Black Paint and Your Home’s Interior: 3 Tips for Painting a Room Black

New paint is one of the most affordable ways to significantly alter your living space and change the space feel and how it can affect you, everyday. Wall color can have a dramatic impact on the appearance of the room and the ambiance within the space, and make it feel like a new home quite like nothing else, so color selection should be given a lot of thought.

Modern interior design has opened the door for bold and unusual colors to enter residential living spaces through paint. Using dark colors on dark walls or accent walls, in a dark room can make a significant impact if done correctly. Homeowners in the past would never have considered using black wall paint, but now a range of ebony tones in dark paint can be found adorning the walls of rooms featured in design magazines and in both large and small spaces and dramatically affect the room feel, and can make quite the living room or dining room statement! Totally changing interior painting in the modern era!

If you hope to create a striking and unique living space, or have a small room or powder room, the entryway or you want to create a focal point,  and you are looking at a color scheme on the dark side, you should consider the use of black paint as a color choice when painting walls. Give the following three factors some consideration before you choose your final paint product to ensure that your black interior is ultra-chic with the best of interior designers.

1. Create Contrast

Contrast is one of the most important principles in interior design. If you are using a bold paint color (like black), then contrast becomes absolutely vital to the success of your interior upgrade.

One of the easiest ways to create contrast in a room with black walls is to paint all baseboards and trim in a stark white. Black and white have such dramatic contrast, and that white paint against a black backdrop can be a brilliant way to create new room looks. Use white frames for any artwork that will be hung on the walls, and invest in white furnishings to help brighten up the space. The white accents will help to soften the black and give your room a more polished and professional appearance.

If you aren’t too keen on the idea of white furnishings, you can create contrast with bright and bold colors instead. It is the contrast between the depth of the black paint and the vibrancy of the accent color you choose that will help a room with black walls feel light, comfortable, and modern.

2. Pay Attention to Undertones

Undertones can make a big difference when you are selecting a bold color for the walls in your living space. A quick look through the paint cards at your local home improvement store will show that you have more than just one option when you want to paint your walls black, and the light colors you can use to shape the way a space feels.

Some black colors have cool undertones, like navy or violet. Other blacks have much warmer undertones, like brown or true black. Cool blacks can be used in rooms where you want to create a soothing and relaxing environment. Warm blacks are a great choice for the walls in rooms where coziness is your primary goal. Painting a headboard in a bedroom eggshell, bright white, or other light colors against a black room, or the reverse; where you have a white wall and you paint the headboard a matte black or other ebony type dark color.

If you aren’t sure whether a black with warm or cool undertones is right for your living space, request a few paint samples and put some swatches on the wall. These swatches will allow you to see how the paint will look in your living space so that you can make a more informed decision.

3. Upgrade Your Lighting

Light is one element that can have a dramatic impact on the overall appearance of a room with black walls. Black is a color that has a tendency to absorb light. This means that you will need to introduce additional light into the room to maintain balance.

Your light source can be a large window that allows ample sunlight to infiltrate the space. If your room does have a large window, hand a decorative mirror opposite the window to amplify the light and help soften your black walls.
If you will be using black paint in a room with small windows, you will need to rely on the light created by light fixtures. Add some sconces with high-wattage bulbs and upgrade your overhead lighting. You should also place floor lamps throughout the room. Even the use a chandelier can supplement the natural light and change the room feel.

Don’t be afraid to use black paint in your home’s interior. Contact Elite Painting KC for help identifying the black paint color that will help you create a memorable and comfortable living space.