Black Modern Living Room Reveal

Stepping out of my design comfort zone to create a cozy space perfect for watching movies and cuddling by a fire during colder months, I painted my living room walls black! Today, I am super pumped to be sharing the dramatic transformation with you…

One of my main self-improvement goals for this year has been, in a nutshell, to stop acting so chicken sh*t.

When I journaled this resolution down at the beginning of the year, I noted that not only was I sick of being a wimp with my life endeavors in general, but I was also tired of playin’ it so freakin’ safe with my decorating choices.

And so…. as we are now well past the halfway mark of 2022, I must say I have done a pretty awesome job at doing things that scare the ever-loving hell out of me.

1). I sold my beloved home of almost 10 years in the height of a housing shortage.

2).I started a podcast (public speaking is legit my biggest fear in life) ANNND….

3). This self-proclaimed “light and airy” fanatic just painted the walls of her living room black, ya’ll!!!

Ok…the paint I went with is not exactly black/black, but it is a nearly-black color from Sherwin Williams called Iron Ore.

While I had initially not planned on doing much with this space when I first revealed it to you back in May (you can click here for the original post), on a bit of a manic whim, I changed my mind.

Considering that all of the other main living spaces of our lake house are painted white (Shoji White by Sherwin Williams to be exact) – full of copious amounts of natural light beaming into the entire back of the home- it just seemed that we needed a cozier, less stimulating space off the side of the house for Netflixing and chilling.

Not only was I craving some coziness in my life, but aesthetically, I suspected that a darker wall color would better compliment the wood and brick accents of the room which were original to the midcentury modern house.

Lucky for me, I already owned plenty of brighter-hued pieces which I knew would balance out all of the darkness of the new paint (think: linen sofa, large white canvas art, bleached linen curtains).

In fact, the only changes I really had to make to the newly painted space were incorporating a few more cream and ivory textiles, and exchanging the fringe/mirror piece that was originally over the brown leather sofa with these tribal masks which I felt “popped” better.

While I would eventually love to glam up the space a bit more with a marble coffee table and a lighter, shag-type rug, there are a few other rooms I need to allocate my decorating budget to first.

Nonetheless… I must say…one of my favorite things about this milky black paint color is how it makes our massive, 85 inch television almost completely recede into the background.

Just for dramatic effect, I thought it would be fun for you to see an old MLS photo we found of our home (circa 2019) taken before the previous owners worked their magic…

While our sellers did have this room painted white when we bought the place, surprisingly, it only took the painter we hired two full coats of paint and a few touchups to go from entirely white to black board and batten walls.

While my pictures don’t really do this space justice, the entire family (including my husband) is super happy with how my design risk turned out.

Not only does this darker paint color make you want to linger in the room longer with all it’s cozy vibes, the striking drama of this space really elevates the house as a whole .

So I guess the moral of today’s story?…

Do something that scares the ever-living sh*t out of yourself every once in a while, because it just might pay off.

Thank you so much for stopping by and spending some time with me this week.

It would mean the world to this small business if you could share this post with a friend or on social media. Thanks for paying it forward!

Now get out there and design some good vibes along with a fabulous life!