The Benefits Of Using A Light Paint On Your Ceilings

When visualizing your perfect room, you might focus on the walls, décor, and furnishings but forget all about the ceilings. This fifth wall just exists ... in its sterile whiteness, upholding its status as the safest choice. However, safety does not have to be boring. With several light paints available on the market, it's time to reconfigure things and paint your ceilings a different hue. Picking out lighter shades from your room's pre-existing color palette is one way to go.

Choosing light paints isn't merely about aesthetics — although this should be reason enough to step on the ladder — it has several other benefits, too. For instance, light shades can make the room appear loftier and brighter while adding a pop of color. Also, using them on interior trim, like the crown molding linking the wall and the ceiling, can help offset any dark hues, adding visual interest and depth to the room. Moreover, they add character and some much-needed personality to your room.

White paints may be the default choice for many to emphasize their room's dimensions, but they are not your only option. A light color should do the trick. Remember, a space's proportions can be improved by painting the ceiling in shades lighter than the wall colors, and this works even better for small rooms. Painting your fifth wall in light hues helps give off the impression of a spacious room by making the ceiling look higher than it actually is.

Besides, light paints can make for a beautiful low contrast with the other walls, which helps draw attention upward to the ceiling's finer details. Regardless of dark or white walls, they easily balance any space when used on the trim surrounding the fifth wall. Lightly-tinted ceilings also help make rooms look brighter as they are good light reflectors — a major boon for dimly-lit spaces. Moreover, with light ceilings serving as a neutral backdrop for your home décor, showcasing your preferences and personality quirks becomes easier, as substantiated by the recent trend of painting ceilings in sky blue to depict the summer sky.

While opting for light paint on ceilings offers a host of benefits, you must choose the shade most optimal for your needs. One way to determine the right hue is to take visual cues from the room's furniture, decoration, and artwork, as it will define the breadth of the available color palette.

Another method is to create a low contrast with your wall colors, such as gray ceilings paired with blue walls. However, if you fear such combinations can lead to color disharmony, you can simply dial down the wall paint's shade by 20% (50% for extremely bold shades) by mixing in white paint and using it to paint your ceilings. This should further enhance your room's lighting effect. But if you've neutral-hued walls, reducing the paint tint to 33% should do the trick.

However, if your sole concern is to create a bigger and airier room visually, you can stick to cool-toned grays and off-whites. Such colors will also balance out rooms with bold and chaotic wallpapers. Light blues, yellows, and pinks are other suitable options as they allude to receding walls while evoking a sense of tranquility.