Color Drenching Visualizer

How to use the color drenching visualizer

1. Pick a room. Start with the sample bedroom or home office, or tap Upload or take a photo to use your own room.
2. Pick one color. Browse the six color families or type any color code. On a sample room the walls, the ceiling and the trim are all repainted in it at once.
3. Choose the same color or tonal. Tonal keeps the hue but makes the ceiling one step lighter and the trim one step deeper, for a softer drench with a little shape to it.
4. Choose the finish. Each surface its usual sheen uses what Sherwin-Williams, Benjamin Moore and Behr name for walls in that kind of room, for ceilings and for trim. One finish for everything is a single multi-surface matte.
5. On your own photo, paint each surface. Tap Paint it beside the walls, then tap each wall; do the same for the ceiling and the trim. Each one stays its own layer, so you can repaint one without touching the others. Compare shows the before and after.

What the paint makers say about color drenching

Two paint makers publish guides to it, and they agree on what it is. Farrow & Ball: Color drenching simply means painting everything the same shade: the walls, woodwork, ceiling and even radiators or furniture. Dulux describes it as painting an entire room – including the walls, ceiling, trim and sometimes architectural features – in the same colour or varying tones of the same hue. That second half is the visualizer’s Tonal setting.

Where they part is the finish. Farrow & Ball recommends one ultra-matt, multi-surface paint for all of it. Dulux suggests using the same colour in different finishes. A matte finish on walls pairs well with an eggshell finish on the ceiling. The paint makers’ general sheen guides (the same ones the free paint sheen finder reads) put trim and doors in semi-gloss, because woodwork gets knocked and wiped. A tougher sheen on the trim keeps the drench practical.

On light and dark, Farrow & Ball says a light or mid shade can help to make a room feel bigger and airier, by blurring the line where the walls and ceiling meet, especially in awkward shaped spaces like narrow hallways, and that Darker tones work wonderfully for color drenching, creating a cosy cocoon of color. This especially suits rooms you use in the evening.

Which sheen for each surface, room by room

With each surface its usual sheen, the visualizer takes the sheen most paint makers name for walls in that room, for ceilings and for trim (the Paint Sheen Finder’s rules). How many of the three makers name it is in brackets.

Different sheens of one color look slightly different, because a shinier paint reflects more light. Dulux treats that as part of the effect, so do not expect three sheens to read as one perfectly flat color.

The tonal version

Tonal keeps the hue and moves only its lightness: the ceiling one step lighter, the trim one step deeper. A step here is 10 points of lightness on the CIELAB scale, the visualizer’s own choice: enough to see, small enough to stay one color family. A few examples, with each surface’s LRV (light reflectance value, 0 black to 100 white):

Color names here are the visualizer’s own, not a paint brand’s. To buy a near match, take the codes to a paint store’s color match, or find a brand color with the free paint color matcher.

Three worked examples

An olive bedroom. The sample bedroom opens drenched in Olive (LRV 19, a dark color): the walls in matte, the ceiling in flat and the window and door trim in semi-gloss, as one color in three sheens. That is the dark, cocooning kind of drench, made for a room you use in the evening.

A tonal Sage office. Pick the home office, then Sage and Tonal. The walls stay Sage at LRV 44, the ceiling goes up to LRV 61 so the room keeps its height, and the door and window trim drop to LRV 30, which outlines them softly instead of in white.

One finish for everything. Switch the finish to one finish for everything and the plan becomes one color in one multi-surface matte made for walls and woodwork alike. It is the easiest shopping list, with one caveat: check that the can says it is made for woodwork, because ordinary wall matte does not stand up to doors and baseboards.

Common mistakes when color drenching

• Using wall paint on the trim. Baseboards, doors and window sills get kicked, knocked and wiped. A wall matte there scuffs fast; use the trim’s own sheen, or a multi-surface paint made for woodwork.
• Forgetting the ceiling. A drench with a white ceiling is just a painted room. The ceiling is what makes the color wrap around you.
• Underbuying paint. A drench also covers the ceiling and all the woodwork, so it takes more paint than walls alone. Add the ceiling’s area to the walls’ in the free paint calculator.
• Judging a dark drench in daylight only. Farrow & Ball pairs dark drenches with rooms used in the evening. Look at a large sample in the evening light too, with the lamps on.
• Trusting the screen for the final decision. Screens and phone cameras shift colors. Narrow it down here, then paint large samples on two walls and the ceiling before you commit.

Read next

• Color drenching room ideas
• Color drenched bedrooms
• Color drenched living rooms
• Green drenched living rooms
• A color drenched kitchen
• Moody bedroom ideas