Logo image
Logo image

Use the Half-Paint Style to Decorate your Bedroom

4 minutes
The half-paint style is on-trend. We'll tell you about some features and tips to take into account if you want to paint your bedroom using this original style.
Use the Half-Paint Style to Decorate your Bedroom
Last update: 04 March, 2022

As the name suggests, the half-paint style involves painting half of an object or wall in one color and the other half in a different color. It’s a fun and original way to decorate your bedroom. Although it’s more common to use this technique in rooms for children or young people, you can incorporate this style into any area of your home.

We often find this style on decorative objects, furniture, and walls. It’s common to see the half-paint style on a chair’s legs or on a piece of furniture. You can also see it on the handles of wooden kitchen utensils and on kitchen walls. It’s a simple, original, and visually appealing idea.

The beauty of painting your walls with this technique is that you get to use two colors. It’s most common to see a light base color such as white, chalk, or very light gray with a vibrant, pastel, or dark color to complement it.

The half-paint style: combine light colors with pastels

Decorators commonly combine a light color with a pastel color. For example, in rooms for small children. You can paint your child’s room using this technique and combine different colors. For example, you can use white with pastel pink, or light gray with pastel green. This will give the space more light.

Some figure

Dark and light colors

When it comes to your walls, if you choose a light color like white and combine it with a darker one such as gray, consider the following tip:

To achieve a visual balance, it’s important to paint the lower part of the wall in a darker color. Obviously, then, the lighter half is the upper portion of the wall. We do this because the darker color “weighs more” in relation to the light color. Combining the two colors in this way will create a visual balance on your walls.

The half-paint style: you don’t have to paint in halves

While the half-paint style says that only half of the wall or object is painted in a different color, you don’t have to abide by that rule. You can paint as much of the wall as you’d like. You can paint less than half or above half the surface. In addition to this being an original style, it’s important to know that you may even use less paint and, therefore, less money.

Separating the two colors

To separate both colors of paint you can choose between three different options:

  • If you want it to be straight, apply a strip of painter’s tape before painting the wall. This will make a straight line easier to achieve. Paint the area and once it’s dry, remove the tape.
  • If you don’t want to have such a clear separation between both colors and you’d rather have a more natural appearance, don’t use the tape. Rather, diffuse the colors and combine them by using a roller and a brush.
  • You can mark the distinction with a piece of crown molding to separate the colors. But if you do this, we recommend that you separate the colors with a wide strip of another color. This will give detail to your wall and you’ll be able to incorporate a third color.
Some figure

Half-paint with chalkboard paint

If you want to have a space on your wall to draw or to make notes, you can use the half-paint technique with chalkboard paint. This technique is also ideal for little ones. It prevents children from scribbling on your best walls and they’ll have a specific wall for their own creations.

In this case, you should bear in mind that chalk generates a certain amount of dust when you use it. If you use chalk, you’ll also have to focus on cleaning the space more often.

If you apply a half-paint chalkboard to your child’s room, try using chalk markers. These act like a normal marker and they don’t release dust. If you can, try to avoid using traditional chalk in children’s bedrooms, as breathing in dust isn’t good for their lungs.

Geometric and diagonal shapes

If you’re not a big fan of symmetry or orthogonality, feel free to use a diagonal half-paint style. Use the same procedure of applying tape diagonally to one of your walls and simply brighten it up. It’ll make your space more fun than if you were to paint it horizontally or vertically.

If you’d like to paint diagonally and you want to push your creativity, play with the diagonals and create a geometric half-painted space.

Remember that you can also apply the half-paint style to your furniture. This will give greater prominence to the technique and will complement the way you’ve painted your walls. Think about applying this technique to the foot of your bed, for example. Have fun and paint your bedroom walls in halves!