BRINGING BLACK TO YOUR SPACES

So, what are some great ways to use black?

Doors with drama: “We are all looking for ways to add architectural interest to our homes,” says Cox. “When going for this look I always recommend going bold and doing all the doors; closets, too.”

Start small: Use black as an accent rather than “drowning” your space in it, says Tait. Instead of a black sofa, opt for throw pillows or a black coffee table and black floor lighting. For a dining room, go with black chairs and chandelier. If you keep it as an accent, where balance is key, it becomes a wow factor. To amp it up a little more, while still keeping it small, go with a statement wall or take a small room and paint it black, suggests Southam.

An easy fix: Update your bathroom quickly and inexpensively while being on trend by changing your towels, shower curtain and counter accessories to black, says Tait. Go a step further by switching out your vanity lighting for inexpensive industrial black lighting and adding a black-trimmed hanging mirror.

Shades of black: “Like white, black comes in many shades,” says Southam. For one client, who had a large black TV in a living room nook, she used black wallpaper behind it to help the TV disappear on the wall. Choosing a Fornasetti paper of industrial 19th-century hot air balloons floating on an etching of black clouds, “all of a sudden it’s about the wallpaper, it’s not about the TV,” she says.

Style makeover: Adding black to an otherwise traditional material can create a more dramatic contemporary look, says Sascha Lafleur of West of Main. In her new showroom, for instance, a shiplap wall has been painted black to give it some pop. Ditto for a black seagrass wallpaper used in a client’s home. “You can have the most organic of textures, but when you do them in black, it has this contemporary edge to it,” she says.

Black will never go out of style, says Tait. “Not in fashion, not in interior design. Just like clothing, black looks good on anything and anyone.”