Painting Tips

When it comes to choosing a paint color for your room, start at the top - ceilings need color, too! Learn how color on the ceiling can transform a room.


The Forgotten Fifth Wall

There’s no better time to freshen up the look of your home than now. You can bring the sense of renewal inherent to the season into your own environment with beautiful color. Where to start? Look forward to the season by looking up.

Ceilings are often the Forgotten Fifth Wall in a room. Too often, little thought is given to a ceiling’s contribution to the overall room design, which is typically just coated in some ubiquitous white paint.

Look at your ceilings from a new perspective. Color, sheen, pattern, and texture on the ceiling can transform the entire look and feel of a room. Here are some ideas to consider:

Warm it Up

On the flip side, a large room with high ceilings can feel impersonal or unbalanced sometimes, with furnishings, floor coverings and accessories visually occupying the bottom half of a room, leaving the top bare. Experiment with a deeper color on the ceiling in this case. A rich cocoa, in a soft sheen such as eggshell or pearl immediately cozies up and balances a large open space with style.

Dress it Up


Consider experimenting with glazes on your ceiling, including metallic and pearlescent effects. Benjamin Moore offers a complete line of specialty finishes. Watch videos and learn how-to techniques for glazes here.

Open it Up

Make a small room or room with a low ceiling feel larger by keeping the color contrast between the walls and ceilings to a minimum. A pale yellow ceiling over wheat colored walls allows your eyes to gently travel upward without a stark demarcation of a bright white ceiling (think of how the sky naturally lightens in an ombre effect as it approaches the sun).


Use a flat sheen paint for the best effect. Try Regal Matte or Regal Flat Finish available in all bases. 

Wrap it Up


Ceilings truly are a blank canvas for your creative expression (bonus: you don’t have to worry about smudgy fingerprints or furniture nicks). And painting your ceiling is a budget-friendly way to give any room in your home a new, inviting look. With a stunning ceiling to look at, it’ll be easy to keep your chin up even in a tight economy!

(Article found at Benjamin Moore.com)