Today’s topic often comes in my conversations with people. So in today’s posts we’ll discuss it in more detail and debunk this myth for good.
Let’s move on to the question: Does a black wall make room smaller?
A black wall does not make a room smaller if it is used properly!
Black is a colour that pulls in and absorbs other colours. Because it absorbs other colours, it is not a shade that can be treated like other colours.
In general, dark colours need to be treated in a slightly different way.
And now, exactly how?
For example, a black wall can help us hide elements that we do not want to see, or that we want to make look like they are special. If we have a wall with many faults, we paint it black. It will hide all the imperfections.
Very visible, because of course somewhere up close they will be visible,
but from a distance, for example, these edges will practically disappear. Everything will merge into one space.
If there are some pipes, some elements, some mess on the wall,
painting the wall black will make these elements much less visible.
So this is a very practical use of the black colours.
And don’t worry, it won’t narrow our space at all at this point
If there are some beams, some elements that we would like to hide in some way, or to say that there is something interesting on them, then we can just paint these black.
Of course, there has to be an idea for this, but with black paint, they will merge a little bit, separate from the rest, and they will look just as they should.
What else can we do with this black colour without making our space look smaller?
We can repaint one of the walls, like you see behind me, all black.
If we repaint that wall black, that wall will recede. It obviously has to be a well chosen wall, but because it has its blackness, its absorption,
it will create space even in very small rooms.
And still we can create a perspective “trick”,
that we paint a wall, for example in a very high room, half way black.
Then, the room will change it’s proportions.
We can also paint stripes, which will narrow it.
We should treat this black colour the way Renaissance artists did,
which is to create a perspective.
Then all its properties will be used and nothing will be reduced.
What else can we do?
We can use the black wall as a phenomenal accent.
I am such an accent today because I have a light jacket, a light blouse,
and I have a black wall in the back, so I’m popping out, I’m in the front.
And you can treat home decor pieces the same way – to accent them.
Some super painting, or a cool sculpture.
Then we give them a dark background.
It’s cool to give them black, of course, if it fits,
and then the space is dominated by the black colour.
Of course, if we paint a small room head to toe black,
it may overwhelm us, but I still don’t agree that it reduces the space.
The edges will disappear and we won’t really see the end of the room!
It will be a very dark room that draws us in.
So we can now clearly see, that the notion that painting your walls black will make your spaces look smaller is nothing more than a myth.
I think it’s taken from black clothing, which is supposed to be slimming.
It doesn’t work the same way when it comes to interior design.