Master Drama: 4 Dark Wall Decorating Commandments to Follow

你渴望一个戏剧性的黑墙在你家里吗?Or did you take the leap and love your dark wall paint but aren’t quite sure how to decorate the rest of your space so that it really shines? Pay attention to these four dark wall decorating commandments and you’ll be a master of drama in no time.

If you’re going to paint all the walls of a room a deep, rich, dark color (or even if you’re just going to go with one accent wall), you’re going to want to embrace the idea of contrast. Bringing in lighter colors to contrast with dark walls will create an energy — a visual push and pull that imbues the space with a lot of interest. The larger the pieces of furniture or art that you add to the space that have a lighter color than your wall, the larger a contrast and the more drama you’ll add to the space. You can also adjust the drama by how great a gulf of color contrast exists between the dark wall color and the other colors you choose.

Though having a dark wall or two by itself is certainly a bold statement, it can also be a lonely, one-of-these-things-doesn’t-belong situation if you don’t practice mirroring. It’s the idea of taking the spirit of your dark wall color and mirroring that in a decorative or furniture piece somewhere else in the room or your home. It doesn’t have to be the same color or even the same intensity. You’re looking to mirror a dark wall with another element that will visually balance that dark wall.

So in the room above, a dark blue accent wall in the dining room is mirrored by black chairs around a light-colored dining table. Doing this will help a room not feel too lop-sided, especially if you only do a dark wall accent color and not wrap a whole room in dark walls.

ALL rooms need good lighting. But rooms with dark walls? They need it the most. Make sure you add in plenty of balanced, warm lighting spread around your room evenly so it doesn’t feel like you’re living in a cave.

You can paint the walls of any room a dark, dramatic color and find design success. But you can really up your style game by using dark wall colors to enhance coziness and draw the eye into compact, otherwise boring spaces. Take Jennifer and Hans’ apartment. They cocooned a tiny office space off their dining room with a dark wall color. This not only makes the office space ultra sophisticated and cozy to work in, it also adds interest to the dining room and the entire home: The dark wall color of such a small space works to catch attention and draw eyes in.