The walls in our living room have kind of an odd recessed shelf thing built in at the top, with this area that bulges out a bit underneath, that curves at the bottom where it runs into the hall ceiling. Then above the kitchen there’s this wall thing that curves into the kitchen ceiling. We’re having trouble deciding how we’re going to paint it. I don’t want to leave it all the color of the ceiling, unless I paint the hall and kitchen ceiling (which my husband doesn’t want to do, he thinks it’ll make the hall and kitchen feel oppressive). If we paint it all but not the ceiling, we’re having trouble deciding where on the curve where the bulgy thing meets the ceiling the line of paint should be. I am planning on using a dark-ish greeny-gray color, if it matters.
Paint it all except the ceiling - and if your husbands objection to painting the ceilings and the kitchen are only the oppressiveness of that much dark colour choose a lighter shade in the same family for the kitchen and paint it to.
I voted don’t paint the bulgy thing, but do paint the wall above it. If you don’t like the way that looks you can always go back and paint the bulgy thing
Paint the walls (all vertical surfaces, above and below the bulgy thing). Paint the bulgy thing. Do not paint the ceilings. Where the bulgy thing meets the ceiling, paint the rounded edge of the bulgy thing but stop where it meets the flat surface of the ceiling (the horizontal surface is the ceiling and should remain unpainted, the rounded part is part of the bulgy thing and should be painted). That thin strip where the bulgy thing meets the wall (shown in IMG_1546) should be painted, but stop where the hall ceiling starts (preferably leaving a triangle where the edges all come together).
This is exactly what I want to do, but my husband thinks there will be a strip of color visible as you approach the living room from the hall. He wants to stop the paint at some point above that, which I think will look sloppy, as the paint won’t continue in a straight line on the bulgy thing when the wall ends.
I think we’ll probably do it his way first, then end up doing it my way when he sees how messy his way looks, and then do the trim if my way looks bad too.
Sigh. Stupid rounded edges. Whoever designed this house had a bizarre aversion to nice, sharp corners.
I don’t think I would paint the bulgy thingy. Leave it and the ceiling white. I would use a lighter shade of the main color you’re using and use that to paint the wall above the bulgy thingy. The light shade could possibly also be used on the big curved part and the kitchen ceiling if you wanted to go that route. The wall between the hallway and kitchen that actually goes all the way to the ceiling would be the darker shade.
I think it depends, are you choosing paint colors for both rooms? If one room is staying white I would say don’t paint the shelf, but if you choose two new colors that work well together you might want to paint it.
