Dark & Moody Decor
I have to confess that Halloween is one of my very favorite times of the year. Besides the beautiful early fall weather of October, it’s fun and spooky and I have an excuse to buy candy. It’s hardly my fault if I overbuy every year. 🙂
Anyway, as soon as the weather changes, my mind starts wandering to costumes, and pumpkins, and all things haunted. Which is why, this month, my moodboard reflects my dark and moody state of mind. You know… in a pretty way.
Check out some of the gorgeous inspiration shots below to see how deep dark hues can create a definite atmosphere in a room, Halloween or not!
Seriously!? I tend toward the light and bright when it comes to decorating, but these photos make me crave dark and moody. They just look so cozy and inviting don’t they? With all that inspiration, I got to work on a living room moodboard with a deep color palette:
Click below to see the sources and similar products for this Mood Board.
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How to Design a Dark and Moody Room
As with any decorating style, there are some make or break elements in all these dark rooms. So I’ve rounded up some tips on decorating dark:
• Take advantage of natural light. Something to notice about all of the inspiration shots above is that there is tons natural light flooding into each one. To pull off a room this dark, you have to start with a space that has good lighting, or you’ll end up feeling like you’re in a cave.
• Use bright tones sparingly. By bright, I mean bold. (Check out my color term chart for more on describing color.) When paired with dark tones, which are naturally devoid of light, bright colors seem to pop out even more than usual. This can be great to draw your eye to a feature of the room, but can also be tricky. The intensity of the dark room combined with too many intense bright colors can become overwhelming and quickly start to make the room feel cluttered rather than cozy. In the moodboard, I chose to sprinkle aquas and oranges in sparing pops throughout the room.
• Use metallics warm things up. Dark rooms can feel cold, so an easy way to counteract that, and bounce a little extra light around too, is to incorporate metallic accents. I prefer warm metals, like the brass lamps in my moodboard, with cool dark tones, like the charcoals and blues above, to keep the visual chill at bay. 🙂
• Texture and pattern go a long way. When decorating in a mostly monochromatic color scheme, texture and pattern step into the limelight as one of the main visual attractions in the space. In the moodboard above, the texture of the coffee table, pillows, blanket, books, and even the visual texture of the chalkboard wall, work together to create a space that feels layered and inviting, rather than flat and boring.
• Don’t forget the fun! Dark spaces can tend toward the serious, so adding in some personal and fun elements to lighten the mood (if not the color!) can balance out the feeling of the space and make it more welcoming. It could be something as crazy as a giant skull painting or pumpkins for the seasonal appeal, or something as simple as a bouquet of flowers, but whatever it is, make sure to bring in your own personality!
So there you have it! I hope you all have a fabulous and safe Halloween this year. As always, thank you to the Remodelaholic team for having me here each month. If you like what you see, be sure to visit me over on my blog, DesigningDawn, or follow along on Facebook, Pinterest, or Twitter. Have a great day, friends!
-Dawn
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Check out these other posts to get you inspired to use dark colors:
Black Furniture and Home Decor
More Ways to Use Black in Your Home
and see how we painted our brick fireplace black (and we love it!)
Dawn is one half of the team behind the creative blog, AD Aesthetic. By day she works as the VP of Creative for a design and marketing company (getting paid to make things look good!), while by night she renovates her Midwest home, refinishes thrift-store furniture for fun, and works with her husband on raising two tiny humans. Dawn believes in the potential to design your surroundings and your life one day at a time, and lives by the motto, 'Make everything beautiful.' Get to know her better by visiting her blog, ADaesthetic.com, or following along on Facebook and Instagram.
