One of the emerging trends of 2025 is colour drenching. For anyone wondering, this is simply painting a room in a single colour, allowing the colour to flow across walls, ceiling and trims. This is a brave way to decorate, but it creates harmony, depth and a strong visual impact.
The key to successful colour drenching is choosing a colour that suits the function of the room. Whether you choose a stronger colour, such as Hespan, our warm terracotta, or a gentle pink like Jonquil, our natural paints have a soft, matt finish that work particularly well when enveloping a space. By selecting the correct colour and tone, you will avoid overwhelming the room.
The Aller Studio has painted their family bathroom in Hespan, our award-winning warm terracotta. Shown here drenching the ceiling and skirting and paired with green elements.
Spaces that work particularly well can be connecting ones, such as halls and passages as the drenching keeps the space simple. Using one continuous colour is also a good way to help an old room accommodate more contemporary furnishings or art.
A practical benefit of decorating in this way is not needing to worry about that perfect finish where the walls meet the ceiling or skirting… and no need for painter’s tape! Edward Bulmer says drenching is not a new invention, as ‘historically this was a popular way to decorate rooms panelled with timber. This avoided cutting in to the numerous edges presented by panelling’. Plaster rooms would also traditionally be treated in a single colour.
Bedrooms are particularly suitable rooms for drenching and it makes them extra welcoming and cosy. This bedroom is painted in Persian and paired with Fanny Shorter’s Mill Pond fabric. Lucy Cunningham Interiors have used Lute in this lovely guest bedroom. Edward Bulmer likes to describe Lute as ‘a real friend to homes with good architectural bones’. With its red undertones, it looks so charming here in this 17th century farmhouse cottage.
This pretty attic room is perfectly cocooned in Jonquil … and don’t forget the details.. even the switches, sockets and downlighters can be painted in to match. Explore more of these NEW paintables with The Soho Lighting Co.
This warm, pink sitting room is painted in our plaster pink, Jonquil, and is designed by Thea Speke. She has chosen to accessorise with warm deep red velvet armchairs. By drenching the room, what could have felt like a cool room had it been finished with a traditional white ceiling, is instead a perfect pink cocoon.
A perfectly peaceful snug in Fair Blue. This colour opens up the room to feel spacious yet snug. It is beautifully designed by interior design studio Penrose Tilbury, who really know how to do colour well and the decision to paint the bookshelf in the same colour is inspired. This room is a masterclass in drenching!
For the colour bold, double drenching creates a striking finish. Sarah Davenport from That Rebel House has double drenched her bedrooms, fully covering them in not one, but two colours.
In the master bedroom the walls and ceiling are drenched in Header, and woodwork in Pompadour.
In the second room, the walls are painted in Drab Green. The woodwork is painted in Azurite, our pigment rich colour that packs a real punch extending over the ceiling. For more inspirational colour choices from Sarah, read the great interview we did with her.
As a company that loves to embrace colour, we are smitten with this way of decorating and it is such a joy to see our colours envelope whole rooms. For inspiration or advice contact us, we’d love to help.
Don’t miss our feature on how to use the power of stripes in your interiors too, a must read.
