Tips for Making Interior Walls With Two Colors

Illusion of Space

• Painting a room in two colors can create the illusion that a space is bigger or smaller than it actually is. If you want to make a room feel larger, choose colors that seem to recede, such as blues, purples or greens, and choose a light shade to make the room look even bigger. Paint the baseboards, molding, window frames and other trim in a lighter shade to make your walls look recessed. Make large spaces feel more intimate by painting the wall with warm colors, like reds and browns, with the trim painted in a darker color.

Room Shape

• Dividing a room evenly into two paint colors can help change the apparent shape of the space. Make a long, narrow room appear wider by painting the longer walls with a lighter color and the shorter walls with a darker color. If your ceiling seems too high for the other decor or furnishings in the room, paint the upper quarter of the room as well as the ceiling with the lighter color and the bottom three-quarters of the wall with a darker color. Bringing the ceiling color down onto the walls makes the ceiling seem lower.

Accent Wall

• Sometimes, painting a single wall a brighter color than the rest of a room adds interest and style to your home. Choose a wall without any windows or doors but with other features you want to draw attention to. A wall with a fireplace, sofa or large painting makes a good accent wall, as you'll want to naturally draw the eye to these features. If the room is elongated, choose the farthest short wall from the main entrance to the room as your accent wall to help visually correct the room's shape. Choose a color two to three shades darker than the color of your other walls, or for a more dramatic effect, pick an accent color from your room's existing furniture.

Faux Finishes

• Many faux finishing techniques use two colors of paint to create texture or a wallpaper-like finish in a room. Sponging or color washing allows you to add a second color to a wall very subtly. After you've applied your base coat color, mix your second color paint with a latex glaze in a ratio of one part paint to four parts glaze. Wipe the glaze mixture onto your wall with random strokes or a circular motion as if you were washing the surface, or dip a slightly damp sea sponge into the glaze mixture and dab it randomly on the surface of your wall for a more textured look.