OMG, what now?
TXStarfall
I've been living with this mistake for over a year, hoping it would grow on me, it hasn't. I saw this gorgeous designer bedroom with the most beautiful black walls, gilded ivory (Lit) crown molding, ivory baseboard, French mirrored panels, cream fireplace...gorgeous. Done up in blonde and gold antique french furniture. I got as far as the black walls, and antique gold ceiling. And realized that my townhouse is not going to miraculously turn into an antebellum mansion with rooms big enough to support that color scheme. My huge master bedroom now looks like a cave. So now what. I can't paper over the black, because my walls are slightly textured. I already bought a kingsized gold wrought iron bed, so gold is out, unless I want the bed to disappear into the walls, and I already have a crimson accents or gold ...everything. Purchased with the idea of trying to lighten up the room, it didn't work. Even the ceiling fan is black with gilded leaves on it. Frankly, the black walls are ALL that keep it from looking like a &^%$ bordello. Ack. Any ideas?
catwoman708
It sounds beautiful and elegant, with just a touch of opulence. But you're right, you'd need a cavernous room to get the "look" your going for. Are you real attached to the idea of dark walls? If you are, have you thought of changing the walls to brown, mocha, burgundy, plum, or even a teal color, and replacing the ceiling fan? You might could put a couple of coats of the med-darkish color over the black and not have to use stain cover.If you go with a light to medium color, you'll need a coat or two of stain cover like "Kilz" or similar product. (It is water based, but a little harder to clean up than regular water based latex paint.)I could easily see the gold wrought iron bed and blonde and gold antique French furniture against cream colored walls (or one of the colors mentioned above) with off white crown molding and baseboard. You could go with darker rugs and upholstered pieces to get some color back into the "cave".If you're into painting techniques and not averse to going to a lot of trouble, you could try some painting techniques like a crackled finish, two-toned antiqued plaster look (cream and gold?), or even wide, painted stripes to "mimic" wall paper (mauve or plum and gold or cream?). I can see lots of sheer swagged material, maybe as a faux or partial canopy over your bed? You wouldn't need an especially large room for that look.
TXStarfall
Yup, I've thought about adding a crimson glaze. Seems to me I've seen either a leather treatment, or some paint/glaze treatment done with red over black, that came out looking very opulent. I just can't recall what! But I bite at linear painting techniques; I don't think they have a lot of wiggle room. But it's one idea, maybe instead of ALL giant mirrored panels, I could alternate a few with a colored anaglyptic paper. BTW, I appreciate the dialogue, because DH sucks at this (and goes fetal if I try to talk to him about it.) The stripes I love but won't work because Nothing is going to line up; the room isn't square. It has nooks and alcoves... and closets in alcoves and a huge patio door on one wall that is going to be replaced with french doors, hopefully before I paint anything else that will need repair after installation! But I WOULD be slightly better off, using the black as an occasional accent in a red room with the ivory and gold trim moldings and the big gold bed. That I've seen done. Swaths of fabric I can see, though I believe my cats would find it ...inspiring, as well. With pets I need to avoid adding in too many expensively upholstered pieces, as they will turn into hair magnets, climbing tools, or scratching posts... The fact that my floors are almost solid black, too, is not helping. My mom, bless her heart, has recently given us a few crimson rugs, but they rather look like well manicured pools of blood, since none is actually of any real size.... Going into this project, my thinking went along the lines of...too many cats: let's stick with dark colors- but with strong multi-colored patterns -so that every cat hair in the world isn't obvious the minute you look at it. So, we found a gorgeous comforter set in Crimson/black/taupe-y sort of gold baroque pattern, with a pinstriped gold bed skirt and sheer gold curtains to match. After purchasing a few sets of WAY too expensive sheets in crimson, cream and black tone-on-tone pinstripes. We stopped. Well, almost stopped. There is still the attached master bath suite...which now has new gold fittings and faucets, gold rugs, and an extensive set of blood-red glass tiled ...stuff holders...then we stopped.Really. And panicked. I think I can lose the bordello look if I stop trying to mix the black/gold with the red/gold, limit either scheme to one room, instead of using them together. But I've always wanted black walls in one room, instead of the black furniture I've always had to settle for when I rented. Other than the floors, and a few large pieces moved to the LR, I've mostly gotten rid of the black. Except for that one 16' brick accent wall in the LR that I am now TOTALLY regretting and painting over. I guess I'm just having trouble pulling it all together in my head. You know, I think I'll take your idea of photographing the room and playing around with it in a photo editor to try different colors around what I've already bought! Thanks. If you run across a pic that sounds right, toss me a link.
Labchick
Wow, it really sounds like a mess. I think it sounds like you are really in love with the black walls, and with so many alcoves and doors, its up to you how much is too much. I think all the gold is too much and comforter sets can be tacky especially with matchy matchy curtains, bed skirts etc., so maybe instead of having all of these accessories and a million sets of sheets, just get rid of everything and start back where you began...the black walls. Keep them and go with a simpler palate without patterns or at least with out multicolored patters, I think cream sounds nice. There is this cream pearlescent paint from sherman will. or ben.moore. That could look nice on the ceilings. Do cream everywhere else then accent in with a color of your choice. Crimson would not be my choice as an accent either, too boring, go with a punchy green or yellow.
catwoman708
When navigating to this page, there's that description under "Home Decorating Dilemmas" and "is the accent wall passe?". Well I don't know if one colored accent wall is passe or not, but have you thought of doing one black wall as your "anchor" wall the bed goes on? I think Labchick has a point about getting too "matchy matchy" with bed skirts and curtains, and I've always preferred coordinating or blending colors/styles rather than everything being the same. Sounds like your comforter set is coordinating patterns/colors, so if you love it, then from there, use similar colors and blending patterns from the same period or similar "look" to avoid getting too "matchy matchy". And you know, so what if it looks like a bordello! As long as you're happy with the results you can do what you want in your own bedroom. Just change your name to Miss Kitty and get you some negligees, boa trimmed high heeled frou-frou slippers, and a chaise lounge.
TXStarfall
Omg, lol, My cats ate my frou-frou slippers, and my name IS miss kitty... go figure you'd figure it out! not joking. And the accent wall thing, I tried that in the LR- looks Horrible, and it's just one (huge, black) wall, not even the black bookcases and furniture help balance it out, it's just too dark. Not passe, just visually awful when you're talking BLACK and not ...say a jewel tone, even when you toss in a bit of say...forest green. But I'm thinking of putting in a fireplace on that wall, so I'll wait. Back to the bedroom; I'm not doing matchy-matchy, just using gold as my neutral (it's really not GOLD, as in lame' or anything yellow or obnoxious: it's mushroom-y/taupe-y) The bed skirt is tiny pinstriped tone on tone, with a tiny black square on one stripe, the curtains are just gorgeous gold sheers I found for little of nothing, on SALE for a couple $ each, after declining to buy crimson drapes. But they are still in their packages, hiding from the kittens. Will say heavy drapes hold up better. I know I mentioned the cats, and gold being easier to clean than cream, or ivory, or white. I'm not saying gold won't NEED to be cleaned, I'm saying the color is more forgiving of being cleaning. A lot...often. Ditto with patterns. There is a REASON tapestry fabrics exists in most country houses. The perfect cat-safe fabric would be a grey on grey tapestry print; dark enough to hide black hairs, and light enough to hide white. But boring.I am not anti-color! You are talking to a woman that LOVES black, forest green, crimson and midnight blue. But I had to cover/get rid of all of those colors because they showed every spec of cat hair, or litter, or crunchy treat. It became a losing battle. I let go of My House Is My Identity when I began fostering cats; it seemed so...narcissistic and selfish in light of their desperate need to just find a safe place to exist. But they've taken over and I'd like a truce. I'm just having to adjust it to the fact that I have a litter of kittens in my bedroom. Yes, they will grow up, but for now- my need to reclaim my home is battling with their need to climb drapes and occasionally miss the litter box. No cream or white in the world is going to forgive that. period. But you're right, I still LOVE the idea of black walls. Perhaps my problem is that having the heavy light-out drapes up is blocking every mote of light out, and the black walls drink whatever light remains. Maybe if I concentrate on hard goods, like installing the french doors with the new curtains, I could see things more clearly. But it's not going to make me like any shade of yellow (ever). I think that gives me a place to start. If I hate the black after that, I can glaze it or cover it. But I was just at google looking for something to cement my ideas. Didn't find the room I wanted, but found enough to remind me why I loved it in the first place. Thanks Cat.
catwoman708
Well, you can always think about what all you'd like to do while your foster kitties are growing up. I'd suggest some training tools like a child's squirt gun or bottle, a whip and chair (would go with your bordello theme), and some sort of "decoy" for the kitties, like a plain 'ol cardboard box to play in/scratc up. Our current 2 cats are indoor-outdoor cats so they aren't allowed in the bedroom and we have leather furniture which just wipes off. Previous cat always slept on the bed, scratched up furniture, etc... so I understand your specific dilemmas with furniture and curtains. Good luck.
TXStarfall
I know, I'll get over it. I was really hoping someone that HAD black walls would give a few pointers, good or bad. something to TELL me what to do. But I believe that really looking at the problem from a new perspective has helped. And the kits aren't bad, as kittens go, they're just very young. But I like the whip idea, lol.
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