Textured Walls | Absence of Color

In addition to using found materials to give dimension and texture to the wall (see Textured Walls | Painting Techniques), you can also use the absence of color to provide texture.

Before my husband and I got married, he bought a new house and was living with his friend from college. This house was brand new, which essentially means that everything was shades of beige. Eggshell. Cream. Buff. Bone. Cosmic latte. Or whatever other clever names paint people come up with. From my perspective, beige means boring. Even though I wouldn't be moving in for another couple months, my first design challenge, was to redesign the master bedroom.

Pretty bare...

pretty basic...

and pretty uninspiring

I wanted my hubby's room (soon to be my room) to have some elegance to it, and there's nothing that a coat of paint can't fix... and some furniture maybe :).

I was inspired by this photo I found online:

I am really into gray. It's so peaceful, elegant, and neutral. As you can see in the picture, this room has paneling and molding and all of this other fancy stuff. At the time, we weren't that adventurous (or knowledgeable) regarding molding, so the best tools in our tool belts were paint rollers, tape, and a laser-leveler.

A couple hours (and a few trips to furniture stores) later, we completely transformed the room into something suitable then for a bachelor's room and, now our master bedroom.  

Remember what I said earlier about the absence of color? Well, this is where it can provide texture.  We created a similar pattern as in the inspiration photo, using tape to mark off the areas that were to remain beige. Of course, there are still some things to do to make the room "shiny", but that is step two. 

FUN FACT OF THE DAY: In my Art class (2-D Foundations), I learned about negative and positive shapes. Negative shapes recede in a picture; positive shapes advance in a picture. In the case of our bedroom wall, you would think that the gray is the positive since it is the painted shape. But actually, the white is serving as the positive shape because it pops... seemingly as if it is painted over the gray. Interesting, eh?

Until next time,

{Rashida}