Black Walls Rejoice: Living Room Makeover

I finally did it!  Painting a wall black has been on my list for months and months, and I finally took the plunge and painted our living room black!  I wrote about my love of black walls here.

First up was deciding which black paint to choose.  Who knew there were so many black paint choices?  I picked up about 6 sample cards from Lowe’s, and put them up on our walls for a few hours.  A few of them looked exactly the same, and a few others had more of a navy or gray tint to them.  I asked my husband which one he preferred, and he picked the one I liked, so we agreed on something!  Write that down!  😉

These are the samples we chose from:

And the winner was… Caviar by Sherwin Williams in eggshell.  Eggshell is my favorite!  Caviar looked like a true black in our home.  The others were great choices, but some looked a little too gray and one of them looked navy.  Can you tell that from the photo above?

Initially, it was supposed to be one black wall, which was going to be our teal wall, but then that was replaced with the thought of painting the fireplace wall instead.  I really wanted all of the white from the fireplace, trim and curtains to stand out against the black.  Plus, I thought that black wall with the sight of our breakfast room behind it would be a really stellar combination.

Once I finished painting the fireplace wall, I just knew our teal one with white shelves would look so rockstar if it was black as well.  So, the day after painting the fireplace wall, I grabbed my paint brush and roller and painted away.  Trimming that wall with all of the white shelves took forever it seemed, but once it was all trimmed out, it was easy breezy painting from there.

Once it dried, I knew I made the best decision ever.

So, I sat there and stared at my gallery wall.  Would it look amazing black as well, or would it make the room a bit smaller and too dark?  I honestly thought a lot about it over and over, and well, it’s just paint!  So on the third day, I painted it as well.

After I finished and put the gallery wall back together, I wasn’t as in love with that one at first.  Unfortunately, my biggest worry did come true.  It did seem to make the room smaller, which is definitely not what I was hoping for.  The gold frames really pop against the black, but it just seemed a bit dark in the living room, especially at night.

I decided to just leave it for a little bit and see if it would grow on me, and guess what?  I absolutely 100% love it now!  I put brighter light bulbs in all of my lamps, and that definitely helped a lot.  Now, the room is elegant, sophisticated and classy, but bright and bold as well.

I primarily decorate with metallics and black as you can see, but I added a little bit of pop of color here and there, and I truly think it’s the perfect touch.

Here’s some before and after photos, so you can see the tremendous transformation:

Isn’t the transformation just so amazing?  It really could not have turned out any better than I imagined.  I am so in love, and my husband really likes it as well, which is always a huge plus!  It blows my mind how much just a little bit of paint can really change the entire look of a space.  Don’t you agree?  For less than $100, our living room looks completely different.  It’s definitely way more chic and classy than ever before.

Next on my list is to find a light fixture to replace our ceiling fan.  Jacob loves the ceiling fan, especially during these Louisiana summers, but it really doesn’t fit the room anymore!  I’ve been eyeing one from Lamps Plus, but I haven’t pulled the trigger just yet.  More on that later!

The only other things I’d like to do to this room is replace the tile around the fireplace with some marble tile I picked up almost a year ago, and of course rip up the tiled floor and replace it with engineered hardwood!  We don’t have a ton of extra tile for the fireplace, so I really want to hire a professional to do it for us, but it will definitely be a very small job.  So we’ll see if I can find someone available for such a small task.  I’ll be sure to share an update when the fireplace has marble tile.  I really think that’s going to bring the room up a notch.

Would you ever paint a wall or entire room black?  You should definitely consider it, especially if you have a decent amount of natural light!  Besides, it’s just paint, and you can always repaint if you hate it or if it’s too dark!