Color Drenching Trend - 7 Tips to Achieve the Look in Your Home

When I first heard about the color drenching trend, I thought it was an unfortunate accident involving an open can of paint.

Now I know better and love this color-saturated approach to decorating that is about as far from sad beige as possible. Let me introduce you to this gorgeous trend.

Color drenching means painting all elements of a room in a single color, including walls, ceiling, doors, trim, molding, woodwork, built-ins, baseboards, and metal fixtures, like radiators. This versatile, monochromatic paint trend creates a massive impact for a budget-friendly price.

If you’re looking for a dramatic but affordable update to your home, consider color drenching. What you’re doing is repainting, so you get to maximize impact without spending a lot on renovations.

And the impact is incredible — any room will immediately look refreshed, contemporary, and creative.

What Is Color Drenching?

Color drenching or color wrapping is the maximalist answer to minimalist, neutral color.

This confident trend involves painting a room — including walls, trim, woodwork, and ceiling — in a single color.

You may argue that we’ve been doing this for years with white paint, and you’re right. But drenching a room in white is somewhat dull and clinic.

This time, we’re leaving no trim or ceiling white. Built-ins, baseboards, molding, metal fixtures, you name it, are all painted one cohesive shade.

Color drenching immediately packs a design punch, softening architectural details, blurring jarring design differences, and creating an inviting, cocooning space.

The final effect depends on which color and finish you choose.

Go stormy blue or deep purple for a moody space.

Choose bright, vivid greens or glossy pinks for freshness, or jewel tones for an exotic touch.

Let’s explore how you can incorporate this paint trend into your home.

7 Tips to Color Drenching Your Home Interior

Look, I know color drenching isn’t a brand-new trend. But it’s back on the design radar because of its increasing popularity.

And for good reason. Decorating with paint is practical, versatile, and pocket-friendly, making it an ideal choice for updating your home.

It’s the ultimate paint adventure for maximalists like my sister. You can gorge on lush, saturated color, like diving into a milkshake.

#1. Pick a Room

Color drenching is a high-impact update. So you might want to start cautiously rather than transforming your family room and weirding out the whole family with a magenta makeover.

To experiment with the color-drenching trend, start with a less-used or overlooked room.

Small rooms are ideal for this treatment, so consider a guest bedroom, a den, a powder room, a pantry, or a laundry room.

Color drenching won’t make the room look larger, but it does embrace the space, making it more inviting.

One of my first color-drenching projects — which she has since updated — was my sister’s laundry room. If you have to do laundry, it may as well be in an appealing space.

She went for sunny yellow. And according to her, she felt like a ray of sunshine every time she had to fill the dryer (and that’s many, many times when you have active, sporty teenagers).

Also, consider if there are any areas you want to camouflage.

Color wrapping can disguise unappealing pipes, ugly wainscoting, dated moldings, or old-fashioned paneling.

Cover up these features and give them a contemporary update.

Once you fall in love with color drenching, you can dive into any space. This trend is suitable for most rooms, so long as they are enclosed spaces — it doesn’t work well in open-plan designs.

You can consider more focal spaces, like a cozy bedroom, living room, study, kitchen, or playroom.

#2. Choose a Color You Love

The next step along the color-drenching path is to choose a color you adore and want to live with.

Because a color-drenched room feels a bit like swimming in a can of your favorite color paint, it’s essential that you commit to the right color.

If you’re struggling to choose a color, imagine the mood you want to create in a room.

Dark, moody shades like charcoal are more intense and appropriate for a bedroom, while nature-inspired terracotta or muted green is perfect for a tranquil living room.

Bold, bright colors like yellow or orange are uplifting and vibrant, adding an element of surprise and optimism.

Also consider the paint’s undertone. A warm red or yellow undertone is punchy and vivid, great for productive energy, and ideal for a busy kitchen or fun playroom.

A softer gray or blue undertone is less intense, creating a classic effect. Either way, ensure that your chosen color has high light saturation for maximum enhancement of natural sunlight.

#3. Test Your Color

Once you’ve chosen some favorite colors, paint a couple of test patches on the wall to get a sense of how you like the color before committing to the entire color-drenching scenario.

This tedious but essential step in any paint project means you get to see the color in the space you’re painting at different times of the day and under different lighting conditions.

Some paint suppliers offer peel-and-stick swatches that you can move around a room to see how light falls on different walls.

#4. Mini-Color Drenches

If you’re nervous about committing to a total color drench, start by painting the walls and ceiling in your chosen color.

If you love the effect, move on to the trim, picture rails, and so on.

#5. Use Shades of One Color

Being a monochromatic paint effect doesn’t mean you have to choose one flat color for a room.

There is space to work within the trend, choosing shades of a single color. The effect is equally soothing if you layer shades.

Ideally, choose three toning shades from the same color family, like a vivid cobalt, navy, and lighter blue.

Follow the 60-30-10 rule, where the anchor shade covers 60% of the space (usually walls and ceiling), a second color covers 30% (e.g., trim, woodwork, and moldings), and a final 10% for accents.

The three-color impact creates balance and tone, preventing your space from feeling too heavy and saturated. It’s a straightforward way to introduce your family to the color-drenching trend.

#6. Mix Finishes

Another element of color drenching is considering the finish you want to use.

Although you may use the same color throughout the space, you can vary the finish to add interest and prevent the room from feeling too flat.

For example, try an eggshell or satin finish on the walls, semi-gloss for the trim, and matte for the ceiling.

Or, go for a high-impact gloss finish on the walls and ceiling to add definition and enhance the room’s natural light.

Different sheens of color create depth through the varying reflections and add dramatic flair and visual impact.

I would love to create an Oriental-style room with high-gloss red walls

#7. Focus on Furnishings

The final aspect of color wrapping is how you plan to furnish the room once it’s painted.

If you choose a darker anchor for color drenching, go lighter on the furniture, adding opulent textures to avoid a gloomy feel.

Lighter color drenches mean you can make an exciting artwork, patterned rug, or textured sofa the focal point of the room, as the color will form an elegant backdrop.

The ultimate in color drenching, of course, is to make your furniture monochromatic, so that your entire room is a gorgeous, single-colored cocoon that envelops you in a colorful hug.

Final Thoughts

Color wrapping is a monochromatic paint trend where you paint every surface in a room the same color. This has a powerful impact, changing the mood of a room and updating the feel immediately. I recommend this approach as it’s practical, versatile, and budget-friendly — maximum impact for minimum effort.

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