The Right Paint Colours For Smaller Spaces – Decorating with eicó

Many homeowners opt for plain white or other neutral colours for smaller spaces, this can work well but you always risk a ‘clinical’ look and sometimes a lack of personality in the home. In this article, we discuss colours and other tips to bring those smaller spaces in your home to life, adding warmth and character.

1. Bring in splashes of colour to smaller areas around the window or some shelves; this helps to add excitement and depth to your room. If your home has a foyer or hall, painting that area in a darker colour can make an area seem more spacious if the room is a lighter shade.

2. Think about what you use the room for – work, sleep, relax, workout – then establish separate zones for those activities. Using curtains or different colours on the walls can signify a different purpose for that area. Grey is especially recommended for home offices to promote creativity and it’s also the best backdrop for photography, we would recommend using Anthracite or charcoal from the eico colours. 

3. Consider what direction the room is facing, south facing rooms are often flooded with warm light – you can maximize the bright feeling by using linen or gardenia white from the Eico neutrals.

4. Play with finishes – you don’t have to follow the crowd, the unwritten rule that we must paint ceilings in brilliant white and trims in full gloss isn’t relative nowadays – the rule book has been thrown out the window! Be as creative as you want to be! Finishes can be cleverly chosen just as much as colour.

5. Go bigger – but with fewer furnishings. Small pieces of furniture can clutter a small room. 

6. Opt for sharper colours to expand a space, choosing sharper and brighter colours over duller ones allows you enhance and improve the clarity and openness of your smaller space or room. Really hot reds like eicó e26 Bus Stop, electrical blues, yellows and greens like g20 Miro or Folly are exactly the sort of sharp colours you’re aiming for.

7. Focal walls are a much debated subject in the interior designer world; some say to paint one wall in a darker colour which can help it look like it’s receding and therefore makes the space look larger, while other interior designers are dead against it. Don’t be afraid of bold colours but you do what works best for you, your family and your home.

8. Embrace change - Pieces of furniture can serve multiple purposes in different rooms; a table can be given another lease of life with a lick of paint! Keeping the small space neutral you can paint furniture as the same colour of the walls to help them blend in creating a sense of a bigger room.  We would recommend using eico eggshell for wooden furniture or shelves – which comes in all the same colours in the emulsion range. 

9. If you paint a small home with the same colours but in different shades it can unite all the rooms and therefore make the space look larger, adding smaller touches like pillows and lampshades that match, or curtains and rugs can help create a cohesive space in your home. Choosing a fool proof neutral makes the flow of a house feel less choppy – we would recommend eico off white, antique white and chalk to keep things calm and flowing.

10. Pastel peaches and pinks can look great in a bathroom, colours like b5 snowdrop, b6 blossom or whisper, especially when you get to see your rosy complexion in the bathroom mirror due to the colours in the room, but if you are looking to make a statement in your bathroom, go bold using dark reds h17 Moscow or chocolate browns, you can then use towels and mats to lower the tone if you are concerned it’s too much.

11. Customize your storage and utilize that small space by having built in storage space as part of the walls. You don’t lose nearly half as much valuable floor space as you would imagine! 

12. One top tip for making a room look bigger is by painting the ceiling a darker colour and extended that colour down the wall too, adding a lighter colour further down the wall really helps to extend the look of a room. It’s quite fashionable to paint the skirting boards and doors the same colour as the walls visual continuity creates calmness in smaller (and bigger!) rooms. Even-toned rooms fool the eye into thinking there is more space in the room.

13. Go Bold. Using lighter colours to create a bigger space is a complete myth. It just makes the colour disappear. Going back to what you are using the room for, using a darker colour on the walls creates an interesting and cosy space try using flint grey. Loam, castle keep and offset the dark colour with eicos lighter shades for contrast. 

It’s great to experiment with colours within your home, if you are unsure of what colour would work, consider sample pots so you can make sure that the colours you like are the right colours for your home. eicó have a wide range  e of sample pots and colours for you to choose from so you can make sure you get your small space just right. 

Top tip: We recommend painting two coats from a sample pot onto a A4 card and move it about the room, seeing how light affects the rich pigments in the morning to how they change in the afternoon. The same colour in the same space can feel bright and airy in the low morning sun, soft in the gentle afternoon and can look completely different by the evening – creating complexity to your scheme. 

“Turn a room into a jewel box or zhuzh up skirting boards and dado rails with eico’s shimmering metalics. There are dozens of shades to choose from” Living etc 

“Your walls will have a glamorous sheen an array of metallic paints finishes from eicó. Environmentally friendly they contain the lowest levels on the UK market and now are available as a zero VOC paint.”  Self-Build magazine

Not sure which finish to choose?

Which eicó paint should I use for Interior Walls?

For interior walls you can choose eicó Helmatt or eicó Alterior Matt.

eicó Helmatt is a high quality waterborne paint for interior walls and ceilings. It dries to a non-yellowing, completely flat finish and has excellent colour retention. Due to high solid contents, it covers very well which also gives extremely high filling and hiding power making it also suitable for use as a base coat. It has good resistance against normal house hold chemicals and is also lightly washable. Perfect for interior walls and ceilings with only 4% sheen level. The surface must be stable, dry and free of dust, sand, loose old paint, dirt, grease and oil. Drying time: 2 – 3 hours (Touch dry)

Recoating time: Min. 4-5 hours (Depending upon temperature & relative humidity) o dilute the paint by about 10% with fresh water.

eicó alterior matt is a high quality waterborne paint made of 100% pure Acrylics. It dries to a non-yellowing flat finish and excellent colour retention. It has low dirt pick-up, good weathering properties and washability. Adheres well to aged alkyd paints. eicó alterior matt is easy to use and has a high opacity. It is an environmentally friendly product with very little odour and is APEO free. eicó alterior matt is designed for interior and exterior use, so it’s super strong and durable for busier homes. Keep the rooms well ventilated whilst painting, once finished painting keep cans tightly sealed. Wipe away as much paint as possible from painting tools before cleaning with water. Liquid paint waste must not be poured down the drain – dispose of it according to local regulations. You can hand in empty cans for recycling or repurpose them so they can be used for something else.