apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Also check out June 09 living etc., there's a good example of a charcoal wall in there. Depending on what furniture you have, it can really make a room feel very vivid. LOVE that blue above, by the way.

That dark color looks so cool. I just moved to a new place and originally i painted all pure white cause i don;t have yet enough furniture. Most of my stuff are off white, black and brown, and i also have some red vases and some decorative items with bright colors. So now i want to have one wall in a dark dark dark color. i will do some photoshop before. i will post it so you guys can see it and send me your comments. jijiji. You should do what you feel to do. you are the one living there, right?? some people think that white will make your space look bigger, but i've seen a lot of places in dark colors that look big as well. :)

Don't listen to your friends. If we all only listened to all of our friends, all of our furniture would be pushed against the walls and everything would be white and beige and granite and stainless steel.

Do what you like. You can always repaint if you live with it for awhile and decide you don't like it.

I second slowdown.

I painted my entry charcoal against what all my friends said and I LOVE it. I also live in a studio and it gives my apartment so much more depth. Go for it! Worst case you can always repaint.

I painted my bedroom tangerine and magenta... all of my friends thought I was nuts, but my bedroom made me so incredibly happy. Unless your friends are living in your apartment with you, don't listen to them. Just do what you love.

not a dark colour lover, but a colour lover - my flat also definitely polarizes, especially my pink office and bright orange hallway. never mind - i just love the colours, and i've been living here for two years now!

so don't listen to others if your inner voice tells you something else..... and why not do as suggested by OjitosLindos (y qué nombre más lindo) and photoshop the above picture a bit? or gimp it, or paint it, or .... use whatever is available on your computer?

let us know what you think....

Go for the color! All white is so boring, so if you want to go dark, do it! :)

It's your home - Why ask your friend's opinions?
(unless they're interior designers)

Mark - That's a beautiful colorchoice.

if you get a lot of light in your space id say go for it. ive always wanted to do a dark charcoal in our bedroom...

When I showed my friends the paint chip I was going to paint my bedroom they said much too dark. Now they are asking me for the paint color a year later. I have a dark warm grey and I love it. You need to think about the color of your furniture, in my case I have dark to med vintage wood pieces and honey toned wood floors so the dark warm toned grey really works.

I have always wanted to paint a room in my own house benjamin moore gentleman's gray its a deep saturated dark blue grey it would be amazing with dark wood accents where you could add- blues, teals, reds, white, orange colored pieces. I used this color for a client many years ago for a study and once for a powder room its so beautiful.

Go for it, we just did a couple of walls in our master bedroom.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/10202397@N06/sets/72157615082443931/

I think you're leaning dark. You have to live there not your friend.

Darker walls makes color in the rest of your room pop. Consider what your palette is already. If all the tones are dark it will have an enclosed feeling in the space. If you have lots of brights well look at the picture on top.

Also what kind of light comes into the apartment. If there is alot of light it wont feel so cave like.

I have been considering doing the same. The colors Ive been looking at all BM witching hour & baby seal black or on the blue side Blue note or Van Deussen Blue for my entry. Has anyone tried any of these? lemme know.

DO IT!
I lived with white for along time (an effort to make the place clean looking for an appraisal), but when I finally decided to paint I found that the only colors that really looked good to me were dark jewel tones.
I have a charcaol room (BMoore days end), a peacock blue room (BMoore deep ocean) and I am in the process of painting my kitchen a deep violet (BMoore majestic violet).
It changed everything and I couldn't be happier- go with what you love!
People think that you are going to live an a cube and forget about art, furniture, windows, lighting and all the other stuff that goes into the room. After it's all said and done, there really isn't a whole lot of color left to see on walls- it just a backdrop.

I agree -- go for it -- I would be wary of going dark if your apt doesn't have good light and lighting, but otherwise dark paint can come off very well!

It's only paint. Paint whatever color YOU want. If you don't like it, you can change it.

Glad to see so many dark colour enthusiasts. I personally find whites and pastels (ugh!) deadly dull. But if anyone does decide to paint with a dark, vibrant, or unconventional colour based on advice here, don't wimp out at the last minute and choose the shade just a bit lighter or more drab. Your project will only end up looking half-assed and non-commital.

For years I was drawn to dark colors but hesitated because I was worried it would be too weird or my friends wouldn't approve. Two weeks ago I finally redid most of the walls and the floor in my loft in a very dark charcoalish blue. I feel so at peace and happy now and it's quite a surprise when someone sees it.

Do it!

I LOVE this colour choice. I have been eager to find a space that can take dark walls without looking dingy or cave-like. I am not a fan of "accent" walls, so if I am going to do it I want to go all the way. I am just about to move into a large, well-lit apartment and am willing to take the plunge and walk over to the dark side...
Can it work in a large, open room?

IGNORE THEM - it's just paint and can be changed in a year should you grow tired of it. i think dark spaces are so dramatic! i hope you post pictures when you finish!

Start by painting a feature wall and live with that for awhile. You can always paint the rest of your walls later if you still love it. Or you might find that just one wall does it for you.

if you're afraid to go all dark, try doing an accent wall with the dark color. Let it be for a few days and see how you like the color. After that you can go ahead and decide whether you want all the walls to be dark.

The only problem with dark color in an already small apartment is that it makes it look smaller. I have a tiny room in which I painted one wall a sandscaped chocolate brown. The rest of the walls are a yellowish tan. It brings in the dark color I love without making the room look like a cave.

I totally have a color crush on Mark.

I often wonder if these dark colours (which I love) work because they are contrasted with white trimmings on skirting boards and doors etc. I have a hallway which I would love to paint a dark colour, like shown here, but my trimmings and doors are in a natural wood, kind of a mid tone brown, not particularly dark. I'm reluctant, as I'm not sure if it would work and if it doesn't how many coats of paint will it take to get it back to a lighter colour...???

The picture above is beautiful. It looks as though there is a lot of natural light coming from the left. Light will be most important and lots of great lamps, all types, floor, table, ceiling, decorative and task lighting will help.

This is tricky stuff though and I would recommend looking through every magazine and piece of reference you can get your hands on. Find something that really speaks to you and inspires you and blatantly COPY it adding your own personality here and there. These folks are professionals and we can all benefit and be inspired by their talents.

When I moved into my new place, it was all white and really dirty at that. The landlord was rather embarrassed and assured me he'd repaint the place... and to go ahead and choose my colors!!! It's a very bright place with full southern exposure, so I decided go with dark colors. There's enough natural light so I figured I could afford to do it. On top of that, I spend most of my time at home, during the evenings and I just love the cozy atmosphere. I avoid overhead lighting at ALL COST and only have small lights here and there, as well as lots of candles. The atmosphere is so cozy, it's hard to get people to leave! Two of my living room walls are, a warm brown-ish/grey-ish, the other two are, what my friend calls, English red (a bit burgundy-ish). My built-in kitchen cabinets are a horrendous teal!! I hate teal so much!! I basically drowned it out with orange walls. At least the combination teal/orange works well...
My bathroom is under the roof and I painted it royal purple. My bedroom has one wall in what the aforementioned friend called "caca d'oie" (in English that's goose shit)... it's a dark olive green and the other wall is a dark mustard yellow. THe guest room has one chocolate brown wall and three dusty orange walls...
ALL dark colors, all the way through and I love it! I'm not saying I'd do this if I lived in a warm sunny place but this is Belgium and 3/4 of the year it's dark, cold and miserable. Home is always cozy and inviting, especially on cold winter's days.