Black Walls: A Lasting Trend?

Kelley Interior Design

More than a decade ago, my cousin painted her small living room black. At the time, I was skeptical, but now it's perfectly clear that she was truly ahead of her time; indeed, in retrospect, those black walls with her black and white toile sofa was super chic).

In any case, black walls have been a growing trend in the design world for several years now and they don't appear to be going anywhere in 2011. I've been a bit slow in embracing this trend (despite my love of darker wall colors like plum, navy and peacock blue), but I can say now that I've fully come around. While I'm not sure how and if I'll work it into my home, I do enjoy coveting some of the amazing rooms that designers have created featuring black walls.

The large bedroom above is an absolute favorite of mine. What I find particularly striking is how light the room feels, despite the dark walls. A good tip for those looking to test out black walls but scared of making a room too dark: keep your ceiling, trim and your floors light. The accents of red in the room, inspired by the black grounded shell motif fabric used throughout the space keep the room from being too monochromatic. Much as I love black and white, I find a total lack of an accent color to be too hard to live with.

Windsor Smith

Black walls really highlight the detailed molding in this small office. The graphic effect is mimicked in the iron windows and wrought iron lantern. I particularly love how Windsor painted the ceiling in a glossy pale blue. It adds a touch of lightness to the space. Oh yeah, and how awesome is that flame stitch office chair?

Atlanta Decorator's Show House

Black is an obvious choice for a study, library or den, where a cozier, darker environment is a welcome respite from a day's worth of work and chores.

Sally Steponkus

If you want the graphic punch but are a bit afraid of feeling closed in, try just painting one wall. I'm not generally a fan of an accent wall, but I do think it works well in a bedroom (of course, you have to put your bed against said accent wall to pull this office!). Of course, the white bed frame and side tables against the dark wall makes the most of both. Remember: it's all about contrast!

Ruthie Sommers (via domino)

Tight spaces can sometimes really benefit from the black wall treatment. It may seem counter intuitive but dark walls can really create a feeling of more space as they recede in the background -- and can highlight other great features like a fun turquoise door or high ceilings.

Sherrill Canet

This dining room is an all-time favorite of mine. The black background of this gorgeous wallpaper modernizes classic Chinoiserie and the silver ceiling generate some serious drama. The more casual dining table and chairs keeps the room from feeling too stuffy. To paraphrase Mary Poppins: it's practically perfect in every way.

Image from Marie Claire Maison

A black bathroom, like a black kitchen, is a fun deviation from the standard white -- and I'd argue it's just as classic. Of course a black clawfoot tub is just the icing on the cake. One thing I don't like about this room though: those floors. That shade of green reminds me of the green marble that was oh so popular in the '80s. Yuck.

Jenna Lyons - Domino

Somehow, I feel like the Jenna Lyons spread in domino a few years ago was a major catalyst for the black wall craze that's been raging ever since. I'll admit that the black cast iron tub paired with the brass fixtures and herringbone wood floor still leaves me breathless.

Image via Metropolitan Home

I can describe this room in 3 words: Drama, drama, drama. This image appeared on Metropolitan Home's last book Glamour: Making it Modern and I can tell you that it was just about the sole reason I picked up a copy (yes, I did judge a book by its cover!).

Anne Coyle

Black walls are a great backdrop for artwork. Like white walls, they let the art do most of the talking, but unlike white walls, you won't feel like you're sleeping in a sterile art gallery.

Stephen Shubel

While I love a white kitchen, black cabinetry is definitely growing on me. Shubel did a nice job here of keeping the look monochromatic and graphic. The flatweave rug is very chic. I also like how he selected two different countertops. The black marble on the island creates a ton of drama, but the white marble on the cabinets behind tone things down and blend in seamlessly with the creamy walls.

Image via Canadian House and Home

Another black kitchen, this time from the 2010 Canadian House and Home designer show house. The mix of materials is great and I love the crisp white beadboard ceiling. The stone floor and kitchen table and chairs add a French bistro touch that nicely balances all that black and stainless steel.

Rob Southern (via House Beautiful)

Entryways and hallways are great opportunities to experiment with black walls without really having to live with it. These walls are actually covered in vinyl wallpaper, which I'd imagine would be more cost-effective and long-lasting than lacquered walls.

Image via House Beautiful

I like how this den feels less buttoned up than most black rooms. Instead of dramatic, it feels cozy -- but it's still sophisticated (as evidenced by that fabulous KWID fabric).

Steven Gambrel

This den feels at once incredibly masculine and incredibly dramatic. The liquid leather armchairs combined with the glossy black walls (and glossy marigold yellow ceiling!) are admittedly pretty over the top. And yet Gambrel manages to balance them with smart striped curtains and a softer, more beat up leather sofa and armchair.

So what do you think, are black walls a new classic or still just a passing trend?

Formal Dining Rooms

Sherrill Canet

Earlier this week Cristin posted about decorating dining rooms over at Simplified Bee and it's gotten me itching to start decorating my own dining room (to get a feel for what I'm going for, see HERE). When we first moved in, we managed to paint out the trim on the lower third of the room to resemble wainscoting and paint the balance of the walls a deep blue (Farrow & Ball's Drawing Room Blue), but that's all the progress that's been made so far -- and unfortunately, until my budget recovers, that's all the progress that's going to be made for quite some time.

But that doesn't mean a girl can't day dream, right? In fact, I'd say a temporary cash crunch can be a good thing for designing a room as you're forced to window shop in favor of actually, well, shopping. This forced abstinence allows you the time to really get a feel for what you love most (rather than what you love today or what your budget allows you to buy today). And, when you finally do have the luxury of going out and buying new pieces, having curtains made, etc., you know the market, the trends and what it is you're really after.

So here are a few of my absolute favorite dining rooms, collected over the past few months as I continue to contemplate the transformation of my small dining room into something truly spectacular.

Kara Mann

For me, a formal dining space should be exactly that: formal. It should also be luxurious, dramatic and special. After all, these rooms are for special occasions, most of them occurring at night. So I say work with that and go for lots of drama: crystal, gilt, mirrors, silks, velvets, dramatic colors, hand painted wallpapers...you get the idea. If you're looking for a good guide on how to incorporate all that and more without making the room feel overdone or too stuffy, you need look no further than Kara Mann's gorgeous gray dining room (above) that was featured in last month's Traditional Home. I particularly love the silver-leaf finish on the mantle against the Carrera marble surround.

Hillary Thomas Designs

There are those that argue that formal dining rooms are dinosaurs; that the modern family does not need to distinguish between public and private rooms, formal and informal settings. And that's certainly true to an extent, but at the same time I love the idea of the luxury of having a formal dining room. The luxury of having a place at home to celebrate truly special occasions. The type of room that is filled with memories yearound, even if it is only "used" a few times a year (though certainly there is nothing stopping you from using your formal dining room -- and your formal china -- on a regular basis, and I completely encourage this!).

In this dining room designed by Hillary Thomas, I love how the trim and wainscoting is painted out in a high gloss sage green. It's such a great way to modernize very traditional architecture (and the very traditional wallpaper). The glossy green also works well with the dining chairs, which are done in a high glass black with a sage green seat.

Ruthie Sommers

Wainscoting and wallpaper (especially handpainted wallpaper) are two of my favorite design elements for a formal dining room. The sea grass rug and lack of window treatments make this room feel much lighter than many of the others -- and also more approachable. For me, this room is the perfect balance between formality and luxury, on the one hand, and practicality and comfort, on the other.

Christina Murphy

A simple formula for high drama in a dining room is dark bare wood floors, metallic wallpaper and a crystal chandelier. The mirrored insets into the paneled doors is a simple and inexpensive way to add a little extra sparkle and to dress up an otherwise standard feature. I also love the Kartell Mademoiselle Chairs, with their lucite legs and low backs.

Katie Ridder

Here, I love how the dark slate walls contrast with the high impact turquoise chandelier and hot pink upholstered dining chairs. I think my first inclination would be to pair colors like this with a predominately white backdrop, but Katie demonstrates here how success dark walls with bright furnishings can be. I also like how she kept it from feeling too cave-like by having a lighter colored rug on the floor. This lightness is similarly reflected on the ceiling, which appears to be papered in a subtle tonal damask.

Thad Hayes

Pastoral murals in dining rooms are very, very traditional. In fact, you can see many fine examples of them in homes in Pompeii. Here though, the brighter colors in the mural and in the fabrics lend a rather whimsical quality to Thad Hayes' space. So much so that it feels almost cartoon-like.

Ondine Karady

Anyone else remember Ondine from the second season of Design Star? [By the way, is that show ever coming back? I loved it!] In any case, Ondine is back and in the running for Traditional Home's Young Traditional Designer of the Year. Flipping through her portfolio, I fell in love with this dining room. I love the juxtaposition of the almost Medieval architecture with the vibrant pinks. In fact, I'd happily steal that set of Ikat chairs and the hot pink buffet for myself. How fabulous would that look against navy walls?

Nathan Egan

Nathan Egan is one of my favorite designers for subtle drama. Rooms like the dining room above show that you don't need bold colors or expensive, embroidered wallpaper to make a big impact. I also love how the oversized photograph is hung between the wall and wainscoting. The gesture feels almost haphazard, but the effect is incredibly striking. I also love the large wine barrel chandelier -- sure, it's been trendy, but there's also a nice rusticity about it that works so well with more traditional interiors.

Suzanne Kasler

One of my all-time favorite dining rooms, by the near-faultless Suzanne Kasler. While I usually prefer trim painted-out white, the blue lacquer that Suzanne applied to both the walls and trim here is incredibly striking. I also tend to prefer matching chairs (or at least matching side chairs with a pair of larger chairs for the ends), but yet again Suzanne proves here there's no "rule" that I can come up with that can't be successfully broken.

Annie Selke

This dining room was featured in a spread House Beautiful did last year on a beach house Annie Selke decorated and I absolutely fell in love with all of it. I love the mix of patterns here as well as the mix of blues. A deft hand is needed for this type of mixing, but Selke is skilled at mixing both patterns and colors in a way that feels very modern, without any of the eclectic-bohemian element that I'm admittedly not a huge fan of.

Be Bold, Go Blue.

Sherrill Canet

There seems to be a general resistence in the design world to decorating a kitchen in anything other than neutrals or whites -- probably because of the expense and difficulty of overhauling a kitchen should you decide just a few years later that you're no longer so enamored with, say, peach. And that's fair. I, too, eskewed bolder choices in favor of safer, buyer-friendly selections when I designed my kitchen last spring. But the end result is that, while I like my kitchen, I don't really love it. So I wish I'd stretched myself a bit more, been a bit bolder with my choices and maybe gone with, say, a blue kitchen.

The great thing about a blue kitchen is that, while it's a bit of a departure from the oft-used white, it's still fairly traditional. Nobody is going to think you've gone completely off your rocker and there's a good chance that you'll still love it in a few years' time. And even if you don't, repainting cabinets (or riping out backsplash) isn't the enormous hassle or expense that it's often made out to be.

One of my all-time favorite kitchens is this one by Sherrill Canet (shown in two photos above). Of course the towering cathedral ceilings probably have a lot to do with it, but I also love how Sherrill used a lighter blue on the wall cabinets and a darker blue on the island to anchor it in the space. My favorite element though is the glimmering stainless steal subway tile backsplash around the oven and the gorgeous stainless steel hood.

Elle Decor

This kitchen deservedly made the rounds in the design blogosphere when it first appeared in Elle Decor. I love the contrast of the large white island with the indigo wood floors and cabinets. The pendant lights and the milk glass chandelier are also envy-inducing.

Massucco Warner Miller Designs

A more modern take on a blue kitchen. I absolutely adore the (Silestone?) countertops and backsplash. The reddish tones in the natural wood floors and trim are a great contrast to the stainless steal and the cool blue of the cabinets.

Michael J. Williams

This kitchen from Michael J. Williams was featured in the latest issue of Traditional Home. As a brief aside, if you haven't picked up the February issue of TH yet, I highly suggest you do. Between the spread on Ruthie Sommers' latest work and Kara Mann's, it's one of the best issues I've seen from any shelter magazine in quite some time. Both spreads are also so reminiscent of domino that I found myself flipping back to the cover periodically just to make sure I wasn't hallucinating and reading a "new" issue of domino. In any case, the blue on this island is almost a chambray and it's this denim-like quality that I think really gives the space a laid back, family-oriented vibe.

Retro Renovation

This kitchen is retro to the point of kitsch, but turquoise and red always make me smile.

domino

When this kitchen first appeared in domino a few years ago, it made me desperate for a chandelier in my kitchen. I love the contrast between the ornate black glass fixture and the sleek and modern kitchen.

House Beautiful

I love the deep royal blue featured on all the cabinetry -- it works so beautifully with the pops of bright citrus that the stylist brought in for the shoot. The color choice here is undoubtedly brave, but it's what elevates this kitchen into magazine-worthy status. The designer also wisely kept the rest of the kitchen quieter with classic Carrera marble counters and backsplash. Matching your counters to your backsplash is a great way to create a seamless and sleek look, which is ideal if you've got a lot of "look" going on elsewhere in your kitchen.

Frank Roop

The Ann Sacks tile featured on the backsplash in this kitchen makes me a bit weak in the knees. It works perfectly with the sleek gray (soapstone?) countertops without feeling overly match-y. I think backsplash is a great way to bring color into a kitchen if you don't want to go for a bold color for your cabinetry. If your tastes change, it's also not nearly as onerous to replace.

Blue and White is Always Right

Perhaps it's because of the imminent arrival of summer, but lately I (like many bloggers, including Christy of the fabulous A Lil' Welsh Rarebit) have been drawn to rooms decorated in blue and white. While more than one book has been written on the topic, I think the look is classic and timeless enough that my posting on it won't just be beating the proverbial dead horse.

The the cover story in the latest issue of House Beautiful featured a Hamptons beach home decorated by David Lawrence (living room pictured above) almost entirely in navy blue and white. The result is stunning, and while the colors are undeniably beachy, the house doesn't look like a typical beach house, with no rattan or cheesy shell print pillows in sight. I think the house is a great illustration of how the blue and white color scheme can be at once traditional and contemporary, refined and yet still casual.

Another great example of a blue and white beach cottage look done right is this master suite, designed by the dynamic duo of Nathan Egan. The palette here is much quieter than in the David Lawrence's beach cottage, but the sky blue and oyster tones are perfectly suited for an oasis-like master retreat. I also appreciate how the designers didn't let the colors or furnishings compete with the beautiful white-washed walls and ceiling.

Here's a living room in Wainscott, Long Island, decorated by Thad Hayes. Again, the soft blues and whites create a cozy, beachy space that's still sophisticated.

This den in a summer home in East Hampton decorated by Elizabeth Martin is yet a fourth beautiful example of beach house chic from New England. I love the wall color here, especially against the white wainscoting and dark rattan furniture. The space looks elegant, but cozy and lived-in. I also love the idea of blowing up a family photo to poster-size; it's so personal and keeps the room from looking too "decorated". My one complaint about this room would be to loose a few of the throw pillows on the sofa. One of my big designer peeves is when there are so many throw pillows on a sofa or chair that you have to move them just to sit down.

As far as I'm concerned though, the entrance hall/stairwell in this home is absolute perfection:

The coral chandelier is a great nod to the setting, and I love the pale blue ceilings and sand-colored walls. When I think of beach houses with "style", I tend to think of those in Nantucket or the Hamptons. Ironically, I've never been to either location, but I like how understated all the homes seem (unlike, say, in south Florida where I picture all the houses awash in various shades of pink and turquoise).

With every silly generalization I make up, of course, comes an exception or two to prove that, in truth, anything (even bright turquoise) can be done with style and panache. This breakfast nook in a house on Johns Island, South Carolina, was decorated by Phoebe Howard. By keeping the palette monochromatic, Phoebe is able to use a brilliant hue and make it almost understated. This is Florida-style done right.

Of course, blue and white does not have to come off as beachy. The color combination can read distinctly masculine, especially when the walls are washed in a deep navy, like in the bedroom decorated by Kansas City designer David Jimenez. What I particularly like about this space is the bed linens, which look like they're made of mens' dress shirts; the look is classic American style to me -- very Ralph Lauren. David's prior work at Restoration Hardware and Pottery Barn is also pretty evident in this room, I think, from the Valencia-style bed to the task light.

In my new house, I'm definitely going to have to try painting out the backs of bookshelves a different color because I'm loving the look in just about every iteration. This den was designed by Little Rock designer Tobi Fairley (who also has a great blog HERE) and, while it incorporates a lot of brown, in addition to blue and white, I couldn't resist posting it here. This space seems just so livable to me -- there's even a TV mounted above the fireplace.

And since blue and white shouldn't be limited to the living room or den, here are a kitchen and a dining room from designer Sherrill Canet's portfolio:

This kitchen, located in Quogue, NY, makes me weak in the knees. I'm typically of the mind that cabinets should either be natural wood or white (or cream), but these robin's egg blue cabinets are lovely. Of course, the cathedral-style ceiling, top of the line appliances, and sea of an island don't hurt either. Notice how the island's cabinets are painted a deeper blue than the wall cabinets; a truly masterful touch.

And finally, this "breakfast room" (looks like a formal dining room to me!) in Mill Neck [Long Island...are you detecting a trend here?], New York, illustrates how navy can really be used to punch up a space without reading as loud. I think the Chippendale chairs are a great counterpoint to the heavy white [marble?] linear table. I also really like the art over the buffet; it's modern and suits the color palette of the space but still stands on its own (i.e., it's not just a design tool).

Whew! This post is getting rather long, but once I started looking for blue and white, I realized just how ubiquitous a design trend (albeit one with indefinite staying power) it really was.