If you want to update your home, it is time to think outside the traditional paint box. For decades, the standard formula has been simple: four colored walls paired with a crisp white ceiling and matching trim. Today’s paint trends are breaking those rules.
By changing how you apply color to a room’s surfaces, you can completely alter its mood and proportions. Here are three hot painting trends using premium palettes from Benjamin Moore and PPG Paints to take your space to the next level.
1. Color Drenching: The Ultimate Cozy Wrap
Color drenching means coating an entire room in a single hue. Your walls, baseboards, doors, molding, and even the ceiling get the exact same paint color. By erasing high-contrast lines between white trim and colored walls, color drenching softens visual noise. This makes compact spaces feel boundless and large rooms feel incredibly cozy.
Try it with: Benjamin Moore’s Hale Navy (HC-154). Drenching a home office in this velvety navy creates an instant feeling of luxury. For warmer tones, look at PPG’s Artifact (PPG1030-6), a rich, grounding olive green that turns a bedroom into a peaceful sanctuary.
2. Color Capping: Structural Gradients
If you love color but want more dimension, color capping is the perfect fit. Instead of stopping your main wall color at the ceiling joint, you extend it upward & capping the top portion of the wall, trim, and ceiling in a secondary tone. This approach works beautifully when using two shades from the same color family,
creating a smooth tonal gradient. It adds architectural interest to plain drywall layouts and beautifully grounds a room.
Try it with: Pair Benjamin Moore’s soft pink First Light (2102-70) on the ceiling with a deeper terracotta on the lower walls. For a nature-inspired vibe, try PPG’s Pine Garland (PPG1135-7) on lower walls, capped with the misty sage of PPG’s Mirror Lake (PPG1135-3) above.
3. Cloud Capping: Bright Visual Illusions
Do you want to experiment with rich, moody wall colors but worry about making your room feel small or dark? Cloud capping solves this lighting dilemma. With this technique, you paint lower walls a beautiful, saturated color. Then, you choose a bright, airy neutral for the ceiling and let it spill down onto the top few inches of the wall. This mimics natural sunlight breaking through clouds, drawing the eye upward to
make low ceilings feel taller.
Try it with: Paint your lower walls a striking shade like PPG’s Night Watch (PPG1145-7), a deep jade green. Then, let a crisp white like PPG’s Pure White (PPG1025-1) cascade down the top of the walls. Alternatively, pair Benjamin Moore’s dramatic Kendall Charcoal (HC-166) with a soft ceiling cap of White
Dove (OC-17).
Changing your painting method is the fastest way to get a custom, designer look using just a single weekend and a few cans of paint.
Happy Painting!
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