How should we paint and decorate this new loft stairs bulkhead?

[Falcon1]

We have just installed stairs up to the loft, which has meant the creation of this bulge in my daughter's room. How should we decorate it! We were planning F&B French Grey walls and Slipper Satin on the ceiling - but should we treat this as ceiling or wall, and where would the line stop?!

Forgive the appearance of the room - we are mid renovation!

I could see that as an opportunity to go all out creative and use the shape as part of a mural type design. Trailing vines? Explosion of flowers? Of course, that might be a job for a pro and cost a packet!
It could be the same colour as the walls if the wall colour goes up to the ceiling and cuts off where the shape changes IYSWIM.
As a useless aside, that's a really strange shape and I don't know I'd like it over my head as I lay in bed!

This kind of thing absolutely does my head in.

I think you need to paint ceiling and wall same colour otherwise either way won't be quite right.

I absolutely love French Grey.

If you have the space I would make a built in cupboard to hide it. If not I would make it bigger and even out the slope so it looks like a sloped ceiling.

@clarabowlips Love the idea of making it a feature, but can just imagine the look my very down to earth decorator would give me....I wouldn't want to sleep under it either, but my daughter loves the idea of a 'cosy nook'.

@dairydebris Are you suggesting colour drenching the entire room in French Grey? I think that might be a bit much? She really wants green, rather than something more neutral.

Paint it same colour as ceiling and walls wouldn’t bother with picture rails just line it off with masking tape

wouldn’t do anything fancy as it would draw your eye to it a make it more dominant

Same colour as the walls

I love how organic it looks and agree it will make a cosy 'nook'. I'd definitely colour-drench the entire room in one colour, otherwise it will be very difficult to decide where the wall stops/ceiling starts. French Grey would look super imo, but I prefer saturated colours.

@LibertyLily Do you think it wouldn't be too dark to colour drench? Bit nervous about a green ceiling!

It wouldn't be too dark for me - but we have a bedroom colour-drenched in F&B Yeabridge Green and another in De Nimes 😉 If your DD has her heart set on green and you're worried French Grey is too dark, there's loads of lighter tones to choose from.

I also love @clarabowlips suggestion of a mural. Maybe colour-drench everything in a lighter colour but incorporate green(s) in a mural?

@Redrosesposiesif it’s the same colour as the walls, would the colour go all the way to the ceiling or just as far as the picture rail height?

I do the picture rails height so it will blend in more
it’s only paint so even if it takes you a couple of attempts to get it right it’s not the end of the world

it’s not an architectural feature so you need it to blend in as much as possible rather than than stand out

Yes suggesting drenching room in FG.

I have a bedroom drenched in FG. I love it because each wall looks a slightly different color depending on time of day etc, from relatively vibrant olive to flat light grey. It's a fabulous colour. Its sometimes very neutral and sometimes not. I never get bored of it its gorgeous.

I would box it in I think but that’s just me, it would wreck my head tbh. Sorry

Curved bit ceiling colour, vertical bit wall colour. Don't worry about the fact that you get a bit of wall colour above picture rail. It will make sense that way.

Don't get rid of picture rails or paint wall colour above them, though! Looks much nicer to keep wall colour distinctions as they are. And definitely not ceiling the same colour as walls.

@dairydebris Would you mind sharing a photo? I'd love to see it. My DD has freaked at the idea of painting the walls and ceiling a boring colour like Slipper Satin (which is what the decorator thinks we should do). A picture would really help her see if FG all over is what she wants

Yeah, I think your average painter & decorator will not want to do anything other than straight paint on wall. Maybe he can colour wash the whole room then an 'artiste' comes in to paint a design over that shape. However, I have no idea how you find such people - art college?

Personally I’d do the colour the same as the walls up to picture rail height and then paint while level with the picture rail is, so there’s continuation of the white level with the picture rail and roof.

@Gingercar That's what I thought too. But when I mentioned it to the decorator he was adamant that it wouldn't work. DD is now thinking Mizzle all over as it's lighter than French Grey but still the green that she wants.

Hiya, sorry, I dont fancy posting a picture of my house but can honestly say I don't find the colour overwhelming at all, but the room is large and bright, with a low ceiling.
If you get a tester and paint large rectangles over different parts of the walls to catch all light levels, if you enjoy the colour I think itd be fine. I also used it on the skirting boards.

Wait, what is colour drenching? Is it the new term for decorating with coloured paint?

I just saw this on a Rightmove post…
(ps, don’t agree with your decorator. We did similar on a step in the ceiling and it worked).

He said it won’t work because it’s curved rather than angled

Colour drenching is painting the walls, ceiling and woodwork in the same colour