apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

oh god, i do love dark walls. love, love, love. and am perfectly willing to sock anyone who repeats the tired old mantra "but it makes the room smaller." can't wait to paint our new condo with ceiling to floor windows some spectacular dark colour. i even have curtains like pic #3.

Holy cow, that's gorgeous.

I would so love to have a black room. Unfortunately, my husband associates black walls with the weird Goth girl who lived across the hall from him in college. But I think it's so beautiful and elegant.

Prrrrrrrrrr.

I just want to curl up in every one of these deliciously dark rooms.

gorgeous, absolutely gorgeous. there was a bedroom recently on AT with the dark walls, it was stunning too. how can any thing say anything negative, perfectly executed.

I just repainted my bedroom walls from robin's egg blue to a very, VERY dark grey with tints of brown and plum (Intellectual by Behr- really just a touch warmer than black). I adore it, and repainted my doors and trim glossy white to add extra contrast and lightness. After rearranging the furniture too, the room actually feels bigger than before, but the one (fairly obvious) thing that I just didn't think about before painting- the near black walls absorb so much of the light that comes in! This isn't so much of an issue before noon or at night, but it's a bit unsettling during the afternoon compared to how much light there always was before from my giant triple-size window. I still love the look, however, and will gladly paint other rooms black in my next apartment, and probably the bedroom actually black if I have wood floors. I'll just be prepared for the change of light!

I've loved my So-Brown-They're-Almost-Black walls (BM Black Bean Soup) for years - The way the white leather sectional, flokati rug, lamps and artwork stand out is so striking!

I think when it's time to repaint I'm going to move towards a Dark Charcoal Grey w/ a hint of blue - Again, Almost-Black.

We're thinking about our upcoming redesign in our living room, and kitchen. Our house is an Eichler with one huge wall of glass. The ceilings are painted (sacrilege, I know) white, and the floor will be off white cork. Black walls are a definite contender. Am bookmarking this to offer into evidence with husband darling.

I'm a renter, but if I weren't, a black room has been on my list for awhile now. They seem to have such a luxurious feel to them!

I always worried about painting too dark a color precisely because of what mmmaybebaby says--that the walls would seem to absorb the light. But just last week we committed and painted our bedroom Benjamin Moore Whale Gray (rich gray, dark but not too dark)in eggshell and I've experienced just the opposite! The carpeting (not our choice) is light neutral, the textured ceilings we left white, and we added thick white curtains to the main window. Not only does the color set off the white trim and dark wood doors, the walls seem to recede and throw light around the room. I would definitely consider using other dark shades in other rooms...like maybe deep, deep purple.

I just did a very dark brown in my small, 8x9 foot dining room, and it DEFINITELY made it feel bigger. Amazing really - and so funny how many people claimed it would make it feel smaller. I don't think I'd do both the ceiling and walls in a dark though. I think it's actually the contrast of dark walls with a white ceiling that gives the dark the illusion of space.

Not that the off-black kitchen is from 2006. My LR/DR has been charcoal gray since 2007. I'm actually getting bored with it and thinking of transitioning to a pale 80's seafoam for next year's Spring fix-up.