Inspiration: Dark Walls, Light Floors

This look is the flipside of the trend towards dark floors and white walls. It's a way to create unexpected contrast in a space, and the pairing of richly colored walls with a fluffy white rug can add a little luxury to a room...

The rooms above all incorporate white or beige carpets and rugs to lighten up the floors, while deep grays and purples bring a sense of drama. Dark colors range from accent walls, to wall-to-wall tones, to a pattern of gradated stripes. Light-colored upholstery and textiles anchor furnishings to the floors, while dark pieces seem to float.

• 1 Lane's Style on a Budget
• 2 Jen of Made by Girl's Vintage Chic Home
• 3 Nina's Elegant Modern Pre-War
• 4 The Fahden's Clearly Clean and Simple
• 5 Jen and Rob's Gothic Bungalow

Photos: Lane, Jen, Jill Slater, Allison Vallant, Sarah Rainwater

Comments (9)

I am a fan of dark walls, but some people fear that they can make the room look smaller. I disagree especially if the floor is light, because it allows your eye to expand the space to its fullest visual potential. The dark walls are like looking into space, they go on and on and the light floor does expand the perception of the room boarders.

Cheers!

posted by MODERnestS on August 27th 2009 at 7:36pm
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Yep yep. I love my dark walls and light floors. Delicious.

posted by Cashew on August 27th 2009 at 9:02pm
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love it, but white carpet? Clearly no shoes or pets allowed.

posted by jennipenni on August 27th 2009 at 10:19pm
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Agreed - I'm in love w my So-Brown-It's-Almost-Black walls and white flokati...
...it's really no biggie maintaining the white wool rug - it goes to the cleaners every summer.

posted by bepsf on August 27th 2009 at 10:53pm
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Like delicious dark, dark chocolate.
i love dark walls as they are so handsome, rich and opulent... but that second space (bedroom) looks unfinished to me.

posted by ilovebc on August 27th 2009 at 11:06pm
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I LOVE these rooms! The greys here are saturated, beautiful, non-jarring and easy on the eyes. Paired with cream textiles - awesome!

http://www.donkeehouse.com

posted by bitdot on August 28th 2009 at 6:09am
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I love this look - especially with so much natural light. So pretty!

posted by Josita on August 28th 2009 at 7:59am
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I have dark grey in my bedroom and does feel any smaller then when it was white.

posted by LoriSF on August 28th 2009 at 2:42pm
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Ohhh great way to make a large room look much smaller. Specially with the light floors. Attracts the eye down to the floor and gives the impression of the room being smaller.

posted by AlexPDL on August 28th 2009 at 5:20pm
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