Last week, I received a distressing e-mail from a woman named Sarah.  She was in the midst of a colour crisis for her cottage in Ontario.  It seems that Sarah was enduring a post-fire room reconstructing a room damaged by fire, and in just a few days the walls were to be painted.  The colours were already chosen, but not the paint layout.   Sarah had read my articles as well as those on other websites, so she was well versed on “paint the ceiling” rhetoric.  She just wasn’t convinced that the ceiling in her cottage should be the same colour as the walls.   So, I asked her to send me digital photographs for review.  The room’s walls were only 8 feet high, while the ceiling was raised two feet higher at the centre ridge.  Previously, the walls had been aubergine, and the ceiling had been left white.  The deep contrast created a room that felt “squatty” even thought the ceiling height provided more height.  The easy solution this time would be to paint both the ceiling and walls the same, eliminating the wall/ceiling squatty effect.  However, Sarah’s new colour for the wall, sage, might make the room too dark, if applied to both walls and ceiling.  Fortuitously, Sarah had already picked a second colour to contrast with the walls—tan.  Now, if the tan was merely applied to the ceiling and the walls left sage, the result would still be a “squatty” feeling, though less emphatic.  To make the ceiling actually appear taller, I suggested that the wall colour be continued up the ceiling at least 12-18 inches.  This would create the illusion that the walls were taller, while the ceiling would appear to be recessed.  Since this illusion would require taping the ceiling to create a sharp edge for the recessed colour, I also suggested taping and painting a small band of colour between the wall and ceiling colours.  The third smaller paint band raises the ceiling again, further enhancing the effect.  A few days ago, Sarah wrote back that continuing the colour up the ceiling really made a difference.  Good for Sarah! 

A different colour conundrum appeared here on the South Shore.  It all started with the “surprise” kitchen that was installed.  The surprise was not only the size, but also the colour—blue.  What was a typical 19^th century warren is now an amalgamated kitchen/den that measures 40 feet in length.  The room width is only 9 feet for approximately 25 feet, and then it opens to 12 feet for the open kitchen area.  I’ve been asked to advise on a paint plan that will diminish the blue cabinetry that extends more than 20 feet down the 40-foot wall and 10 feet as a bar on the opposite wall.  The rest of the room includes antique pine in the form of a buffet, a china hutch, a storage cabinet, a long kitchen table, and a large fireplace surround.  Well, as much as I’d like to agree with that request, trying to minimize the blue will mostly draw one’s attention to its dominance.  The better choice would be to embrace the blue for this particular space—sorry.  By extending the cabinetry colour to all of the baseboards and the window trim, the blue becomes the background colour.  The walls and ceiling will be painted a warm colour of linen.  No ceiling moulding exists and there’s no room to add any, so the best option is to paint it all in the new matte finish from Benjamin Moore.  The linen colour will temper all of the blue, providing a beautiful background for paintings and folk art—surprise.