Should I paint one wall dark in a small room?

[HarryPutTheKettleOn]

It’s a light room: one big window at the front - two small fanlight windows on another wall. It’s our lounge. It has a log burner on the fanlight wall. I’d like to go for a bolder colour in the alcove where the chimney/log burner is but I’m worried in a small room the darker colour could make it feel even smaller. Any thoughts?

Dark colours on all walls will make it feel cosy. Depends what feel you are trying to achieve

Darker colours actually make rooms look larger, but only if you do the whole room. They make you 'lose' the edges. If it's a colour you love I'd be brave and go for it, you might be surprised.

Yes yes yes!
I painted the small downstairs loo ALL a really dark blue and it looks bloody fantastic

I’m definitely not brave enough to do the whole room! So would one wall make it look smaller?

We've done two walls in a smallish living room in dulux sapphire salute. We love it

I think the one wall, feature wall is very dated. I also vote on being brave and painting the whole room.

Another vote for doing all the walls

Our living room is long but narrow-ish. With patio doors at one end of the room and a large window at the other, there’s a fairly decent amount of light that comes through (when it’s not chucking it down & dark & rubbish weather like today that is!). We have one wall painted in a deep navy blue colour and the rest of the walls, bearing in mind the two end walls are mostly taken up by the patio doors & a window are painted just white. This really works.

About 2, 3 months ago I decided I wanted to paint the two end walls dark also. I saw pictures of rooms that were painted completely dark & they looked bloody ace. I knew DH wasn’t going to let me do that but reluctantly let me paint the two end walls. They looked ‘ok’. For about a week. After that it just looked wrong, at least in my living room. And the cover up? Oh my god! That was a nightmare, took about a week & 5 coats of paint! DH still doesn’t let me live it down!

So yes I do love dark, strong bold colours but I advise you to do just the one wall first, decide on that first, then see about doing the whole room. It actually does depend on the layout & furniture in the room also. Good luck!