How do I paint a room dark brown without it looking like I've smeared poo over the walls?

[CuppaTeaJanice]

I've noticed quite a few dark brown rooms on the telly recently - on Neighbours, various American programmes etc., and I like the effect. I think it looks really sophisticated and atmospheric and I'd love to achieve the look in my bedroom.

I'm worried that I'll end up with a room that looks like the inside of a sewage tank if I pick the wrong colour. Does anybody have any advice to get a good look? What shade of brown should I choose? What colour for the skirting boards, picture rail etc? Should I go for silk or matt? Do I need to do anything special with the lighting? Any other considerations?

It's a large room in a Victorian house, so has high ceilings, fancy cornice etc. Not worried about it looking small and dark!

Any ideas?

There are gorgeous shades of brown in the Farrow & Ball range, the paintwork has to be white and silver/chrome lamps and light fittings look fab. Bedding also has to be white otherwise it all looks vey drab and dirty.

I'd second going for F&B and applying lots of layers so that the finish is very uniform and flat.

We have dark chocolate walls on either side of our fireplace with a paper on the chimney breast itself. We had the colour mixed to match a shade within the pattern on the paper so it looks nice with a slightly patterned area to break it up a little bit.

Thanks - I'll try and get hold of a F&B swatch. Is the texture/quality of F&B better or would I be ok with a standard trade paint in the same colour as F&B?

Our ensuite has golden yellow mosaic tiles - would there be a good way to bring that colour into the brown room too or would that look odd? Should I just stick to brown, white and silver?

lol at poo smeared on walls.
my bedroom is white, chocolate brown and caramel.
I think the chocolate brown was homebase own.

We painted it so that the walls were a background white, then with a "stripe" of chocolate running round the bottom half of the room, and then a stripe of caramel round the top half.
Where the "stripe" met an obstruction - door, window etc - we left a white border around it.

Sounds really weird, but I love it - am adding a pic into my profile which shows the effect.