colour drenching??

[Doryfish12]

My lounge is being painted egyptian cotton, decorator has suggested painting ceiling same colour. Is this a good look? its a new mews house, no not massive, but south facing with french doors so very light. Stairs are in lounge so colour will go all way up and around the landing...
TIA

I have done this OP and I really like it. Skirts as well as ceilings. The ceiling will probably appear a slightly different colour as the light is reflected differently. Gives a cosy feel. Egyptian cotton is quite light and neutral from memory so you'll have flexibility with adding in other colours in furniture and fabrics.

For a visual reference @Doryfish12

I've done it with stronger colours, which I like, but I'm not so keen with paler colours. My lounge was colour drenched a pale cream when I moved in and I didn't like that the ceiling looked a bit unintentional, almost felt like it was done because it was easy, as there's no cutting in. I have changed it in that room. I do wonder though if I felt like that because it was clear that the previous occupants had done a few things for ease rather than style.

Well @OttersAreMySpiritAnimal you’d be exactly right about it being done for ease in my hallway! It’s pale cream on the ceilings and walls but I wish I’d gone with a white ceiling. (And a different cream, but that’s another story…)

Like @OttersAreMySpiritAnimal we've colour drenched with stronger colours (F&B Yeabridge Green, De Nimes in our current cottage and Inchyra Blue at our previous home) and love the look, especially when it's continued onto all the joinery in a space.

At our previous house we colour drenched the bathroom in F&B Setting Plaster which is considerably paler, but worked too imo, particularly as the room (a former bedroom) had sloping ceilings which were difficult to distinguish from the walls anyway.

I agree that a much paler colour would be less successful and possibly look like you couldn't be bothered with the cutting in (which I confess is another reason I do it!)

I think a deeper colour looks more deliberate and in our case has definitely made our smallish, cottage-y rooms feel bigger.

Thank you all
mmm, I've seen it done with richer colours , with all the woodwork the same too, and it looked fabulous. Just not sure my little house could take it, especially as it needs to go up the stairs too. Wish i was brave enough to try it with a darker one.

@Doryfish12 I have colour drenched my southfacing bedroom in fb setting plaster. Whilst it's not a deep or dark colour it does look good. I have also colour drenched the southfacng lounge and my north facing hall in wevet. But with a feature wall. I do agree with pp that drenching in darker colours is more impacting but it can also work with lighter colours.

I have done this in a lot of different rooms and prefer it. I like all the Woodwork too the same colour.

"Colour drenching"? What fresh new hell is this? Isn't it just...painting in the colour of your choice?

No, it means painting everything: walls, ceiling, woodwork in the same colour.

Personally I love a coloured ceiling, but I would usually go for the wall colour/ tone but a few shades lighter. I suppose if you have unattractive woodwork you can paint it all the same so you don’t notice it.

@50kHobbyJob I agree with you. Can’t stand the term “ colour drenching”. I’ve been doing this for many years but always just called it painting everything the one colour.

It's basically 'Not painting the skirting boards/window surrounds/doors white'.

OP, I think the ceiling is irrelevant, or can, as a pp said, look a bit weird, like someone covering poor plastering with a layer of woodchip paper. For me, the key thing is not painting skirting boards, doors or window surrounds white (unless the rest of the room is painted the same white) -- that is what makes a visual difference. Ditto radiators, if you have them.

Have a look at some of the rooms here:

https://www.farrow-ball.com/ie/how-to-guide/design/colour-drenching

"No, it means painting everything: walls, ceiling, woodwork in the same colour"

@Allthegoodnamesarechosen

I've lived in lots of houses like that. They were just "painted".

All paint in my house in every room is Timeless with white ceilings. I had this for years as easy to wipe of DC fingerprint and every 3 years had a refresh paint. I have this year added cream floral wallpaper to one feature wall around my inglenook and I like it so I did the same in dining room even venturing to pale pink. For me I prefer a calm basic colour throughout then accessorise with colours. In lounge I have a grey and burgundy large rug, grey lamp shades and grey and burgundy cushions and burgundy blinds. If I get fed up with burgundy I simply swap out for a different strong colour.

Ha! I get what you're saying...but were those houses painted in bog standard colours @50kHobbyJob (eg, white, magnolia, timeless etc)? Or something a bit more 'interesting'?

I agree that many houses are painted, say, white throughout (walls, ceilings, doors, all other joinery) and think in the past we've bought a few like that, although we've always bought project houses that have needed immediate, complete renovation. So, in our particular case, as part of the bigger project, we've stripped wallpaper/re-skimmed if necessary, then painted in (usually deep) colours of our choice - however, prior to early 2018, this was not normally the same colour everywhere in a room.

I first became aware of the idea of what is now referred to as 'colour drenching' when visiting some NT properties and also specifically in 2017 when I fell in love with the interiors of one of the houses in BBC's Taboo, which I proceeded to replicate when we moved house early in 2018. Initially we painted walls, ceilings and joinery of our hallway in F&B Drawing Room Blue, which - when we reconfigured the upstairs landing - we changed to F&B Inchyra Blue. It was so successful, we went on to adopt the style in various other rooms and are now doing the same in our new-to-us cottage.

Here's a couple of pics of a colour drenched bedroom in our cottage....

@LibertyLily

A mixture of both.

Love your pictures!

We bought a house in France where the bathroom and WC had used "drenching" - but with garish, flowery vinyl wallpaper. It was...interesting.

It's comparatively unusual, though, for people not to painting skirting boards white, for instance. We had decorators in last year, and they said they'd never not painted skirting white, in anyone else's house, ever.

Maybe but I hate that all over colour that @Hillsmakeyoustrongsuggests, though agree Egyptian Cotton is one of the great neutrals - I have it in one of my properties and just recommended it to a friend redoing her 22 year olds son’s bedroom and it looks perfect. But I like the contrast with pure white on skirtings and coving. Colour saturation does seem a trendy thing to do but I think it makes the room look bland and more box-like.