Colour drenching throws out the interior design rulebook, inviting you to fully immerse your space in a single, sweeping shade. From soothing neutrals to bold brights, this transformative trend makes a striking statement – here’s how to take the plunge…
Your home should be a true reflection of you – a place where style meets comfort and personality. Creating a space that feels authentic is essential, and colour drenching is a striking but surprisingly simple way to do just that. This bold interior technique is the art of coating everything – walls, doors, skirting boards, ceilings, everything – in one shade or hue. Whether your vibe is eclectic and charming, moody and meditative or serene and tranquil, drenching can work for every mood, style and space.
The idea of swathing a room in colour can be a bit daunting; after all, colour drenching throws away all the age-old rules we’ve learnt about decorating. While we’ve been taught to never risk making a room look smaller, or that white is the only colour for creating a blank canvas, in reality, colour drenching broadens scope for creativity and creates a smooth but unique base. Gone are the days of feature walls – 2025 is all about going big, or going home. Or rather, going big at home. Drenching is a great way to put your unique mark on your abode, and it lets you showcase your own style from ceiling to skirting board.
Going big
The main aversion to colour drenching, it seems, is the fear that it will make a room feel closed in and ultimately look smaller. But contrary to popular belief, painting a room head to toe in colour can actually open up a space! By removing harsh lines, the eye can drift easily across a room, making it feel more expansive. Walls, ceilings and corners are softened, blending into each other and blurring where a space begins and ends. In fact, ignoring size entirely can be really important when thinking creatively about a room: removing the obsession with making somewhere bigger allows you to instead create a room that feels right, distracting you from the square footage and turning your attention to its character and vibe.
A single-hued base can also add to the cohesion of a space. If white isn’t a purposeful point of reference elsewhere, a white ceiling or skirting board can feel a bit unloved. Drenching these, as well as radiators, doors and mouldings, can make them blend seamlessly into the walls and become a striking backdrop to all of your furnishings and decor.
Come-in colours
The shade you choose is key to the atmosphere you create. Lighter colours, like pale blues and greens, will give a sense of peaceful tranquility and calm, imbuing a space with a serene, sophisticated ambiance. Paler hues can also be a great way to test colour-drenching if you’re nervous about trying out the style, as they maintain an airy feel and are often more subtle.
If you feel ready to pull out the stops, bright, rich greens, yellows, pinks, oranges and blues create a playful, energetic and utterly unique space. It allows you to really have fun with your interiors, and can open up a pathway to bold, statement pieces of décor that weave in complementary pops of colour.
If you’re looking to make your home into an idyllic sanctuary, a Mediterranean colour scheme is a great option. We’re seeing raw, stripped-back plaster tones more and more, which give a rustic and earthy but grounding energy, allowing you to feel really connected to the space around you. Warm, muted pinks, oranges, and terracottas, like in this elegant interior from Farrow and Ball (see image on opposite page) make a space feel tranquil but lived-in.
Riskier yet, but entirely worth it in the reward, are the darker, bolder tones that are taking over the interiors world. Rich, deep hues, while daunting, ooze personality and sophistication, creating striking and captivating spaces. In this room painted in emerald hues from Little Greene, shown left, the deep, rich green that coats the walls and is reflected in the rug creates an immersive, cocoon-like feel. Corridors are a great place to work with this, as the style can really elongate the space, and work individuality into a room that is often overlooked.
Sandra Baker @the_idle_hands
All in the detail
If you want to give the trend an extra-unique twist, try paper-drenching. Covering a room from wall to ceiling in a wallpaper can add in a wonderful element of texture that you can coordinate with a paint palette for an all-encompassing finish. It works on both big and small spaces, giving a comforting and intimate feel, while maximising pattern and colour.
You can also incorporate your decor into the overall scheme. Bold colour contrasts make a strong statement, but pairing them with complementary elements – like curtains, bedding, or furniture – helps to balance the look and tie everything together with the walls, creating a cohesive and sophisticated atmosphere.
A vibrant base allows your pieces to shine without needing to dominate the space. By letting the walls carry much of the visual weight, your personal touches stand out naturally, without the pressure of having to take on a ‘feature’ role.
Colour-drenching in any colour will require a serious think about your own style. What kind of energy do you want to create in your space? What brings you joy? How do you want to feel when you return home? Once you’ve figured that out, this method can totally transform your abode in a way that is entirely unique to you. So go on – be bold, and journey into the land of sweeping technicolour.
Design notes
Woodhouse & Law, interior designers
The key to a successful colour drench is to avoid the easy trap of a one-colour flatness to the finished space, and to instil instead a greater sense of depth and variation. This is best achieved through using a range of paint finishes on the walls, woodwork and ceilings in that same colour; matt emulsion on the walls, complemented by a high gloss on the woodwork for example. Gloss needn’t be exclusively confined to the woodwork however; high gloss finishes to the walls can help reflect light back into a room, as well as creating a hugely durable finish for high-traffic areas. That said, there is a strong argument to save colour drenching for those smaller rooms that really embrace the cocooning effect that this drenched finish can create; in a guest bedroom, or snug for instance. Here, the colour of a wall will feel softer, helping it to recede – the result should be a cosy, inviting space that feels restful on the eye. woodhouseandlaw.co.uk
Clair Strong, interior designer
Painting a whole room in the same colour creates a wonderfully cohesive look, bringing both drama and calm to a space. My own living room is painted in a wonderfully joyful shade of pink which covers the ceiling, cornicing, moulding walls, built-in bookshelves, cupboards and even the radiators (not a fun job for my decorator!). I love the way it makes it feel sunny and light in the day, yet warm and cocooning at night. Colour drenching is a timeless technique because it can be applied to any room and works with both light colours and neutrals to create a sophisticated elegant look or brighter shades to create a sense of occasion. You can also double drench, where you choose two harmonious paint colours to decorate a room. To double drench, choose colours with a similar tone or pick complementary shades on the colour wheel. If you are feeling adventurous, ignore the rules and choose two unexpected colours!
clairstrong.co.uk
