I'm going somewhere practical with this. It's going to make sense,
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  Speaker 2: and I've got a point or a reason for talking
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  Speaker 2: about it, but we do have to call out all
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  Speaker 2: these little inconsistencies first so we can get at what's
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: really happening. Anyway, How can a dark color in a room,
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  Speaker 2: you know, in one room, fade into obscurity, and then
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  Speaker 2: in a different room, that same color stands out as
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: the first thing that we notice? Well, that happens because
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: of another key idea to keep in mind whenever you're
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  Speaker 2: choosing colors, contrast. Whatever stands out from the surroundings is
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: going to be the thing that gets our attention. In
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  Speaker 2: the first room, the lighter furniture and the artwork stood
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  Speaker 2: out against that navy wall, so they got our attention.
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  Speaker 2: And the navy kind of just became the background.
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  Speaker 1: It receded.
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  Speaker 2: In this room, the second room that we described, the
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  Speaker 2: navy stands out pretty much against everything around it. So
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  Speaker 2: now the navy gets our attention. It's the same color,
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  Speaker 2: different result. Because whether a color becomes the background or
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: the focal point really depends a lot on what you
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: put next to it and what else in the room
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  Speaker 2: is competing for your attention. So contrast. That's one thing
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  Speaker 2: to keep in mind. Another factor to keep in mind
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  Speaker 2: that can completely change the relationship you know, with these
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: colors and all of that, is the lighting. You know,
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: lighting can make or break this effect. Go back to
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  Speaker 2: that navy wall. It's just the example that I want
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  Speaker 2: to keep going back to. If you've got a lot
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  Speaker 2: of light hitting that wall, you know, you can clearly
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  Speaker 2: see the surface. You see the texture of the wall.
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  Speaker 2: Just imagine that. You know, the light is on the wall.
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  Speaker 2: You see the roller texture a little bit. You see
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  Speaker 2: the corner really clearly. You know, if there's some sheen
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  Speaker 2: on the wall, you may see light reflecting across the
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  Speaker 2: surface a little bit or back at you. You know,
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  Speaker 2: the wall is dark. But it's not exactly disappearing at
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  Speaker 2: that point. You know, it's still giving your eye all
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  Speaker 2: kinds of little reminders that the surface is right there.
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  Speaker 2: Now imagine that same wall in a flatter finish, you know,
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  Speaker 2: with the room lighting positioned so that most of the
• 15:35
  Speaker 2: illumination is happening out in front of the wall. You know,
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  Speaker 2: the furniture's lit, the artwork's lit, the people are lit,
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  Speaker 2: but the dark wall itself sits further back in softer light.
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  Speaker 2: In that situation, the wall may become much less visually distinct.
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  Speaker 2: And that can produce that experience we've been talking about,
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  Speaker 2: where a dark wall seems to fall away behind everything else.
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: Same thing with a ceiling, you know, a dark ceiling.
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  Speaker 2: If the lights are right there shining on it and
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: you see the roller marks and just the roller texture
• 16:04
  Speaker 2: or a finish from the paint or something like that,
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: or just you see the ceiling more clearly, the illusion's broken.
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: You know, it's a dark color, but it's close. You
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: know that.
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: If the lights hang a little bit lower and it
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: just gives that softer light on that ceiling, it can
• 16:19
  Speaker 2: tend to feel a little more cavernous a little further away.
• 16:23
  Speaker 2: So lighting that leaves a dark surface in relative shadow
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: can have a huge effect on whether it visually recedes
• 16:28
  Speaker 2: into the background or not. But conversely, lighting research also
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: shows that brightly illuminated light walls generally increase the overall
• 16:37
  Speaker 2: sense of spaciousness of a room. So if you want
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: the room to feel bigger, brightly light those lighter colored walls. Remember,
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: receding is not the same as feeling more open, more spacious.
• 16:50
  Speaker 2: There's a lot going on here. And I really think
• 16:53
  Speaker 2: at the end of all of this, the biggest lesson
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: that we can take from all of this is that
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: the whole dark colors recede, light colors advance thing is
• 17:01
  Speaker 2: trying to do too much. You know, we're using a
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: single small rule to explain and predict something that an
• 17:06
  Speaker 2: entire room plays a role in creating. You know, color matters.
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: Contrast matters. As we just mentioned, lighting matters. But beyond
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: those things, I didn't even get to it, but furniture matters.
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: The ceiling height matters. The windows matter. The sight line
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: into the next room, you know, that matters. Even the
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: clutter in the room, all of those things matter, which
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: is exactly why the lab studies that I referenced earlier
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: are so useful. You know, researchers, they strip out all
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: of those things, all of the variables away, and then
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: they ask one narrow question. If we can change only
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: the lightness of a space, of a surface, what happens?
• 17:41
  Speaker 2: And on that question, The results have been pretty consistent.
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: Lighter ceilings tend to look higher. Lighter side walls tend
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: to make a room look wider. Lighter back walls tend
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: to look further away. So if your goal is a
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: room that feels as large and airy as possible, lighter
• 17:56
  Speaker 2: is still the safer bet. But it doesn't mean that
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: dark rooms can't feel spacious. They absolutely can. It just
• 18:02
  Speaker 2: means that when those rooms feel spacious, the paint isn't
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: the only thing doing the work. You know, everything around
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: it is working towards that same goal. So, Rather than ask,
• 18:13
  Speaker 2: you know, do dark colors make a room bigger or smaller?
• 18:16
  Speaker 2: Maybe the better question is to ask, what do I
• 18:18
  Speaker 2: want color to do in this room? And don't forget
• 18:21
  Speaker 2: the other questions to ask. What am I working with,
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: you know, in the room? What's the situation of the space?
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: How does it lay out? What's the natural lighting look like?
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: You know, what can I do with contrast to help
• 18:31
  Speaker 2: me get where I want to go? Asking all of
• 18:33
  Speaker 2: those things is a little more involved than just parroting,
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: you know, the dark colors recede, light colors advance mantra.
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: But I think it's going to get you to more consistent,
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: happier results.
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: All right.
• 18:44
  Speaker 2: Now what I'd like to do is to put some
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: of that into practice and demonstrate how to use those
• 18:48
  Speaker 2: ideas to land on the right tones for your space.
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: So we're going to take.
• 18:52
  Speaker 2: Some common rooms and we'll talk about some specific goals
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: that you might have for them. And then we'll dial
• 18:58
  Speaker 2: into which color choices are most likely to get you there.
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: And we'll do all of that right after this.
• 19:05
  Speaker 2: Home in Progress is brought to you by Repco Light
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: Paints and Benjamin Moore.
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: Think about it.
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: You spend hours prepping, sanding, taping, and then finally painting.
• 19:13
  Speaker 2: Don't throw all that work away with an inferior product.
• 19:16
  Speaker 2: The paint isn't just another supply. The paint is the project.
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: Make sure it's the best. And we're back. You're listening
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: to Home in Progress by Repco Light Paints, sponsored by
• 19:26
  Speaker 2: Benjamin Moore.
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: And before the break... We.
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: Spent a ton of time digging into this old design
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: rule that dark colors recede and light colors advance. It's
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: a phrase that we hear quite a bit. We read
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: about it online quite a bit. It's a phrase that
• 19:40
  Speaker 2: we've used here on the show quite a bit. And
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: most of the time when we run into it, when
• 19:46
  Speaker 2: we're using it, whatever, we're using it to say how
• 19:49
  Speaker 2: maybe a dark ceiling or a dark wall, rather than
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: enclosing a room like we might expect, it will actually
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: recede and potentially make the room feel a little bit bigger.
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: That's kind of the implication. That's at least the way
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: I've used it in the past on the show. Well,
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: the thing is, I've always struggled with that a little bit.
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: It always feels like there's just something missing. You know,
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: I understand the whole science of it, that dark colors
• 20:16
  Speaker 2: fade to the... I get all of that. But I've
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: been in rooms that are dark rooms that don't feel...
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: big and expansive or bigger and expansive than the same
• 20:26
  Speaker 2: room painted with lighter colors. It just doesn't seem to
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: always play out in the real world. You know, sometimes
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: it works just fine. Sometimes it doesn't seem to work.
• 20:36
  Speaker 2: And that's always bugged me a little bit. So I
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: dug into it this past week and I talked about
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: everything that I learned last segment.
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: And the bottom line is this.
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: It's not as simple as just saying dark colors recede
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: and light colors advance. That rule is is just too simple.
• 20:52
  Speaker 2: You know, there's more going on than just that. And
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: that's why there seems to be inconsistencies in applying it
• 20:58
  Speaker 2: in the real world. And we spent last segment talking
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: about a lot of those different things that are also
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: going on.
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: You know, contrast matters. So does lighting. Ultimately, the whole
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: room matters.
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: You know, the furniture you have, the scale of it,
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: how much of the furniture you've got, even the clutter
• 21:14
  Speaker 2: that's going on in that space. All of those things
• 21:17
  Speaker 2: work together to Or they work against each other in
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: little bits. And that's what determines how we perceive a
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: color and its effects in a space. And that really
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: was the point of last segment. We spent a ton
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: of time sorting through the theory. Now let's make it
• 21:31
  Speaker 2: useful or practical. Because when you're actually standing in a
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: room trying to choose a color, you're probably not asking,
• 21:37
  Speaker 2: do dark colors technically recede?
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: What did that guy on the radio say? Can't remember.
• 21:42
  Speaker 2: You're asking, how do I make this low ceiling feel
• 21:44
  Speaker 2: a little bit higher? Or how do I make this
• 21:46
  Speaker 2: big room feel a little more comfortable? Maybe you're asking,
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: how do I use color to draw attention to the
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: ceiling or some other architectural feature? Those are much more
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: useful questions. So let's take some common situations one at
• 21:57
  Speaker 2: a time and apply what we talked about in the
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: last segment. Basically, what I'm going to do is, you know,
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: instead of starting with a rule, we're going to start
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: with the room and we're going to ask, what do
• 22:07
  Speaker 2: I want color to do here? And what am I
• 22:10
  Speaker 2: working with that's going to help me or that I've
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: got to overcome to get where I want to go?
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: OK, that's the plan.
• 22:16
  Speaker 2: First situation that I want to talk about. First situation.
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: I kind of slurred that, but I'm going to keep
• 22:22
  Speaker 2: it because I'm going to just keep moving.
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: First situation.
• 22:25
  Speaker 2: Maybe you want a low ceiling to look higher.
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: All right.
• 22:29
  Speaker 2: This one's probably the cleanest, probably the clearest, probably the easiest.
• 22:32
  Speaker 2: If you've got an eight foot ceiling, maybe even a
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: lower ceiling and your biggest concern. is making the room
• 22:38
  Speaker 2: feel as tall and open as possible. Generally speaking, I'd
• 22:41
  Speaker 2: stay relatively light overhead. You know, that's where the research
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: we talked about last segment is strongest. Lighter ceilings tend
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: to appear higher than darker ceilings. And lighter walls help too.
• 22:52
  Speaker 2: That was another finding in the research. I don't think
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: I talked about that, or at least I didn't go
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: into it very, very deeply last segment. But lighter walls
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: paired with a lighter ceiling... generally gave the impression of
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: more height in a space. So if maximum apparent height
• 23:07
  Speaker 2: is your goal in a given space, a light wall
• 23:09
  Speaker 2: color and a very light ceiling are probably your strongest combinations.
• 23:13
  Speaker 2: You can bring color onto the ceiling. You don't have
• 23:16
  Speaker 2: to go with just a stark white, but definitely lean
• 23:19
  Speaker 2: toward the lighter tones here. And I'd be cautious about
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: allowing that ceiling color to be perceptibly darker than your
• 23:25
  Speaker 2: wall color. That's going to work against you. So keep
• 23:28
  Speaker 2: it lighter than the wall color. For example, Maybe you've
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: got green walls and you go to a soft pale
• 23:33
  Speaker 2: green on the ceiling, something like that. You're still giving
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: the ceiling color, but you're keeping the ceiling itself relatively light,
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: and that's the important part.
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: That's what's gonna help.
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: You give the illusion of a little more height. All right,
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: second situation I wanna talk about. Let's say you've got
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: a long, narrow room and you wanna change the proportions. Now,
• 23:52
  Speaker 2: this one gets a little more interesting than the first one.
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: Maybe you've got a hallway.
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: Maybe it's a long, narrow living room, and every time
• 23:59
  Speaker 2: you walk into it, It just feels like a tunnel,
• 24:02
  Speaker 2: like you're a little train moving through a little tunnel. Well,
• 24:05
  Speaker 2: if that's what you're dealing with, the research that we
• 24:07
  Speaker 2: talked about earlier, last segment actually gives some really specific
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: guidance here. If the room feels too narrow, keep those
• 24:15
  Speaker 2: two long sidewalls relatively light in the research that we
• 24:19
  Speaker 2: talked about last segment, lighter sidewalls tend to do appear
• 24:22
  Speaker 2: further apart. So that's working in your favor. If you're
• 24:25
  Speaker 2: trying to create more apparent width and there's a lighting
• 24:28
  Speaker 2: benefit as well, lighter colors, reflect more of the available
• 24:31
  Speaker 2: light back into the space, which can help reduce some
• 24:34
  Speaker 2: of those darker edges and shadows that can make a
• 24:36
  Speaker 2: space feel even more tunnel-like. Now, what about the wall
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: at the far end? If you want that hallway or
• 24:42
  Speaker 2: the room to feel longer or deeper, keep that wall, again,
• 24:45
  Speaker 2: that far wall, relatively light. Researchers found that a lighter
• 24:49
  Speaker 2: rear wall tended to appear further away. Now, if the
• 24:52
  Speaker 2: room already feels too long and you actually want to
• 24:55
  Speaker 2: visually shorten it, then you flip things around. A deeper
• 24:57
  Speaker 2: color on that far wall can make that boundary feel
• 25:00
  Speaker 2: more present and a little closer. Now, I know this
• 25:04
  Speaker 2: is maybe the opposite of what many of you have
• 25:06
  Speaker 2: run into on design blogs and so on. And I'm
• 25:10
  Speaker 2: going out on a limb here. We hear a lot
• 25:13
  Speaker 2: of design advice saying that a dark accent wall at
• 25:15
  Speaker 2: the far end of a space makes a room look deeper.
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: But when the.
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: Researchers specifically measured perceived depth, that's not what happened. That's
• 25:23
  Speaker 2: not what they found. The lighter rear wall always appeared
• 25:27
  Speaker 2: further away. The darker rear wall always appeared closer. Now, remember,
• 25:31
  Speaker 2: everything we talked about in the last segment, I'm isolating
• 25:35
  Speaker 2: right now the lightness or the darkness of a color.
• 25:37
  Speaker 2: That's all I'm really talking about and what that will do.
• 25:40
  Speaker 2: In the research, when they changed the lightness of that
• 25:42
  Speaker 2: far wall and held everything else steady, that lighter wall
• 25:45
  Speaker 2: tended to appear further away and the darker wall tended
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: to appear closer. We've covered that. But your hallway isn't
• 25:52
  Speaker 2: a controlled experiment. So lighting, contrast, furniture, openings, you know,
• 25:57
  Speaker 2: all of those things can change the final effect. A
• 25:59
  Speaker 2: dark wall that's brightly illuminated and clearly defined may feel very,
• 26:04
  Speaker 2: very present, you know, right in your face. That same
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: dark wall in a softer light where its edges and
• 26:10
  Speaker 2: surface aren't as obvious may seem to fall much more
• 26:14
  Speaker 2: into the background. So don't hear this exclusively as dark
• 26:18
  Speaker 2: walls equal a shorter room, period.
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: End of the story.
• 26:22
  Speaker 2: Here it has, generally speaking... lightness is going to push
• 26:25
  Speaker 2: perceived depth in one direction and darkness is going to
• 26:28
  Speaker 2: push it in the other. But then, of course, the
• 26:30
  Speaker 2: rest of the room has to have its say. So
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: just keep all of that in mind. I know it's
• 26:34
  Speaker 2: a little vague. I think what it really reinforces is
• 26:38
  Speaker 2: is sample your colors. I'm giving you kind of a
• 26:40
  Speaker 2: rule of thumb, but sample those colors to see what
• 26:43
  Speaker 2: your space is doing with them. Oh, and one other
• 26:46
  Speaker 2: thing that just crossed my mind that's connected to this idea.
• 26:49
  Speaker 2: If you've already painted, let's say, a wall, a dark
• 26:52
  Speaker 2: color at the end of a hallway, and you were
• 26:54
  Speaker 2: really hoping that it was going to make that back
• 26:56
  Speaker 2: wall feel further away, maybe it's a short hallway, you
• 26:59
  Speaker 2: were hoping it would increase the distance, but you're finding
• 27:02
  Speaker 2: it didn't. Well, before you completely change that color and
• 27:05
  Speaker 2: start over, see if there's something you could do with
• 27:08
  Speaker 2: lighting or a contrasting piece of furniture or art.
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: That would help that wall recede a bit. It could
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: be that the wall color will work for you.
• 27:17
  Speaker 2: You're just not using the best lighting or enough contrast
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: to push it in the right direction.
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: So think about that. Moving on.
• 27:24
  Speaker 2: A third situation. Let's say you've got a room that
• 27:27
  Speaker 2: doesn't get much natural light and you want it to
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: feel brighter. It's a really common situation. Maybe the room's
• 27:32
  Speaker 2: a north-facing room. Maybe the windows are small. Maybe it's
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: a hallway or a basement that just doesn't get much daylight.
• 27:39
  Speaker 2: If your goal is to make that room feel brighter
• 27:41
  Speaker 2: and more open, of course, stick with the lighter end
• 27:44
  Speaker 2: of the color range. Light paint, it's not going to
• 27:47
  Speaker 2: create light, but it can reflect more of the light
• 27:50
  Speaker 2: that you actually get, and it can help distribute it.
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: Around the room.
• 27:54
  Speaker 2: So lighter walls and a lighter ceiling, they're really working
• 27:57
  Speaker 2: with you here. And that doesn't mean necessarily grabbing the brightest,
• 28:01
  Speaker 2: darkest white that you can find.
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: Lighting changes color enormously.
• 28:06
  Speaker 2: A white that looks beautiful in a sunny room can
• 28:08
  Speaker 2: actually look kind of cold and dingy in a dim room.
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: So again, sample those colors. It's really, really important.
• 28:16
  Speaker 2: Benjamin Moore recommends warmer off-whites for the situation that we're describing.
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: Warmer off-whites like Swiss.
• 28:22
  Speaker 2: Coffee, Acadia white, those kinds of colors for spaces that
• 28:27
  Speaker 2: don't have a lot of natural light. You can also
• 28:29
  Speaker 2: use soft light colors instead of off-whites like I'm talking about.
• 28:34
  Speaker 2: But the important thing is that you're keeping enough lightness
• 28:37
  Speaker 2: with your color to make use of the illumination that
• 28:40
  Speaker 2: you do have in that space. Fourth situation. Oh, and
• 28:44
  Speaker 2: one other thing is all these colors that I'm mentioning,
• 28:47
  Speaker 2: I'll put them in the show notes. So if you
• 28:49
  Speaker 2: do want to go back and check out the colors
• 28:51
  Speaker 2: for specific situations, there's a lot of other colors you
• 28:53
  Speaker 2: could choose. I'm just dropping a few names here and there.
• 28:56
  Speaker 2: If you do want to hear or get those notes,
• 28:59
  Speaker 2: just go check the show notes.
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: They're all there.
• 29:01
  Speaker 2: All right, fourth situation. Let's say you want the walls
• 29:03
  Speaker 2: in your space to become the backdrop.
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: In the room.
• 29:07
  Speaker 2: We've talked about this one quite a bit in the
• 29:08
  Speaker 2: last segment, so you probably know the answer. Why don't
• 29:11
  Speaker 2: you take a few minutes, think it over, talk it over,
• 29:14
  Speaker 2: decide on how you'd achieve that in your space, and
• 29:17
  Speaker 2: we'll get to the answer right after this.
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: You're listening to Home in Progress.
• 29:23
  Speaker 2: Where the projects are real, the mistakes, they're educational, sometimes painful,
• 29:28
  Speaker 2: mostly educational, and the only thing more stubborn than that
• 29:32
  Speaker 2: old wallpaper on your bathroom wall is your determination to
• 29:36
  Speaker 2: get it fixed. Proudly sponsored by Repco Light Paints and
• 29:39
  Speaker 2: Benjamin Moore. Paint with a purpose, people who care, and
• 29:42
  Speaker 2: everything you need to get the job done right.
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: And we're back.
• 29:46
  Speaker 2: You're listening to Home in Progress by Repco Light Paints,
• 29:49
  Speaker 2: sponsored by Benjamin Moore. And we're talking about some specific
• 29:53
  Speaker 2: room situations. You know, certain goals you may want to
• 29:56
  Speaker 2: achieve in a given room. and some limitations that you
• 29:59
  Speaker 2: may be dealing with in that space. And I picked
• 30:01
  Speaker 2: some common situations, and we're kind of just working our
• 30:04
  Speaker 2: way through how to achieve the goals that you've got
• 30:07
  Speaker 2: by using the right colors. The fourth situation that I
• 30:11
  Speaker 2: want to talk about is this. Let's say you want
• 30:13
  Speaker 2: your walls in a given room to become the backdrop.
• 30:16
  Speaker 2: You know, maybe you've got beautiful furniture, beautiful artwork, a fireplace.
• 30:21
  Speaker 2: Maybe the room has architectural details that you want people
• 30:24
  Speaker 2: to notice. And you don't want the wall color really
• 30:27
  Speaker 2: competing with that. Well, if that's your situation, like we
• 30:30
  Speaker 2: talked about last segment, this is where deeper colors can
• 30:33
  Speaker 2: work incredibly well. So Hail Navy, Vintage Vogue, Soot, all
• 30:38
  Speaker 2: of those Benjamin Moore colors, those are colors that will
• 30:40
  Speaker 2: help create beautiful backgrounds behind lighter furniture, artwork, metals, fabrics,
• 30:45
  Speaker 2: you name it.
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: That will get you where you want to go.
• 30:49
  Speaker 2: But what if your furniture is dark, you know, or
• 30:52
  Speaker 2: the artwork is dark or all of that? If you've
• 30:54
  Speaker 2: got darker pieces, well, don't assume that a dark wall
• 30:58
  Speaker 2: is automatically going to become the background in those situations.
• 31:01
  Speaker 2: Now you need to think about other kinds of contrast.
• 31:04
  Speaker 2: What can you do to create that contrast? What other
• 31:07
  Speaker 2: colors can you bring in? What textures can you bring in?
• 31:09
  Speaker 2: What sheen can you bring in? What lighting can you
• 31:12
  Speaker 2: use to separate the things that you want people to
• 31:15
  Speaker 2: notice from the wall behind them? So what I'm getting
• 31:18
  Speaker 2: at is maybe the furniture... gets more light than the wall.
• 31:21
  Speaker 2: Maybe that will help create that contrast. Maybe the artwork
• 31:24
  Speaker 2: that you've got gets reframed. You put it in a
• 31:27
  Speaker 2: lighter material, a frame with a lighter material, a metallic,
• 31:31
  Speaker 2: a lighter wood. Maybe the wall behind the artwork or
• 31:35
  Speaker 2: the furniture isn't a true flat, and you could opt
• 31:38
  Speaker 2: for a different sheen that would allow it to kind
• 31:41
  Speaker 2: of fade away a little bit more.
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: Who knows?
• 31:44
  Speaker 2: Really, you're just trying to do anything to create some contrast,
• 31:47
  Speaker 2: So those elements that you've got stand out and then
• 31:50
  Speaker 2: that will let the wall recede into the background. You know,
• 31:53
  Speaker 2: if you want that wall to function as a backdrop,
• 31:55
  Speaker 2: you've got to make sure that the things you want
• 31:57
  Speaker 2: people to notice actually stand out from it.
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: So work on that.
• 32:01
  Speaker 2: If you've got darker pieces, it's going to take a
• 32:03
  Speaker 2: little bit of work to do that. But you can
• 32:05
  Speaker 2: get there. All right, fifth situation that I want to
• 32:07
  Speaker 2: talk about. Let's say you've got a room. It's a
• 32:09
  Speaker 2: small room and you want it to feel less boxed in. Now,
• 32:12
  Speaker 2: this one needs a little bit of time to work
• 32:14
  Speaker 2: through because there are really two possible goals here. You know,
• 32:18
  Speaker 2: when I say you've got a small room and you
• 32:19
  Speaker 2: want it to feel less boxed in, we all know
• 32:21
  Speaker 2: what that feels like. But actually, you know, there could
• 32:23
  Speaker 2: be two goals that you're trying to achieve here. If
• 32:27
  Speaker 2: you want the room to look as physically large and
• 32:30
  Speaker 2: wide and airy as possible, well, of course, then lighter
• 32:33
  Speaker 2: colors are going to be the safer direction. You know,
• 32:36
  Speaker 2: that's what all the research supports. But maybe that's not
• 32:39
  Speaker 2: what you're trying to do. Maybe it's a tiny powder
• 32:42
  Speaker 2: room and you know it's going to be tiny no
• 32:44
  Speaker 2: matter what.
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: And what you're really saying is.
• 32:47
  Speaker 2: I don't want to be so painfully aware of every
• 32:50
  Speaker 2: single wall and every piece of trim and every little
• 32:52
  Speaker 2: break in this room. It just feels so broken up.
• 32:55
  Speaker 2: I just can't handle that. You know, if that's what
• 32:58
  Speaker 2: you're dealing with, color drenching becomes a really interesting option here.
• 33:02
  Speaker 2: Paint the walls and the trim the same color. You know,
• 33:05
  Speaker 2: maybe the doors, too. Maybe even the ceiling, depending on
• 33:07
  Speaker 2: the room and the effect you're after. And if you
• 33:10
  Speaker 2: do that, what you're doing is reducing the contrast between
• 33:13
  Speaker 2: all of those different surfaces. So instead of seeing wall, baseboard, door, casing,
• 33:18
  Speaker 2: wall again, all of those things start to become one
• 33:21
  Speaker 2: more continuous composition. And here's an important thing to think
• 33:26
  Speaker 2: about when you're talking about color drenching or when I'm
• 33:28
  Speaker 2: talking about color drenching. The color doesn't have to be
• 33:30
  Speaker 2: dark to make this work. You could color drench that
• 33:33
  Speaker 2: little room in something like Palladian Blue, Benjamin Moore's HC-144.
• 33:36
  Speaker 2: It's a soft Kind of airy blue-green. It's got just
• 33:40
  Speaker 2: enough color to keep the room interesting without weighing it down.
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: That's Palladian Blue.
• 33:44
  Speaker 2: Or you could go to Healing Aloe, which is Benjamin
• 33:46
  Speaker 2: Moore's 1562. It's a very pale muted green. A little
• 33:52
  Speaker 2: bit of a soft gray quality to it. So you
• 33:54
  Speaker 2: could do that. You could go with a little bit
• 33:56
  Speaker 2: of a lighter tone. Or you could go deep with
• 33:58
  Speaker 2: something like Vintage Vogue and create something much more enveloping
• 34:02
  Speaker 2: and dramatic. So it's the same basic technique, color drenching,
• 34:06
  Speaker 2: completely different results. So when you say that the room's
• 34:09
  Speaker 2: boxed in, if you want to make it feel less
• 34:11
  Speaker 2: chopped up, think first and foremost about minimizing contrast. That's,
• 34:15
  Speaker 2: you know, primarily the color drenching and then just figure
• 34:17
  Speaker 2: out the depth of color you want to use for that.
• 34:20
  Speaker 2: If you want it to feel less chopped up and
• 34:23
  Speaker 2: as open and spacious as possible, then I'd stick with
• 34:25
  Speaker 2: the color drenching. You know, I'd still do that. Just
• 34:28
  Speaker 2: make sure you're picking lighter colors. All right, the sixth
• 34:31
  Speaker 2: situation I want to talk about. Let's say you want
• 34:33
  Speaker 2: to make the ceiling part of the design. You really
• 34:36
  Speaker 2: want that ceiling to stand out. You've got the opposite
• 34:39
  Speaker 2: problem from number one, let's say, the first one that
• 34:42
  Speaker 2: we talked about with the low ceiling. You've got plenty
• 34:44
  Speaker 2: of height up there. You've got 10 feet, 12 feet,
• 34:48
  Speaker 2: a huge vaulted ceiling. If I were in a room
• 34:51
  Speaker 2: like that, I would feel, oh man, feel completely lost
• 34:55
  Speaker 2: in a space like that.
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: It'd feel cavernous. Maybe you've got that.
• 34:59
  Speaker 2: Or maybe you've got a tray ceiling or great crown
• 35:02
  Speaker 2: molding or some other architectural feature overhead that you actually
• 35:05
  Speaker 2: want people to notice. You know, you really want to.
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: Draw attention to that.
• 35:09
  Speaker 2: If that's the situation you're dealing with, either one of
• 35:12
  Speaker 2: those things, any of those things, you can go deeper
• 35:14
  Speaker 2: with your color. So think Chelsea Gray, HC 168, or
• 35:18
  Speaker 2: Regent Green, or Hail Navy, you know, any of those.
• 35:22
  Speaker 2: If you've got a big space like that, a deeper
• 35:24
  Speaker 2: color on the ceiling can make all of that height
• 35:27
  Speaker 2: feel a little more intimate. And if you've got great
• 35:30
  Speaker 2: architecture overhead, the contrast between it and the ceiling can
• 35:34
  Speaker 2: really set it apart as a real feature. And the
• 35:37
  Speaker 2: opposite works too. You know, if you want color overhead,
• 35:40
  Speaker 2: but you don't want the ceiling to become a focal point, well,
• 35:43
  Speaker 2: just keep the relationship between the wall and the ceiling
• 35:45
  Speaker 2: more subtle. You know, maybe you've got a medium blue
• 35:48
  Speaker 2: on the walls and a softer, lighter blue overhead. Less contrast.
• 35:51
  Speaker 2: That's what you're shooting for. Less contrast is going to
• 35:54
  Speaker 2: draw less attention. All right, last situation. Let's get back
• 35:58
  Speaker 2: to color capping because that's what really started this whole
• 36:01
  Speaker 2: conversation in the first place. If you're color capping a space,
• 36:05
  Speaker 2: how dark should you go overhead? And there really isn't
• 36:08
  Speaker 2: one answer here. If you've got a large room, good
• 36:11
  Speaker 2: natural lighting, plenty of ceiling height, and you want drama,
• 36:14
  Speaker 2: that classic color capping progression deeper and deeper and deeper
• 36:18
  Speaker 2: as you move upward, that can really, really work well.
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: You've got room to.
• 36:22
  Speaker 2: Play with that and to make it work. But let's
• 36:24
  Speaker 2: say you've got an eight-foot ceiling in a small bedroom
• 36:27
  Speaker 2: with one little window, like I described last week. Again,
• 36:30
  Speaker 2: I'm going to fall in the caution range. I'd be
• 36:33
  Speaker 2: a little cautious about sticking with color capping in its
• 36:37
  Speaker 2: traditional format, or at least traditional.
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: It's only a couple of years old.
• 36:41
  Speaker 2: But in the way that we normally see it, just
• 36:43
  Speaker 2: progressively getting darker, probably lean a little bit away from that.
• 36:48
  Speaker 2: Maybe you don't want to make each step so dramatic
• 36:51
  Speaker 2: in the shift. Maybe you've got a richer color on
• 36:53
  Speaker 2: the walls and the crown, but keep the ceiling towards
• 36:56
  Speaker 2: the lighter end. You know, maybe you reverse the progression
• 36:58
  Speaker 2: a little bit. There's nothing really sacred or set in
• 37:01
  Speaker 2: stone about the darkest color having to end up overhead.
• 37:04
  Speaker 2: Color capping is just a design idea. It's not a law,
• 37:08
  Speaker 2: nothing like that. You do what you want.
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: It's America.
• 37:11
  Speaker 2: Anyway, I think the three biggest takeaways I got from
• 37:14
  Speaker 2: all of this, and I hope you get from all
• 37:15
  Speaker 2: of this from the last few segments anyway, are these three.
• 37:19
  Speaker 2: First off, don't just blindly accept a design concept as
• 37:22
  Speaker 2: a hard and fast rule. Dark colors recede sounds good,
• 37:26
  Speaker 2: and it's demonstrably true in certain aspects, but there are
• 37:29
  Speaker 2: other things going on, lighting, contrast, the room itself, that
• 37:33
  Speaker 2: determine how much those darker colors recede to the background.
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: Keep that in mind.
• 37:38
  Speaker 2: Second, even when dark colors do recede in our space,
• 37:41
  Speaker 2: that doesn't necessarily mean that they're going to look further away.
• 37:44
  Speaker 2: That may or may not be true depending on on
• 37:47
  Speaker 2: all the things that we just talked about, lighting, contrast,
• 37:49
  Speaker 2: and so on. However, research is pretty clear that lighter
• 37:53
  Speaker 2: colors do give the impression of wider, higher, more open spaces.
• 37:58
  Speaker 2: And even though you'll find a lot of blog posts
• 38:00
  Speaker 2: out there suggesting the opposite, in many situations, a lighter,
• 38:04
  Speaker 2: airier color is going to help you create the illusion
• 38:06
  Speaker 2: of height and space better than a dark color.
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: That's the second thing.
• 38:10
  Speaker 2: Third thing, when choosing your colors, don't immediately get hung
• 38:13
  Speaker 2: up on all the design rules out there. Don't start
• 38:16
  Speaker 2: with all of those. Instead, start with the room itself
• 38:19
  Speaker 2: and your goal for the room. That's going to help
• 38:21
  Speaker 2: you with all of the rules that you encounter. Start
• 38:25
  Speaker 2: with your room and what you want from it. Is
• 38:27
  Speaker 2: it too narrow? Is it too long? Is it too dark?
• 38:29
  Speaker 2: Is it too chopped up? Do you want the walls
• 38:32
  Speaker 2: to disappear behind the furnishings? Or do you want the
• 38:34
  Speaker 2: ceiling to become the star of the space? Once you
• 38:37
  Speaker 2: know the job that you're asking the color to do,
• 38:39
  Speaker 2: then all of the principles that we talked about, lightness, contrast, lighting,
• 38:44
  Speaker 2: those things, but all the other design rules as well,
• 38:47
  Speaker 2: all of them then become tools that you can use
• 38:50
  Speaker 2: instead of rules that you're just kind of blindly following.
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: All right. As always, remember that we've.
• 38:56
  Speaker 2: Got color experts on hand at every RepcoLite who can
• 38:58
  Speaker 2: help you sort through whatever you're working on.
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: And one last thing.
• 39:02
  Speaker 2: Because we've spent an awful lot of time talking about
• 39:04
  Speaker 2: putting color on ceilings. If that's what you're doing, take
• 39:07
  Speaker 2: a look at Benjamin Moore's Waterborne Ceiling Paint in the
• 39:09
  Speaker 2: Ultra Flat Finish. I mentioned it last week, but this
• 39:13
  Speaker 2: product is really built for exactly this scenario. Benjamin Moore
• 39:17
  Speaker 2: makes it available in all other colors, and it maintains
• 39:19
  Speaker 2: that flat finish, that ultra dead flat finish, even when
• 39:23
  Speaker 2: you start getting into stronger colors. And that's a big
• 39:25
  Speaker 2: deal overhead, because an ultra flat finish reduces glare, hides imperfections,
• 39:30
  Speaker 2: and helps minimize the.
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: Appearance of lap marks.
• 39:32
  Speaker 2: You know, ceilings, they're not always the easiest surface to
• 39:35
  Speaker 2: paint perfectly. So if you're going to go to all
• 39:37
  Speaker 2: the trouble of putting a great color overhead, give yourself
• 39:40
  Speaker 2: a product that's going to make a great looking finish
• 39:42
  Speaker 2: a whole lot easier to achieve. That's Benjamin Moore's Waterborne
• 39:45
  Speaker 2: Ceiling Paint Ultra Flat. All right, That's going to do
• 39:48
  Speaker 2: it for this episode. If you want to catch it again,
• 39:50
  Speaker 2: you can find it online at repcolite.com. Whatever you do today,
• 39:54
  Speaker 2: make sure paint's a part of it. Have a great weekend, everybody,
• 39:57
  Speaker 2: and I'll see you next week. For Home in Progress
• 39:59
  Speaker 2: by Repco Light Paints, I'm Dan Hanson. Thanks for listening.