Unifying Home Interiors With Horizontal Colour Blocking

Horizontal colour blocking unifies a space, wrapping the walls together like a ribbon around a gift. These five modern home interior concepts illustrate how half painted walls give a cosy colourful aesthetic to any lounge and dining room. We’ll also be taking some full house tours to see how the established colour blocking palettes translate into a cohesive scheme throughout bedrooms and bathrooms too. There is inspiration for incorporating textured panels, wall paint effects and colourful accent furniture. These adaptable decor schemes each show how a contrasting colour palette can balance out a room, as well as how brighter elements can be subtly subdued with softly muted shades.

Visualizer: Darya Asadchaya

A soothing creamy living room scheme is given weight and definition with a dark horizontal colour block around its full perimeter. Dark furniture melds tidily into the band.

A chocolate accent cushion unites the dark modern sofa with brown wood grain pieces around the rest of the room.

Glossy pendant lights fall above a solid wood rectangle dining table. A modern shelving unit gives the dining room arrangement height whilst letting the colour block decor push through.

The colour blocking wraps around into the kitchen area of the open plan living room, coloring an island.

Vertical boards clad the face of the blue kitchen island, giving the volume a textural link with the ribbed cream kitchen cabinets behind.

Wooden kitchen bar stools temporarily interrupt the flow of the painted border.

Visualizer: Elemental Design

Our next horizontal paint effect adds a blast of freshness, like a freshly mown lawn. Recessed LED perimeter lights add a bright sky.

A treasured Buddhist altar adds chic Asian decor to the tranquil lounge.

Light wood grain complements the soft melon green and white palette. A knitted pouf makes a warm grey addition.

A small entryway bench accentuates the horizontal paint application in the entryway, where it underlines a decorative shelf plaque with handy bag hooks.

Moving into the bedroom we see an evolution of the green colour scheme, where the horizontal colour blocking bleeds out into a solid wall treatment. A white dressing table and vanity stool stand out crisply against the saturated backdrop.

Indoor plants translate the green accent into living accessories.

A gallery of botanical prints colour the wall above a curvaceous white console table. A sage runner trims the bed.

The same colour story continues into the kids’ bedroom design with a mellow green bed set. A green desk lamp pops another note into the kid’s study area.

Natural timber elements curate a close to nature feel.

Visualizer: Bui Ni

Our third interior is home to a sage strip of half-height colour, which serves as a muted base for brighter splashes of lime and lemon.

A yellow bench floats across the sage colour block in the entryway. Decorative wall hooks anchor into the walls misty grey upper section.

A lemon refrigerator adds bite to a light green kitchen. Green base cabinets form their own colour block, whilst white wall cabinets blend with matching wall tiles.

Oak accents add a warm tonal thread throughout.

Visualizer: Andrey Sanko

Our penultimate tour features green and orange accent decor against sophisticated taupe horizontal colour blocking.

Round coffee tables and a small sofa coordinate with the taupe paintwork, whilst a textured rug welcomes in pattern.

Vibrant wall art energises the base colour scheme.

Sheer white drapes gather at only one side of the window frame, keeping the dressing simple and uncluttered.

A floating TV stand makes a sleek addition to the textured TV wall.

A modern home office desk and orb shaped modern wall sconce drop white accents into the shadowy corner of the living space.

The black keyboard and monitor are complimented by a black metal desk chair. Black wall planters climb a pure white wall behind.

An oversized black dining room pendant light coordinates with a black dining table at the back of the living room.

Quirky orange dining chairs contrast with the dark pedestal dining table.

A green kitchen stripes the back of the dining space, accessorised with a planter wall light.

Visualizer: Bureau Slovo

Our final tour is an interior peppered with contrasting elements. A ribbed russet border warmly wraps the base of the white room, whilst soft furnishings fill the centre of the space with forest shades.

A small side table serves the space between the sofa and window seat. The colour blocked panel work continues across the face of the built-in seat in one cohesive sweep.

A modern black TV stand overlays the bright border, and complements a black marble coffee table.

Coffee table books line up along the edge of the black granite topped window bench.

Green and gold Gubi Beetle chairs and gold dining table are teamed with an elegant gold dining chandelier.

The earthy border ups the heat of the rich combo.

Ribbed panels run through into the kitchen design, where they switch into a black colourway above the black granite backsplash.

In the bedroom, the russet accent has been translated into an upholstered bed. Bedroom pendant lights add the gold element.

A geometric rug design introduces a hint of yellow ochre.

Ribbed panelling has also been utilised as an accent inside the bathroom design, this time as a unique wall mounted unit. Two gold bathroom vanity lights create a symmetrical arrangement.