As of late, I have noticed a common questions amongst my clients, or should I say, the painters on the job sites. I am often asked how I want the bulkheads painted. I have a general rule of thumb when it comes to this issue so let me explain….
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My general rule of thumb is this: Pick the highest ceiling point in the room and that is what is left ceiling colour and the rest is painted wall colour. That’s right, I said the rest. I want you to think about your walls, bulkheads and ceilings in planes. Typically, people assume any vertical planes are wall colour and any horizontal planes will be ceiling colour. This is where I beg to differ. If you chop up the bulkhead, leaving the underside ceiling colour and the face of the bulkhead wall colour, it’s going to look odd and noticeable. We want to avoid the bulkheads being a feature and instead make them blend into the room.
Here are some examples of what I am suggesting to avoid when considering the bulkhead paint colour:
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| Painting the underside of the bulkhead white is drawing attention to it. via |
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| Again, if the bulkhead was painted wall colour, it would be less obvious. via |
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| This room is beautiful but if they had picked the highest ceiling point, inside the bulkhead, it would have been less confusing and choppy looking. via |
Now let’s look at some example of how bulkheads can disappear when you paint their underside wall colour:
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| Painting the bulkheads adds architectural dimension to this space. via |
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| Painting a bulkhead dark seems counter intuitive, but it actually blends into the space. via |
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| In a basements, painting bulkheads allows for the ceiling to feel taller than it really is. via |
All in all, when in doubt, paint it out! Keep in mind this is a general rule of thumb. Rules are meant to be broken sometimes but in many cases when you have a typical 12″-20″ bulkhead, I would strongly suggest painting it.
Wow, marvelous blog layout! How long have you been blogging
for? you make blogging look easy. The overall look of your website is excellent, let alone the content!
Thank you a simple post but illustrates perfectly the approach. well done!