How To Tone Down Paint Color With Glaze

Applying a white-based glaze over a bright wall color can soften and lighten its appearance.

It'south easy to exist attracted to a bold, vibrant paint color at your local abode improvement center, particularly if most of the rooms in your house are painted in neutral or muted shades. However, in some cases, a paint color may turn out to be a little as well vivid once it's covering all the walls in a room. Choosing a new shade, priming and repainting can be frustrating and labor-intensive, just there are actually a few ways to tone downwards a brilliant wall color to give the room a more balanced look.

Color Launder

Y'all don't necessarily need to repaint your walls with a new color if your current shade is too brilliant. Color-washing the walls with glaze can tone downwardly the look of a bright colour and give the room residuum. To create the glaze, thin regular paint with a glazing compound or water to create a translucent wash to go over the bright wall colour. In improver to toning downwards the wall color, a color wash too adds texture and creates more than visual interest. You tin soften your vivid wall color by applying a glaze made with white pigment or create an antiqued result by using a brown-based coat to give the walls an aged advent.

Add Neutral Accents

If you don't want to change your wall color at all, you can tone down the brightness by adding light, neutral accessories that aid offset the room. Colors like white, ivory, cream, tan and gray can assist counteract a bright wall shade, particularly if you lot use them for large accent pieces throughout the space. Choose neutral-colored piece of furniture or slipcovers for the room and pair them with neutral window treatments. Mix in darker neutrals like black, charcoal and brown in smaller accessories similar artwork and throw pillows.

Cut Down on Contrast

When your room features a bright wall color, pairing it with contrasting accessories only emphasizes the bright shade. To tone downward the color, eliminate any accessories or furnishings in shades that contrast or compete with the walls. If y'all're unsure which colors to avoid, consult the colour wheel. Shades located reverse one another on the bicycle are complementary shades that create a natural contrast, like blue and orange or red and green. Competing colors are whatever shades that are as brilliant or bold as the wall. Opt for accent colors that are muted and have the same undertones as the wall color. For case, if your walls are bright lemon xanthous, opt for other warm shades like pale peach or muted brick. You can also become monochromatic by using a lighter variation of the wall color as an emphasis shade.

Adjust Light

A room'south lighting has a major touch on on how brilliant or bold the wall color appears. If your walls are also vibrant, consider changing the lighting fixtures. Instead of a bright overhead fixture that spills light all over the room, opt for indirect task lighting where necessary. Add together a lamp to end table beside the sofa in the living room or on the desk in your home office. If you lot already have an overhead fixture, install a dimmer switch so you tin can lower the lighting to help tone downwards the bright walls.