Not Just for Wednesday Addams, Why Dark Rooms Are Here to Stay – WWD

When Emma Beryl Kemper was designing a Tribeca loft for clients — a musician and a fashion designer — they presented her with a very distinct vision for their bedroom.

“They kept calling it the library of death,” she says. “So that’s what we tried to make for them.”

Beryl Kemper — who started her New York-based design firm in 2015 — found the perfect wallpaper: Black Bookshelf from famed British interiors brand Mineheart. It features the company’s popular bookshelf wall covering in a moody ebony with deep charcoal variations.

They loved it. It turns out, black is not just for mourning.

The Tribeca loft features multiple dark rooms or accents: the living room walls are painted with Benjamin Moore’s Wool Peacoat, a medium gray that offsets the black velvet Ms. Chesterfield sofa; the entry foyer is punctuated by moody art and a glossy deep gray acrylic console table from CB2, and the dining room features black Hans Wegner-style chairs.

“There are a lot of dark spaces in that house,” she adds, but they’re done “strategically.”

The current trend toward dark interiors gained momentum during the pandemic when apartment dwellers and homeowners, suddenly sheltering in place, turned their collective gaze inward and myriad white boxes gave way to saturated colors on walls, furniture and drapery. Stuck at home with their smart phones and TikTok accounts, social media offered endless inspiration, democratizing design and demystifying home décor. Paint, in particular, became a low-risk commitment for the do-it-yourself design obsessed — or just design curious.

“I think people saw their homes differently because they were living in them for much longer periods of time,” says Patrick O’Donnell, resident colour consultant for U.K.-based paint and wall-covering brand Farrow & Ball.

The experimental ethos that was seeded during lockdown has evolved into maximalist interiors. And the home design community on TikTok has launched myriad microtrends, like dark academia, the book-lined and mahogany-paneled walls and oxblood leather furniture aesthetic as seen in “Harry Potter” films and now Netflix’s “Wednesday,” Tim Burton’s Addams Family update centering on daughter Wednesday Addams (Jenna Ortega). In particular, Wednesday’s dorm room and the office of Principal Weems (played by Gwendoline Christie) have inspired creators in the TikTok design community.

“Weems’ office was built into a location at Palatul Monteoru [in Bucharest, Romania],” explains Mark Scruton, the show’s set designer. “The interior had this fantastic dark, almost Rococo look, which gave us a great jumping-off point with its dark plum red fabric walls and heavy wood and gold moldings. We then introduced an extremely eclectic theme to the space. We built the gothic gorgon fireplace and then dressed the space with a mix of very traditional drapes and furnishing but also modernist and Brutalist elements.”

Wednesday’s black and off-black bedroom and Principal Weems’ office, which also features a pair of stuffed ravens (an homage to Edgar Allan Poe) may a bit outré for everyday living. But, adds Kemper, “people are really embracing darker colors, and bolder choices in general.”

Farrow & Ball’s top colors have traditionally been whites and off-whites, while darker colors have been mostly used as accents. Not anymore. The 77-year-old company’s collection of blacks and deep grays — including Railings, which evokes wrought iron, and Down Pipe, which mimics the color of downspouts and gutters, and which were both launched in the early 1990s — have exploded in popularity in the U.S. in recent years.

“We sold a lot of Railings and Down Pipe, but mostly for trim or woodwork,” says O’Donnell. “Now we’re seeing those colors coming into rooms on walls.”

Indeed, cursory searches of TikTok and Instagram turn up reams of content extolling the beauty of Down Pipe and Railings on stairs and handrails but also on the walls of powder rooms and dining rooms. Now both colors are among the company’s top-ten best sellers. Down Pipe has consistently been among the company’s top three bestselling colors worldwide since 2019, while sales in the U.S. have grown by more than 400 percent in the same period. Railings, which is a slightly bluer black, is Farrow & Ball’s eighth bestselling color, notching 350 percent growth since 2019.

“I think once you’ve done one room in dark, suddenly your options and horizons open up and you can be braver in other spaces,” says O’Donnell. “I always say to clients, if you’re nervous but you want to have a go, do a dark color in a powder room. It’s a smaller space, it’s often poorly lit because they’re usually internal rooms. And it’s a really easy, quick fix if you hate it. And then more often than not they are converted. They fall in love with the dark.”

To be sure, white paint will continue to be sold by the millions of gallons. But the staying power of dark rooms lies in their versatility. They’re neutral without being boring. A dark wall dramatically accentuates art work and crown molding. Scruton has a library in his London home painted in, you guessed it, Down Pipe.

“We chose the color specifically to complement two large portraits of family members from the 1800s. The color sets off the dark gold frames and brings out the tones in the painting, which are very dark and brooding. I’ve set them opposite an etching by the Chapman Brothers which gives them a great contrast.”

And, notes O’Donnell, dark paint can even make a small room feel a bit bigger, provided you treat the ceiling as “the fifth wall.”

“If you’ve got low ceilings then take the wall color all the way over which helps [the ceiling] feel less defined and starts to elongate the room in a subtle way. Going dark is often a great solution for a poorly lit space, because you’re not fighting with the elements, you’re playing along with the restrictions,” he adds. “And a dark saturated color can be deeply cocooning if you get the shade right.”

Dark hues have also emerged as popular options for fabric including drapery, upholstery, throw blankets and decorative pillows. Artisanal linen brand Bella Notte last October introduced Corvino, a deep black hand-mixed dye, which it applies to a range of textiles including linen, cotton, silk charmeuse, Tencel and velvet. Mitchell Gately, cofounder and chief executive officer of the San Francisco-based company, likens the Corvino collection to the luxury home linen version of “black tie or the little black dress.”

“We were seeing a demand for more saturated colors as people seemed to be gaining confidence in the use of color in their homes,” he says. “In 2021 we introduced Fig, a provocative deep purple-garnet tone, and Moonlight, a mid-tone gray. The colors were instant hits, and we realized that customers were not only not shying away from bolder statements but were running toward them.”

The draw of the dark may be as much metaphysical as visual. And this may be the best reason yet to experiment with color — and at long last upgrade from those white boxes you’ve been living in.

O’Donnell painted the walls of his “tiny little study” in his Worcestershire, England, home with Farrow & Ball’s Minster Green, named for the company’s headquarters in Dorset, just outside the market town of Wimborne Minster.  

“I love it,” he gushes. “The walls are massively layered with art work; I’ve got probably 30, 40 pieces on the wall. There’s a lot of brown furniture, guilt frames, modern art. It’s maximalist, but not kitsch. It used to be off-white. Now I come in here and my shoulders just drop. It is so much more efficient for my work because I feel better in my environment. Color has an evocative power on your mood. It’s a powerful thing.”