Dark rooms. So magical!

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 (Photo courtesy: Chic Coles, Personal collection, Canadian House and Home, La Dolce Vita)

(Photo courtesy: Dolce Vita, Kara Mann)

While in the midst of some serious overhauls, I have had a huge inclination to dark and moody rooms. Everytime I have suggested to my clients, their first reaction is to run and scream!.. It need not be so intense, nor scary! Dark rooms are just misunderstood and not well used. Room orientation is a huge determinant on whether a dark room will be successful or not. For example, on North facing rooms, green undertones or gray undertones are a big "no no". Why? because it makes the room even more drab and cold. So, instead of fighting with nature which provides only limited natural room in north facing rooms, you can go drastically dark! Farrow and Ball, Benjamin Moore, Para and Pratt and Lambert have a nice collection of darks. Beware: there are a lot of undertones within those darks: greens, blues, reds. Best is the try it in the room before commiting! Whatever you bring into a dark room has to be relatively light though. No caves please! My personal favourite darks are as follows:

Off-Black by Farrow & Ball (dark charcoal with a tinge of blue)

Pelt by FB (eggplant)

London Brown by FB ( a neutral light brown)
Hague Blue by FB

Down Pipe by FB (wrought iron gray)

Iron Mountain by Benjamin Moore ( a cold charcoal brown)

Mink by Pratt and Lambert (dark brown)

Stout by C2 
Malachite by C2 (beautiful dark teal)