Paint & Perspective Using Colours of The Year
24th Jan 2024Posted by Alice Ewens on 24th Jan 2024
Paint yourself a new perspective with our handy guide on how strategic colour blocking and accent walls can dramatically change the look of your home without huge renovations and expenses! Featuring our curated colour palettes inspired by the various 2024 colours of the year. How will you paint yours?
New year, new home and all that. Or, is it more like new year, new mile-long DIY to-do list? January is all about out with the old and in with the new, so many of us are looking to revamp our homes. Are you wishing your ceilings were higher? Your living room longer? Your dining room wider? One of the easiest ways to do this is with a lick of strategically-placed paint! Watch your space magically shrink, grow or stretch depending on how and where you apply paint.
It's also the time when the various paint experts publish their 'colours of the year' so we thought we'd kill two birds with one stone and curate some 2024 trending paint palettes that you can use to change the perspectives and perceived space of your rooms.
Our customer @at_home_with_the_pells illustrates perfectly how a statement colour-blocked wall can add dimension to a long, narrow room. The black panelled wall in the otherwise light room also matches our black Marley bar stools beautifully!
How To Use Paint To Change A Room's Perspective
The graphic illustrates how easy it is to trick the mind's eye into seeing what we want it to!
Paint your ceiling a darker colour and have all walls a matching light colour to create the illusion of a lower ceiling. This is great for creating a cosy look without making the room feel cramped.
Leave all the walls light with a darker floor to make a room look much bigger!
One light accent wall amidst darker walls, floor and ceiling will lengthen and create a 'detached' window. This can work well on a smaller wall with no natural light - add a mirror to enhance this.
Two darker long walls and a light short wall + ceiling with bring the sides of the room in and narrow it. This works well for huge old rooms that feel a bit 'echoey' and cold. The opposite will widen a room, as per our customer example at the top of the blog.
Using a matching darker colour on all walls and ceiling will make a room look smaller and cosier.
A band of darker colour around the top of a room, above a picture rail for example, with a light ceiling will lower the ceiling but still keep a sense of width. And, the opposite - dark walls on the bottom half of the room will add height.
Our customer @home88_ pairs our Leonardo glass table and cream Nora dining chairs with their cream and sage-green dining space - another gorgeous example of colour blocking.
Don't be afraid to paint your ceilings and bring that down onto the walls for a chic yet cosy look.
Pantone 2024 Colour Of The Year
Pantone announced its 2024 colour of the year is shade 13-1023 - Peach Fuzz. It's a vibrant and fun colour that will bring light and warmth to your space. Described as "fresh" and "soft" whilst capturing the "desire for togetherness", the shade gives us sunset vibes. It can be a little difficult finding Pantone shades of paint in your average high street DIY shop that don't cost a fortune, so we thought we'd do the leg work for you and find the best match available at a reasonable price from B&Q.
Our Curated High Street Pantone-Inspired Paint Palette
In our opinion, the best high street match is "Calming Peach" by YesColours. We've curated an 8-piece palette of complementary colours built around Calming Peach, all available from your local B&Q. So, if you want your interior scheme to be trending without having to remortgage to pay for it, we've got you sorted!
The palette combines soft, warm neutrals for a more subtle look. There are a few pops of contrasting blues and greens if you really want to capture that California sunset beachy hang-out look in a more maximalist way.
All the shades shown in the graphic are available from B&Q and from the individual suppliers at the time of writing.
Dulux Colour 2024 Colour Of The Year
Dulux's 2024 Colour Of The Year is a warm clay-coloured neutral - "Sweet Embrace". Perhaps a more accessible and useable shade than Pantone's, they sit alongside each other with the red undertones. And, like Pantone, Dulux describes the choice as embodying the desire for "belonging". We feel like this colour ties into trends we saw emerging last year for warm neutrals and Japanese-influenced industrial looks that combine stark black with warm lighter shades.
Our Curated Complementary Dulux Paint Palette
Our palette of Dulux shades were selected to complement the soft warmth of "Sweet Embrace". We've included a mix of similarly red-toned shades alongside some contrasting blues and greens, but all of them have a more muted dusky look than the bolder Pantone-inspired palette. Whether you yearn for a terracotta and clay look, a French-inspired blue and neutral style or a fresh and timeless vintage green vibe, there's a combination here that will work for you
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