High-Gloss Lacquered Finishes: A Wall Treatment Solution for Dark, Compact Attic Spaces

ByZoë Sessums,Photography byBrittany Ambridge

PublishedJun 16, 2026 10:03 PM EDT

Domino Reno: Before + Afters, DIYs, and Advice From the Pros

Domino Reno: Before + Afters, DIYs, and Advice From the Pros

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Attics—with their sloped ceilings, awkward angles, and limited natural light—are frequently relegated to storage duty. Yet for designer Andrew Suvalsky, these constraints were precisely what made this third-floor conversion so compelling. His client required a functional home office for frequent video conferences, but the room sat beneath the roofline with low half walls, dormers, and minimal daylight. “The wall becomes the ceiling becomes the angle,” says Suvalsky. “If you treat all of that with one paint color it falls flat, but too much contrast and it reads chopped up.” Rather than working against the room’s architecture, Suvalsky embraced it with a refined solution: a high-gloss pink lacquer finish applied across the ceiling and angled walls.

Reflective Finishes: Maximizing Natural Light

Phillip Jeffries’s lacquered wallcovering in the color Paint It Pink envelops the room, creating a rosy glow that feels playful rather than precious. The high-shine finish bounces limited light throughout the space, making the pitched roofline feel taller and the footprint larger than its actual dimensions. “In a room with no real daylight, the reflection is doing a lot of the work,” he explains.

Balancing Gloss with Depth: The Role of Contrast

To prevent the room from reading as a single wash of pink, Suvalsky grounded the lower walls in a moody House of Hackney wallpaper. “A high-gloss finish can’t be the only thing carrying the room,” he notes. “Something else has to stand up to it.” The pairing creates a dynamic interplay between shine and depth, ensuring neither element overwhelms the other.

Roofline-Driven Space Planning

Suvalsky integrated built-in shelving beneath the eaves, while the desk occupies the tallest part of the room so the sloped ceiling won’t encroach on the seated user. On the opposite side, a compact sofa serves as both a reading spot for the homeowners’ children and a guest bed. “A room like this isn’t asking for one thing,” Suvalsky says. “It’s asking for three or four at once.”

Wallpaper Versus Paint: Choosing the Right High-Gloss Application

“It comes down to the color you’re after,” explains Suvalsky. Wallpaper can sometimes be the more practical route, since achieving a flawless high-gloss paint finish often requires extensive preparation. The more critical consideration is ensuring the selected hue connects cohesively with the rest of the room. Elsewhere in the same residence, Suvalsky coated the ceiling of a dim grand foyer in a reflective Tiffany blue—demonstrating that the right reflective finish transforms any underlit space.

Zoë Sessums

Contributing Editor

Brittany Ambridge

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