Trendy dark paint: a cautionary tale.

[QuentinQuarantino]

1. Be very sure about the colour before you commit.

1. Paint for the house you actually have and not the house you have in your idle daydreams!

Am currently on coat number FOUR of matt white emulsion trying to cover up F&B Brinjal. Everything hurts and I'm convinced you can still see the darker colour .

It made my loft bedroom feel enclosed and depressing rather than the vintage-y and chic I had pictured. Don't know WHAT I was thinking 🤷🤦.

dark paint is for accent walls.
it must have been fucking depressing even though drowning in a vat of chocolate doesn't sound bad

Oh the pain. Can’t imagine what made me do it, but had walls painted a deep red. Took 50 trillion coats of white gloss to cover it.

Should’ve just changed your light shade OP

More generally I’m not a fan of the bright white next to dark or contrasting lighter colour even. I think if you’re going dark you have to commit and do the whole lot

@QuentinQuarantino

This is the only picture I can find of it before. Put up with it for two years but was never totally sold on it. The F&B paint cost me a fortune as well 😮.

I still adore dark colours but sadly have to accept the limitations of my modest wee mid-terrace house.

We're you intending on the S&M dungeon look?

The lamp shade is long gone. Was an unwanted inheritance from previous owners 😂

I don't really care for feature walls esp not dark and light walls next to each other.

I will still covet the dark walls of other MNers but won't be indulging my whims again!

I think it looks great in other people’s houses but wouldn’t be able to live with it.

Like you I really dislike dark and pale walls beside each other.

@QuentinQuarantino.
I learnt that lesson young. I repainted a my bedroom which the previous owners had painted bright grass green. It took 5 coats of cream paint to get rid of it. I have said ever since that I would never paint any room a dark shade.

I don’t understand why people think dark colours make a room look either bigger “because you lose the edges” or cosy. Personally I think they make rooms look smaller, dark and depressing.

@Handsnotwands

Should’ve just changed your light shade OP

More generally I’m not a fan of the bright white next to dark or contrasting lighter colour even. I think if you’re going dark you have to commit and do the whole lot

Same! I don't like the concept of accent walls, really.

This thread initially alarmed me because I am planning to paint my bedroom in brinjal soon. But your room looks amazing! Do you live in north Manchester because the shape of it is very similar to a house I had there? I now live in Victorian semi so high ceilings that will hopefully go well with dark colour.... Any brinjal lovers want to suggest curtain, rug and bedding to go with it?!

Oh and I love your username 😂

DS2 has two joining walls in scarlet and two white. DS has a tiny room with a navy wall and carpet and white, with a white bed cutting across the blue wall. I love the sharpness of it.

I remain a fan of the feature wall for bolder colour without overwhelming a room. Alas most of our rooms aren't square enough to carry it off, so much of it is strong pastels.

Well, I must admit I've never been even slightly tempted by dark walls and this thread has convinced me I'm right to steer clear. Hope you get it covered.

I've got red walls in my sitting room, a black feature wall in my dining room and purple wallpaper in my bedroom.

Luckily I have big windows but I will never forget the time and the amount of paint it took to cover up the magnolia in the sitting room!

Years ago I had a deep red dining room which I very quickly hated. It was like living in a uterus. Your before picture looks lovely though op.

Love a dark paint but all walls not an accent wall. I had an aubergine dinning room in the old house and this one has a navy living room. Love both

@swedishedith it is really stunning and varied. Quite vibrant colour when the sun is on it in the day but lovely and cosy in the evenings with the lamps on

When DC were teens I painted one wall in each bedroom in very dark colour- red in one and navy the other.
When they left home it took many, many coats of white to cover it up.

I think it looks great in the pic!
I have an all white bedroom, with an all white wall of white flowered wallpaper. White gloss wardrobes with no handles and white curtains.
The only colour is the light pink flowers on the duvet cover.
It really lifts my spirits

Wow your bedroom was a gorgeous colour but then i love dark colours. They make accessories stand out and give a cocoon vibe. My kitchen is light and bright but my lounge is very dark grey/blue walls with mid century furniture and furnishings. Our bedroom however has gone from dark blue (Sapphire Salute Dulux) to a sage green. Its more restful. Its horses for courses really. I love my sister inlaws bright white house but then when I get home I relax just as much xx

Tip from my friend who does a lot of decorating: if you have to paint over a dark colour, do a coat of 50% PVA, 50% water first. It will seal the dark colour in and make it much easier to paint over. You have to water the PVA down though and not use it neat or it will just peel off.

We have a massive living room wall in Dulux Sapphire Salute...

Aaaaaargh!

Never put glue on a surface you hope one day to paint!

PVA is water soluble so will turn to sludge when you put emulsion paint on it, or it gets wet.

Some plasterers used to recommend it, but most have been killed by angry decorators.

I think window size is a huge consideration. That is a beautiful colour OP but the room itself doesn't seem to have much light and so the colour just makes it all cavernous. I painted a small room with a small window a deep yellow and it stayed up less than 24 hours, I felt like I was going to go mad. Just try it out on one wall next time . The grey trick doesn't really work all that much either, been there.

@binkydinky

does dark paint make it harder to spot spiders?

Literally why despite loving bright colours and dark walls to make my bright furniture pop, I have cream walls...

We used to have our bedroom ceiling painted Stiffkey Blue (or whatever name it was going by a few years ago) with picture frames, fireplace and doors painted the same. We had a soft creamy colour on the walls.

I loved lying on my bed staring at the ceiling as if it were a deep blue sky or ocean.

But I got fed up of it after a while and hankered for a fresh white ceiling, which I now have (with mauve, berry and black colours as DH LOVES colour!)

You have me alarmed OP. We are about to paint some cupboards in Benjamin Moore’s Tarrytown Green.
Example of the colour:
pin.it/4v37sRl

We’ve already bought the paint, so here goes nothing.