One of my passions is painting. For about two years I have been reading Abigail Ahern´s book Deorating with Style. Recently bought her new book Colour. If you are into colour you should read both of her books too. I love her decorating eye, and her ability to use dark hues. Actually I would love to attend one of her design classes in London. Hopefully it will happen this year. You can find her blog  here. She has inspired me to switch to the dark side. It has been happening little by little.

About a year ago I painted some walls in the entrance of our house dark blue, and have been very happy with the end result.

Last week it was time for me to convert to the dark side even more by painting our living room walls dark navy blue.

The job started with our bar that is in between our kitchen and our dining area. Here how it looked before:

I had painted the dining table already, added couple of vintage chairs and a persian rug. Then started painting the bar and the rest of the living room walls.

Here the picture of the dining area after navy blue colour. You can see that the kitchen does not match anymore, so that is to be painted later. Yes, it definitely will not be white! The danger in converting to the dark side in Abigail´s words is that when you start, you can´t stop.

Now our dining area is so lively but still calm. It used to be dull and not inspiring at all. Now the reflections of the daylight on the blue surface can be seen better and all the objects in the room have a beautiful back ground. They can shine now.

In the evening our dining room lamp seems to float in the space. Super super light weight stuff!

The whole room looks a lot bigger. Dark walls pull the space further where light walls bring it closer. Our living room now appears to be higher too.

Here an other picture taken before. It is just a big mess. All objects compete with each other. The window frames, the lamps, the paintings and the furniture.

And here the competition ends.

You see how the room appears much much higher than before.

An other interesting fact is that it feels like there is more light in the room. We can see how the light entering from our windows bounce on the furniture and other objects. Before we did not notice it.

Now I understand that dark rooms do not appear depressing or sad at all. It is actually that the white rooms are depressing. Think of being in a hospital!!! Maybe the white colour is the reason Finnish people are so depressed now a days. Since the 80ties we have been favoring Scandinavian white deco and white walls.

Can´t wait to paint the whole house with more dark hues -inside and out.

Definitely yes! I have now converted to the dark side.