Ideas

Paint By Numbers: Colour Blocking Wall Ideas

Whether you're looking to create a bold splash or a subtle statement, Dulux's colour blocking wall ideas has you covered.

Colour blocking is a bold style of colour scheming that adds instant wow-factor to your space. Not only is it a great way to play with paint, but it allows you to express your style through your colour choices. Combining two coordinating shades to create a colour block wall can make your room feel timeless and chic, or cool and contemporary depending on the direction you want to go.

While a two-tone wall might look like a tricky decorating job, it’s actually pretty easy. You just have to follow a few simple steps. Here’s how we created an on-trend horizon line, using two of our Colours of The Year, Tranquil Dawn and Spiced Honey, plus a single line of off-white, which was already on the wall.

You will need:

Dust sheets for covering your fixtures and furniture
Pencil and a tape measure
Chalk and a length of string
Masking tape
Stirring stick
Roller and tray
2 roller heads
1” paintbrush

1. Before you start, lay out a dust sheet so you don’t spill anything on the floor. Use a tape measure and pencil to mark out the width of your stripe at intervals across the wall.

2. Coat two lengths of string with coloured chalk, then tape them along your pencil marks. Ping the strings against the wall to create guiding lines.

3. Remove the string. Apply masking tape along the inside edges of the chalk lines so that a strip of your existing wall colour will be left intact.

4. Using a roller, paint the top half of the wall in your first colour, taking the paint just over the edge of the tape.

5. Change to a new roller head, then paint the bottom of the wall in your second colour choice.

6. When the paint is dry, carefully peel away the masking tape. Step back and admire your beautiful horizon line.

Why stop at 2 colours?

If you want to get really creative with your colour block wall, there’s no reason you have to stop at two colours. Colour blocking works really well with five or even six colours too.

Try painting in vertical stripes for a really vibrant look and experiment with the way different colours go together. For example, you could start with a pink and a red such as Pink Prose and Dynamite Red at one end, and blues like Pen Friend and Open Sky at the other – divided in the middle by two neutral shades like White Cotton and Spiced Honey.

Get creative with unexpected colour contrasts

Creating a colour block wall with shades of a similar tone, will lend your space an understated elegance. But if you want to go for a more fun and frivolous feel why not get playful with hot colour contrasts. A good rule of thumb is to pick one hero colour – something really vibrant like Coral Flair – and pair it with something more muted, like Tranquil Dawn. That way you get a statement look that’s soft around the edges.