Amazing Home Decorating Ideas with Paint

With a little imagination, home decorating with paint can go well beyond painting walls. Paint can create illusions that trick the eye into seeing things that aren't there. Imagine making a ceiling look higher, or a narrow hallway wider. What about creating the illusion of an elegant floor on ordinary cement? Or expensive crown molding with cheap casing? All these amazing home decorating ideas with paint are easy to do, and they'll save you money.

Faux crown molding

I discovered this amazing home decorating idea with paint on HGTV. Using an illusion, faux crown molding was added to a room at a fraction of the cost of its real counterpart. Instead of buying expensive, 10-inch thick trim, two pieces of 1-inch thick trim were used together, one at the top of the wall, the other 10-inches below it. Then the trim and the space between it were painted white to create the illusion that a 10-inch piece of crown molding was put up on the wall.

Faux tray ceiling

This is an idea I invented for my bedroom, which was too long and had an oppressively low ceiling. To solve the problem, I painted a rectangle on the ceiling with the frame around it in the same color as my walls. At the center of the rectangle I painted a second, smaller rectangle also at the same color as my walls. As a result the ceiling seemed to have the shadow and added height of a tray ceiling, while the frame blended into the walls and made them seem longer.

Garage party room

For homes with no backyard, I found a great home decorating idea with paint on My Home Ideas. Instead of using the home garage to store junk and park cars, why not turn it into an outdoor hosting space? After clearing out your garage and cleaning it thoroughly, faux paint it in earth tones using three shades and a sea sponge (found in paint and home improvement stores). Just dabbing the sponge on the wall will create a beautiful pattern. Finish by decorating with light strings, then hire tables and chairs and invite the neighbors for a party.

Paint the floor

I've painted an outdoor porch in a faux brick pattern once, but on Southern Living I found another beautiful idea for painting your porch floor. This floor was first painted in sage. Next painter's tape was used at crisscrossing lines to form a diamond pattern, which was painted in darker green. Finally, circles of hunter green were painted were the lines crossed, like coins marking the intersections. The elegant pattern creates a beautiful home decorating idea with paint alone.

Refreshing furniture

I've returned countless garage sale finds from the dead and, in every case, paint played a significant role. Typically I will sand the piece down, and then I will prime it with water-based primer, which will help the paint adhere properly. Here's a beautiful example from Better Homes and Gardens for painting a dresser in two-tones.

Widening a hallway

This is an idea I used a few times already in homes with narrow hallways. To create the illusion that the space wasn't as long as it seemed (and, therefore, not as narrow) I installed strips of floor molding horizontally on the wall from floor to ceiling. I spaced them two feet apart and installed them on both sides of the hallway. I then painted them white to match the floor molding, which completed the illusion of space segmentation. With matching wall art hung between the molding, my hallway looked beautiful.

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