Is colour drenching really a radical new way to decorate, or is it just lazy decorating?

Home decorator and content creator Leah Hodson is one of Ideal Home's new Open House contributors, sharing her thoughts on overhauling a home with clever DIY and decorating tricks. See the rest of her articles here.

Colour drenching has taken the world of interiors by storm in the last few years, and involves painting every surface in the room the same colour - walls, ceiling, woodwork, the lot! If you’ve not heard of it, count yourself lucky - as a heavy consumer of interiors content, I’m lucky if I can go a day without hearing about colour drenching!

Experts say, drenching in a dark colour will make a space cosy and inviting: if you choose to use a lighter colour instead, it brightens a room. This way of decorating also removes the need for cutting in - a skill I have yet to perfect after years of decorating! Not to mention the dreaded taping up - on more than one occasion, what should have been a grand reveal has turned into a scene of horror, with paint peeling off or bleeding straight through the tape. I personally love colour drenching for being the lazy solution to cutting in and taping terror. Any hack to make decorating simple, is a hack for me!

“But Leah, it’s scary to colour drench a room in dark colours”, I hear you say, and yes I agree with you! It’s easy for me to say I love colour drenching when I’m going from having a Pure Brilliant White ceiling, to colour drenching my ceiling in the same off-white colour as my walls. So I’ve asked a couple of my Instagram friends to share their thoughts on colour drenching with a darker shade. After all, it’s one thing to admire it on Pinterest, but hearing from people who’ve actually done it in their own homes gives such a real sense of how it feels to live in it!

From the first coat fear of going from light to a deep, dark, dramatic shade, Sue from @oureclecticwonderland knew it was the right decision for her - like “a big hug” that she never wants to leave. It’s been a year since completing the colour drench in her bedroom and she’s still very in love with it! When I asked if colour drenching is lazy decorating, Sue didn't agree - “It’s still painting every single inch of a room. And if you’ve done that with your own two hands you definitely can’t be called lazy! The only perk is you can be a little messier”.

Laura from @no.13luckyforsome thinks it works brilliantly in rooms with awkward walls or angled ceiling, like her bedroom, because colour drenching blurs the edges and makes spaces feel more cohesive and taller. The ultimate way to achieve a hotel vibe and to avoid colour drenching by making a room look “one dimensional”, is to “lift the space with furniture and fabric”. For lighter neutrals, Laura loves the way colour drenching saves the effort of cutting in. But the only downside, she says, “I can’t do my makeup in my bedroom without feeling like Princess Fiona!”.

If you feel like colour drenching is too much for you, you may want to consider a painted ceiling. I personally don’t think we should stick to white ceilings, but a little pop of colour on the ceiling adds so much interest and depth to a room! I tried this in our guest room, the walls are a textured herringbone wallpaper, with a drop ceiling painted in an army green. This is the perfect medium for me as someone who loves light and bright interiors. In the day, especially with the blinds open, you won’t notice the darker ceiling. At night, this room feels like a warm hug with the textured wallpaper and dark ceiling forming a cocoon.

Instead of thinking of colour drenching as the newest trend, we should think of white ceilings being the thing of the past! Of course it’s important to decorate our 5th wall - the ceiling. If you decide that ceilings don’t have to be white, then the possibilities are endless! Think wall paper and contrasting colours, and you’ve opened up a whole new dimension of decorating.