Use Paint to Create a Designer Look

Paint choices are more versatile than ever, with new finishes and colors continually coming onto the market. New trends in colors and finishes as well as new ideas on using color, pattern and light come together to give a home a sophisticated contemporary look.

Bold and Modern

Bold colors, like tangerine, turquoise and chartreuse, have moved into the forefront in modern design. Not reserved just for accents colors, these bold colors are being used as main colors or for focal walls. They provide a striking backdrop for the sleek clean lines of contemporary furniture and provide an effective foil for browns, blacks and neutrals typically found in modern furnishings. When using deep or bold colors, counter it with its opposite hue on the color wheel, mixing warm and against cool and visa-versa. For instance, cool blue and green tones can be balanced with luscious orange or a warm shade of lavender can be paired with lime green. Juxtaposing opposite colors is a great way to bring out the colors in a modern metal wall art or oversized wall decor.

If you decide to paint a focal wall in a bold color, choose a neutral, like soothing cream, to offset a dramatic shade of raspberry pink. Or, if you choose a more subtle color like chocolate brown for a focal wall, use a related but lighter color, such as sand or taupe, on the other three walls.

Shimmering Sophistication

If your tastes lean more toward the understated, you can paint the entire room in the same color, but use paint with a glossy finish on the focal wall and a low gloss finish, such as eggshell, on the remaining walls. The sheen created by the gloss paint will bring luminescence to the focal wall, where more attention will be drawn to the metal wall planters or whatever you display there. You can also add shimmer and sophistication to a room with Pearlescent and metallic finish paints on a focal wall or to bring attention to trim or architectural features. You may even choose to bathe an entire area in a metallic finish and this can be especially appealing in a room that receives considerable natural light. For instance, a sunny breakfast nook painted with yellow metallic paint makes every morning welcoming and bright.

Contemporary Options in Wall Murals

Savvy designers repeat the design and patterns in fabrics and furnishings in a wall mural to create a coordinated, perfectly designed look. While an exquisite hand painted modern mural will provide signature style, it comes with a hefty price tag. However, you can copy this idea and recreate the same look at a very affordable price. Trace a pattern from fabric or wallpaper on a transparency sheet and use a projector to cast the image on the wall, then just trace and paint the image.

Classically Modern Looks

The simplicity of white on white or the contrast of black and white is classic in a contemporary room. Decorating a room in shades of white makes it look clean and airy. Be careful to choose warm shades of white and warm lighting to keep the room from feeling cold and impersonal. Then for fabrics and furnishings, choose in pastels or bold colored accents depending on the mood and level of contrast you wish to create.

White walls are also the perfect backdrop for sleek black furniture that can be offset with accents, accessories and wall art that feature bold modern hues like searing fuchsia or dazzling yellow. Black and white can also be used to create interest on the walls by combining them in high contrast stripes or an abstract pattern or mural.