Why you should come to the dark side (and never look back)

I’ve been living in all white house for so long I think I even forgot about the existence of different paint colours. White living room, white kitchen, white hallway and white bathroom. The only exceptions were the bedrooms where I tried to implement some colour and failed miserably. My daughter’s bedroom was supposed to be off white with a touch of pink (that’s me being adventurous) but came out as pink as hell. But the kid loved it so the colour stayed for another  four years. My son’s bedroom was next to paint so I knew better by then and when it came to choosing the right shade of yellow I went for the lightest there was. I liked the room for about ten days until someone called the colour magnolia (what the…!!!) And then our bedroom which (after loving the colour of the bedroom in our previous house) I decided to paint exactly the same shade of blue. I even don’t know what I was thinking, this should be illegal! So years past and my “brilliant white” walls started looking more like “not so brilliant foggy day”. And that’s the first rule of choosing paint colours for your walls. If you truly are “all white” lover, you have to refresh your walls every year for that really crisp white effect. Otherwise it loses its magic. And for me that’s a very good reason not to paint my house white ever again (in case I change my mind in few years time, don’t remind me about this post!).

So… couple of years ago I decided to have another go with that “colour implementation”. Older, wiser (or at least I like to think that) and braver I painted two of my bedroom walls navy blue. I quickly regretted not being brave enough to paint the whole bedroom in this very gorgeous colour.

And that’s how my obsession started! Navy blue quickly spread to my son’s bedroom and even the landing, but all in different shades (it’s astonishing how many shades of one colour you can find, even more astonishing are their names… like Song of Summer, Frozen in Time or Grandma’s Sweater?!)

Now, you may think that my house looks like a cave, but actually I’ve been very gentle with that colour craze and made sure that it does not turn into some kind of madness (I hope!). So why don’t you try to add some “darkness” to your house. The minute you do it, believe me, you will want more of it…

Start by adding two-tone colour to the walls (best are contrasting colours). It’s a less adventurous option for “not risk takers” but it can still look absolutely stunning. But you have to remember one thing, especially if you’ve been painting your north-facing dingy rooms white in order to make them look lighter and brighter.

Whites are only good for sun-filled rooms. If your room doesn’t get much sun light, painting it white will make the room look cold and stark! Unless you use softer shade with a hint of red or yellow in it.

So if you’ve been dreaming about turning your small dark living room into a spacious ball room, instead you should try to embrace it by painting it dark and creating a little cocoon for the evenings. You can then add some colourful art and pictures like here…

Another way of adding dark colours to your house (and not regretting it) is to paint your floors dark, or even black, while keeping the rest light. This photo by  Louis Lemaire makes me so house-envy I just had to share it. It actually makes me want to grab a paint brush and paint my floorboards again (if only I didn’t just paint them white few months ago!). By painting the same colour above the floor, the owners made it look like the kitchen cupboards are almost floating in the air and making the room look even more spacious.

If you’re still not so sure about that dark colours, then why not gradually build your confidence by taking “baby-steps”? How many times did you have to refresh your skirting boards because they were looking scruffy? Or maybe you didn’t and they are still looking scruffy?!  Instead of painting them white, just paint them black and they are gonna stay looking great for much longer.

And what’s better time to introduce some dark colours to your own pad if Benjamin Moore (one of the leading paint manufacturers) announced their colour of the year 2017 is this gorgeous (and how mysteriously called)… Shadow!!!

Will you join me on the dark side? Or are you still an “all white” lover?  I would love to know your thoughts on that…

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