Q. My situation is as follows: I'm moving into a newly constructed home with all white interiors. Question 1: Is it necessary to paint the vaulted ceiling in the master bedroom when I paint the walls? Nothing dark or strong is planned. Question 2: What, if any, prep is required to repaint the walls and trim in a newly painted home? Question 3: My foyer/entry, family room, kitchen, and morning room are all connected and adjoined without a doorway. How do I determine the best place for dividing the rooms with paint?
A. Your vaulted ceiling is fresh, clean and white, so you don't need to paint it, if you like white ceilings. If you don't like white ceilings, a very pale version of the wall color is always a good choice. If it was all painted with latex water-based paint, you can just use the same type of paint right over it.
The only places you can change colors are at inside and outside corners. If you have no doorways, archways, or anything, then that's your only choice. You can't simply pick a place in the middle of a wall, draw a vertical line and change colors. With such an open floor plan, you really should try to maximize on that feeling of openness and flow by choosing one color that you can use in all the rooms. Then accent each one differently while still coordinating everything with area rugs or fabrics, etc. you may be able to find an accent wall here and there to define an individual space, but don't try to paint each room a different color. That will just chop up your nice open plan.
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