Separating a common wall that will have two different colors

Hey there michellelozada,

A very interesting question you pose there!

I've seen the "moulding scenario" done before and it really gets mixed results. Going by the colors that you plan on painting with, I don't see the moulding really being able to pull them together, since they don't have that "pop!" contrast. What shades/tints of blue & peach are you working with?

If you want to test out the moulding method, I would suggest taping the area you plan on dividing the room at with painters tape (if you haven't painted already, masking tape would be great due to the color but be careful when removing it.) Make it about 3-4 in. wide and leave it up for a few days to get the visual of how that moulding would look. It may just work for you! : )

As far as other suggestions go:

• If you're a DIY type, you can opt to add a small box frame from floor to ceiling to create your own subtle room divider. No bigger than about (2) 2x4's and then drywall it and use that as your divider. Paint up to one corner of it in peach, and the opposite corner in your blue. I would leave the face of it in white to add contrast as well. If you do consider this, make sure to consider if adding an architectural element will ruin the rest of the room layout. You don't want it to seem "just thrown in there."

• If you're artsy, you can "fade" the colors. To me personally...a straight line in the middle of a wall just doesn't work. Try meeting the colors at a line using painters tape, and then lightly brushing some of the opposite color onto one side of the line, and vice versa. Doing this helps "fuse" the colors and gives it an interesting meeting point. However don't go overboard with it, since you don't want it to be the focal point of the room.

• Lastly, I would strongly suggest keeping the common wall as one color. It's just not a great place to create accents or focal points, design wise at least. I would save your second color for a small accent wall or opposing wall. That way you still get the divided look, but you don't have a harsh line or moulding running down the middle of the room, obstructing the layout.

Hopefully this helps give you a few extra ideas or perhaps spur you into a new idea of your own. If you have a layout of the room that you can upload onto here we can look at it a little further as well. Let me know if you have any questions on it, and best of luck!~ Hope to see some pictures of the finished product real soon = D

Thank you for help!  We will try one of these.  My husband did mention the blending option, so we will probably try to do this first.  My Peach was a lighter color and my blue was going to be like royal blue, but we may have to compromise and go a few shades lighter on the blue for blending purposes.  I'll try to get pictures, but I'm new at Blogs and not sure how to transfer photos onto here.

Thank you again - You've been a big help!

Michelle

Hi Michelle,

I love Jay's excellent suggestions and want to add to his ideas with several images and one prior post that may help!

If you want to execute a fade, there are several ways. Almost a year ago, a young man came to The Paint Pit and asked for help with color selection as well as an accent wall in his bedroom. We recommended vertical columns of translucent glaze ... executed over a deep blue base color. The alternating exposed paint then glaze over paint created "POP." Have a look.

Jay also mentioned "a small box frame from floor to ceiling to create your own subtle room divider."

Another way to use Jay's idea is to use decorator pieces like Legal Bookcases or Antique Chest of Drawers to set the room apart. Here are two photo from my home that show pieces used in a floor to ceiling configuration.

Configuring accent pieces is a great design feature that becomes a focal point and distracts from the transition ... the dog is pretty distracting too, but he's already taken!

Finally, an expansion of the idea would be another angle as a transition ... like diagonal. Although the fish in my den are not offsetting two colors, you can imagine a beautiful, creative, and colorful diagonal transition that would work here.

Notice the little guy swimming upstream while all the other fish "go with the flow."

Little touches, like that, allow you to express your personality and can make your design a conversation piece for your guests.

I agree w/ Jay ... A straight line is simply too hard visually.

So go ahead and use the colors you love, but be creative and use faux techniques, stripes, or existing pieces from your home to help make the visual transition.

Have some fun with it!

Not a problem, glad we could help you come up with some ideas =)

Pat also had some really great input, so hopefully between the 3 of us, we have this one set.

For putting up your pictures, it just takes a few steps to upload them onto our site so that you can show off that awesome wall to our community!

Hitting this button in your reply or topic will start the process, and open up a new window much like the one below...

From here you can use pictures already on the web, like from Google, by using the "From Another Site" tab and inserting the url. In this case though, since you want to upload your own picture, stay on the "From My Computer" tab. By hitting the grayish Browse button, we get a prompt like this...

From here just navigate to the folder where your pictures are on your computer, and hit the Open button in the bottom corner. This will bring you back to the window where we hit browse earlier. On here, just look for the little button like this...

And *poof!* Your image will appear back in the textbox = D Then you can show off your skills to the rest of our community! We look forward to hearing back from you on this~

Thank you both so much.  I am going to attempt to send photos of the wall in question.  If you look at the photo "Left side of Breakfast Bar" this is the wall in question.  The Breakfat Bar (we consider the kitchen) needs to be Royal Blue like the rest of the kitchen.  The Peach is going to seperate the kitchewn from the Dining Room.  In the photo "Right side of Breakfast Bar", you will notice a column that actually seperates the Breakfast Bar from the Dining Room, so this is easy to change the colors.  The Dining Room (which we call it) is actually a Bonus Room  per the builders, but since we had no actually sitting area to eat besides the bar, we made the Bonuis room into a Dining Room.

WOW Michelle!

It is so true, a picture is worth a thousand words ... in this case two pictures.

Your solution is in the archetectural details already in your room.

The corner is a natural transition. Simply use it as your break point.

In the other location, move your line above the door. This creates the smallest transition area and the door creates the transition. Commonly a straight line will work here, but use some of the earlier ideas if you really like them. A faux finish using a sponge would make the line softer.

Thanks for the photos and have fun with your "new" look! 

Oh yea, it makes a world of difference = )

I would agree 100% with Pat on this one, the corner is just PERFECT for making that transition. It gives a nice, clean break between the colors and yet still blends them nicely.

As far as the other picture, going above the door and then using a faux or sponging technique would look great. I also see an area just behind the TV (or at least I belive that's a TV hehe.) That may actually serve as another breaking point as well. The peach would come a bit more into the room than perhaps you want, but that line would be hidden better by the TV and the rest of the archetechture would help hide it as well.

Thanks so much for posting pictures up! It helped quite a bit = )

Look forward to seeing where this project goes!~ Have you picked out any color samples yet?

I'm a bit late to the party on this one, but maybe it will help someone else.

You can always use moulding, 1x3 or 1x4 or a combination of them vertically down the wall, tying into your existing baseboard to create a natural break in the common wall. You make the project easier if you keep the same trim color in both rooms.

In the Millwork Department, they sell some moulding accessory pieces that make this a quick and easy project. These accessories are used when you dont want miter corners or direction transition points. They're typically squares or rectangles that have some design embellished on them or are plain.

You would then square cut your existing moulding, place the desired block and the build up from there. Just to give you some idea of what's available beyond just ordinary moulding or 1x3, look at something like these examples:

Again, these are just two examples found in the Millwork Department at your local THD. They're made by House of Fara.

No worries!~ Better late than never = )

Thanks for the input on this. I like your idea of using the House of Fara mouldings; gives it a really nice, decorative touch.