So I did something a little crazy over the weekend…And it’s all because of this lovely inspiration image I snagged off of Pinterest:
Source: Live Creating Yourself
Yup. That’s right. I painted a wall in our home black. We aren’t talking a charcoaly, deep gray. No, I’m talking blackety black black.
But before we get to that, I must show you the evolution of this event. So I typically try very hard to avoid shooting pictures of the back half of my studio. The elliptical machine killed any chance that this spot in the room could look chic, stylish and cozy. Thus, for the past seven months I’ve been scheming some way to get it out of the room.
I finally came up with a feasible solution for putting it in the basement, and my sweet fiance went along with it. A day or so later, he had his best friend come over and the two of them wrestled it down a flight of stairs, out the front door, down a grassy hill and in through the basement (there was no way to fit it around the doorway to the basement, so they had to go around the house to the back door). Once the dust had settled, I was finally left with the space I needed to rework the studio into a stylish place that bolstered my creative juices.
This also meant that I finally had space for the twin bed I always wanted in the room – I just think having room for guests makes a home feel so much more welcoming. Plus the room was full of hard, wooden furniture so a little softening up with blankets and pillows and a cushy zenhaven mattress to flop onto was just the ticket. Here’s the space after my parents brought us their extra twin bed – Things were really starting to come together.
But I just could not get that image of the black feature wall out of my head! I know many of you may be floored by this (nearly everyone who takes our house tour says the color in the studio is their favorite overall), but I’ve never been in LOOOOVVEEE with our “Teal Zeal” walls. They just seem so dark and saturated. It needed to be toned down a bit. Although this may sound crazy, I thought incorporating a black feature wall might very well provide the needed contrast.
One trip to Lowe’s later and we were ready to go – I went with Olympic’s “Black Magic.”
After pulling everything away from the wall and taking down the art from my faux gallery wall (another thing I never really was in loooooveeee with), I got down to business. I ended up taking this on by myself since the space was sort of constricted (not conducive to two people wrestling with paint brushes and rollers), and also because it was just one wall. After painting the majority of our kitchen by myself a couple of weeks ago, one wall with no windows and doors to edge around seemed like a piece of cake.
And it was! No more than two hours later (including 30 minutes of lazy time watching it dry before adding the second and final coat), I was done.
And you know that I couldn’t wait very long before I started styling it…Too impatient for that. After about 15 minutes, I grabbed my hammer and nails and got to work adding the art. This was really the part that I had been waiting for. If you noticed my caption on the Pinterest image at the beginning of this post, I talked about how any art on a black wall would pop. So I went with bold colors and patterns that would brighten up that rich black and turn it into the perfect stage for art magic.
Here’s the final product…
I wanted something that would really make a bold statement above the bed, so I rehung the wrapped canvas art (read all about that here – One of my most-read posts thanks to CraftGawker.com).
Here’s that bookshelf we bought from Ikea last weekend – I finally had a chance to put it together and style it up with some colorful books and accessories.
As for the art over the desk, I used the free printed phrase I tucked inside one of my new Ribba frames from Ikea, and for the extra Ribba frame I just put in a piece of scrapbook paper I had on hand. Not sure if it’s there to stay, but I love how it brings over a bit of the teal color from the rest of the walls.
Over all, I am really glad I went with my gut and painted the wall black. I think it transformed the room into a bold, second-floor show-stopper. When dealing with a studio space, I think the traditional conventions of interior design don’t really matter. Do what will inspire you and, if that’s painting a wall black to give your art a special and unique backdrop, then I say go for it – I’m really glad that I did anyway.
Here’s a side-by-side (or above-by-below) “Before and After” shot to show you how far we’ve come in the room.
What bold colors have you been brave enough to try in your house? Did you regret it or jump for joy that it actually worked out??
Hope you have a great start to your week!
