Statement Painted Ceilings

Sometimes we think of February as browsing month. It’s the part of a winter season when we’re turning toward spring, and however deep we are in the Goshen, Indiana and Columbia City, Indiana snow we’re looking at new garden ideas and fresh home painting designs. At Matthews Painting, we love when our clients share their vision of interior spaces and trust us to deliver the goods with a smart, professional job – but we also look at interior design trends ourselves and recently saw a few from Pinterest that have us excited about creative painting challenges.

When Pinterest shared their “top trends to try in 2018” list, we saw spa-inspired bathrooms and terrazzo flooring among the ideas getting some attention with a new paint job. What was really eye-catching though, was the spike in searches for “the fifth wall.” Searches for statement ceilings were up 310 percent on Pinterest as homeowners – and more than a few businesses – are looking up to see the possibilities above them.

A recent exhibit at the Renwick Gallery, the oldest American art gallery located at the Smithsonian Institute, demonstrated the trend with designers who re-created the ceilings of nine iconic buildings by replicating their Art Deco or Italianate Renaissance Revival styles in fabric. In January, Vogue magazine offered insights into how those design eras fell out of favor but new ceiling painting is making a comeback.

“As the ceiling has been so ignored over the last 70 years, it’s definitely about to have its renaissance again,” Martyn Lawrence Bullard of Martyn Lawrence Bullard told Vogue. What that tells us is that there’s real interest in that fifth wall, but it’s a more complicated job than weekend DIYs usually are.

There’s a similar trend in statement doors to paint, with Pinterest searches for “colorful doors” up 121 percent. The doors, both interior and exterior, are a relatively easy painting project for Matthews Painting and bring color and curb appeal to a home with a small investment in a job done right. When it’s time for a change, or the paint color turns out to be too much or too little, it’s also an easier task to start anew. That’s not always the case with the less-accessible ceiling and treatments for it, which range from simple paint to textures, wallpaper and art.

Many people will stick with a single paint color for the ceiling, and depending on how bold they want to go it may be fire-engine red or the equally trendy electric violet. Those are heavy paint colors, so it’s wise to consider how dark a room will become with that solid canvas of paint above you, but in rooms with plenty of windows and natural light it works to striking effect. Size matters, and it’s tough to pull off in a small space, but with the right combination of colors the painted ceiling works in a bath or office too. If you have an artistic corner – a craft room or studio – a patterned ceiling can be the perfect creative touch.

A painted or textured ceiling is another way to bring energy to a workout room, and that’s a look that can be achieved with wallpaper too, depending on how busy you want it to be. Don’t overlook partial ceiling treatments in rooms with nooks and crannies too. It’s possible to paint an accent color above a window seat that becomes a focal point, or interior dormer surfaces to define space in a child’s room.

We’ve seen some examples of ceiling color that flows down and blends into a neutral wall, which can make a busy kitchen or plant-filled sitting room seem alive. Think sage – the “new neutral” in Pinterest searches that have seen a 170 percent increase – and its blend into ivory or bright-white walls. There are a lot of ideas and we welcome the challenge, so give Matthews Painting a call to talk about your own!  Matthews Painting is  now expanding our interior and exterior wall, ceiling, trim, door and cabinet painting and staining, wallpaper removal, drywall repair, deck staining and sealing and log Home staining and sealing into the Goshen, Indiana and Columbia City Indiana areas.