How to match the floor and walls: ideas and suggestions for unique combinations

How to match the floor and walls: ideas and suggestions for unique combinations

What’s the most difficult choice to make when building a new house or starting a restructuring project? 9 times out of 10 it’s about understanding how to match the colours of the floor and walls.

For a very simple reason: there is a practically unlimited assortment of materials, colours and textures, so finding the common thread amid this kaleidoscope to optimally match the palette of the entire setting can prove daunting.

That’s why, when tackling an interior design project, it is first necessary to analyse and interpret the spaces involved in the design project. From this analysis we can derive some useful information which will be paramount for choosing the materials, colours and furniture accessories to be added to a specific setting.

In this article we’ll explore the best floor-wall combinations and the ideal colour pairings to avoid making mistakes!

How to choose the colour of the walls and floor: some considerations on the materials

The materials can be grouped into two large families, each of which expresses its identity and gives its own character to the end result:

1) Natural materials: stone, marble and wood alone, thanks to their strong connotation, are able to bring out any texture and colour, but also the refined quality of their native material.

For example, we can imagine the grain of a noble wood with its ever-changing hues and varied textures; or the nuances emerging from a marble slab with its typical coloured veining and different shades: with their distinctly expressive quality, these materials are able to furnish and enrich an environment.

In this case, when taking into consideration the floor-walls pairing, the contrast with neutral materials enhances the specific characteristics of the natural material.

2) Artificial materials: the choice often falls on materials with apparently more static textures, colours and finishes that convey the impression of a more toned-down material compared to natural materials.

An example of this effect is a smooth white lacquered door: this element can be enhanced by contrasting it with the wall where it is positioned, by means of a material capable of balancing the two components through the colour and material clash, letting both of them emerge.

When we reflect on how to match the floor and walls, these considerations are important for developing an interior design project capable of satisfying the most diverse needs.

Matching continuous floors with walls: METEORE 10 VINTAGE and the VALPAINT decorative water-dilutable enamel

VALPAINT continuous surfaces, represented by two quintessential products like VALPAINT E-VOLUTION, in the Smooth Effect and Marbled Effect versions, and VALPAINT I-BETON, stem from studies based on the visual perception of surfaces decorated with resins and also the latest technological innovations in the sector.

Matching the floor and walls with VALPAINT E-VOLUTION SMOOTH EFFECT

VALPAINT E-VOLUTION Smooth Effect is a decorative product that defines surfaces without dominating the environment where it is applied.

The decorative outcome reveals a uniform surface strongly distinguished by the chosen nuance but also by the superficial finish, which can be glossy or matt.

This decorative effect allows for a host of creative floor-wall combinations. It makes it possible to:

• experiment with the different textures of other materials;
• exploit the colour contrast;
• enrich the surface with the tone-on-tone motif.

VALPAINT I-BETON and ideas for colouring walls

Another product that fully belongs to VALPAINT’s range of continuous surfaces is VALPAINT I-BETON, a product that, thanks to the Micro-Cement Effect and the way in which it was designed, can be applied to several contexts both to cover old bricks and on newly created surfaces.

VALPAINT I-BETON is able to create continuous waterproof surfaces and can thus be used in damp environments, including interiors of showers, saunas and Turkish baths.

The characteristic Micro-Cement Effect, which produces a largely uniform aesthetic effect, can be combined with the same material using different colours or combined with METEORE 10 CEMENTO Vintage Effect.

Combining a light grey stone floor and marble on walls

Natural materials such as stone and marble are unquestionably sophisticated finishes and should be treated as such. Characterised by one-of-a-kind textures and hues, to enhance their characteristics we generally combine finishes and colours that balance the interior design while emphasising the materials without ever overshadowing them.

By experimenting with colours and very lightly textured surfaces we can create elegant and original settings with the floor-wall pairing. The decorative effects that can be optimally combined with these natural materials are VALSETIN 2, VALRENNA 2 and POLISTOF by VALPAINT.

• VALSETIN 2: a delicate and elegant decorative effect that adds a simple yet extremely refined touch to surfaces. The colour range allows for combining it with any material to create colour contrasts or by working tone-on-tone.

• VALRENNA 2: this tactile decoration, which evokes suede and velvety fabric, truly unveils its full potential when combined with stone or marble. The nuances are able to satisfy any demand for colour pairings by creating contrasts or tonal combinations (for further details on the potential of this decorative product, also read VALRENNA 2: technical and application characteristics of the VALPAINT fabric-effect paint).

• POLISTOF: a polychrome paint highly reactive to natural and artificial light, which creates matt surfaces capable of emphasising natural materials such as stone and marble. POLISTOF can also be enriched with micro-crystals that make all the difference on surfaces struck by light (also read Fabric-effect wall paint: all the features of POLISTOF). If the design concept relies on a native stone surface with a matt finish for the floor, an interesting aesthetic effect can be obtained by treating the vertical walls with POLISTOF with L50 micro-crystals in order to enhance both features.

Combining wall colours with wooden floors: METEORE 10 CEMENTO Compact Effect – METEORE 10 INTONACO

It would not be possible to speak about noble materials without mentioning wood. To all effects, this element is considered to be an actual furnishing accessory with a distinct design appeal. Although it has always been featured in both sophisticated projects and more basic solutions, over the last few years it has become a must in industrial projects as well.

Looking at the most exclusive lofts, a wooden floor makes a striking impression: the finishes used will have a vintage and aged character to recall the nature of the places involved in the design project.

But how can we combine a brown floor with the colours of the walls? In this case, the vertical surfaces can be decorated in a simple way to create a “frame effect” capable of emphasising the elegance of the floor.

VALPAINT proposes two exclusive products for these pairings that aptly satisfy these criteria: METEORE 10 CEMENTO Compact Effect and METEORE 10 INTONACO.

METEORE 10 CEMENTO, a textured product that replicates the effect of cement, is capable of emphasising the material quality and typical colours of this building material.
METEORE 10 INTONACO is a delicate and on-trend decorative effect that, thanks to a dusty-effect finish in certain areas, adds a bold and highly up-to-date character to environments.