People say you can’t paint a small room in a dark colour. This definitely isn’t true. If you have a room which doesn’t receive much natural light, it’s no good thinking painting it in a light colour will work and make the room look bigger or lighter. You just have to be brave! You see, the power of painting every wall in a dark colour will deceive the eye, even painting the ceiling dark can deceive the eye. As one looks, it’s almost impossible to tell where the surface of the wall begins and ends. Try it.
Maybe half way through, you will think “Oh no, what have I done?” But keep going, the results will surprise you. Farrow and Ball have a very good illustration in their inspiration of how to apply this by painting ceiling, walls and woodwork in a dark colour. A great idea if you have low ceilings and want to give the illusion of height.
See below, it’s the same room, but treated in a completely different way. the back wall retreats into infinity. Likewise, the same cupboard and matching paintwork does the same.
The same cannot be said for painting one feature wall. Painting or papering a single wall changes the proportion of a space considerably and as such, should be approached with caution. but more on this later!
