If you’re looking for an affordable way to update your home this fall, here’s an idea to try: paint out your trim to match your wall colour. Sometimes called “colour-drenching”, the look creates the illusion of more space as it allows your eye to move seamlessly around a room.

Last year I painted our open-concept main floor dining room in Benjamin Moore’s Revere Pewter: a warm gray with earthy green undertones. The colour manages to look both fresh during the day with the sun streaming in, and cozy at night with the glow of table lamps and candle light. At the time, I painted only our walls and kept our trim a crisp white (Benjamin Moore’s White Dove) which looked nice, until I saw this stunning space with mouldings painted to match the wall colour by designer Jean Stoffer:

Admittedly I don’t have millwork quite that amazing, but being a colour consultant who loves to experiment, I had to try it in our home! So I headed back to the paint store and then spent a few weekends painting out our baseboards, crown mouldings, windows and door casings in Revere Pewter. It’s subtle, but I’m thrilled with the results- it makes the space feel more spacious and elevated.

While I left my ceiling white, don’t rule out the option of also painting your ceiling the same colour as the walls and trim to really maximize the effect. I also find this look works best with mid-tone, darker or more saturated colours- it creates a bit of drama and sophistication. Not sure how to move beyond white walls? Check out this blog post on my favourite fresh neutrals to try instead.

An important thing to remember if you decide to try this look: vary the sheen of your paints. I talked about this in a previous blog post, but choosing a semi-gloss or satin finish for your trim and a flat or eggshell finish for your walls creates subtle contrast between the two despite them being the same paint colour. Choosing a higher-sheen finish for your trim also fulfills functional needs like increased wipe-ability and durability.

Still not convinced? Here are 3 more reasons why you can’t go wrong with this look:

1. Makes the space feel more expansive

When you have areas of high contrast (for example- light trim and darker walls) your eye is drawn towards where these light and dark areas meet. This stops your eye from moving around the room and can create unintended focal points (most of us don’t need our baseboards to be the star of the room!) and can make the room feel busier. 

When you paint your walls, trim and even your ceiling in the same colour, you remove these choppy areas of high contrast. Visually, this blurs the boundaries of the room, making the room feel more expansive.

2. Softens harsh angles

It’s not uncommon for homes to have some strange and wonky angles. Think loft or vaulted ceilings, awkward angled walls, or partitions created after the fact to divide up spaces. 

I often find in my consultations that people aren’t sure what to do with these funny spaces, leaving them the same white as the ceiling, or painting them in a contrasting colour. Both options inadvertently create contrast, which as we just learned, draws even more attention to these funny spaces.

Instead, painting out these surfaces the same colour as the wall will soften these angles and disguise these less-than-architecturally pleasing areas, so you can instead focus on creating a focal point in the room that you actually want!

3. Makes carpentry and cabinets look seamless

Painting out your cabinets in the same colour as your wall, can make them look less like an after thought, and more like high-end custom built-ins. In the image below, I painted an Ikea Ivar storage unit in a satin finish to match the wall colour, which helps to blend the unit into it’s surroundings.

Is there a room you want to try this look in? Tell me in the comments below!

Blog Cover Image Source: Jessica Helgerson Interior Design