Get Inspired With Black and White Room Decor

So, maybe you’re not quite ready to commit to an entire room that focuses on a black-and-white color scheme. Start with a smaller space, like a closet, laundry room, or half-bath. Cover the walls in black-and-white wall coverings. Add black light fixtures or black-framed wall art. Who knows? You may love it so much you’ll be inspired to take a more dramatic leap and deck out a larger room, next.

If your creative juices are more ebb than flow and you feel more blasé than blessed when you look around your home, chances are you're in a bit of a rut. A black and white makeover may be just the ticket to rejuvenate your senses. For a bedroom, consider all-white bed linens with a cushy comforter topped off with some black throw pillows in a variety of textures and prints. Add a black and white rug and a black armchair. Spiff up that boring wall space with some unique black-and-white accessories and wall coverings.

Black and white is a powerhouse design duo. Browse interior renovation sites or online stores, and you’re sure to find a huge selection of white and black inspiration. Gorgeous rugs or furniture upholstered in black and white patterns create unique and eye-catching focal points for a living space. If you’re seeking new ways to liven up your walls, you’ll discover endless choices of black-and-white wallpapers, including florals, geometrics, and unique patterns.

If you love clean lines, consider solid white furniture pieces with black hardware or other accents. Cabinets, side tables, shelving, and coffee tables are excellent ways to incorporate a black-and-white theme. White dressers with black drawer pulls are especially attractive. Or, if you have an older piece of furniture, refurbish it with a coat of white paint. You can find a wide assortment of black furniture hardware online, including legs, corner guards, and handles for almost every taste.

For home designers who are ready to take the full plunge into black and white decor, you can’t get more daring than black paint. Sure, it’s bold. But it can also pay off in a huge way by creating a space that is dramatic, unique, and personalized. Black-painted walls make a space-deprived room look larger. They camouflage boundaries and conceal shadows, creating an illusion of endlessness in even the tiniest of rooms. Choose an eggshell finish when buying black paint — it falls between a satin and a semi-gloss — or you’ll soon see a collection of scuff marks and fingerprints on your freshly painted walls. Don’t forget to paint the trim in the same color to add height.

Adding silver or white accessories establishes a source of light against black walls. Metallics and white-colored components brighten up a room. Silver is the less flamboyant cousin of metallic gold. White adds a bright but simple point of interest in a dark room. Both create an elegant, refined ambiance that enhances black walls instead of grabbing all the attention away from them. Silver or white mirrors, sculptures, and candle holders can give your black-walled spaces a visually appealing boost.

No one says that a black and white room can’t include vivid pops of color. If you’re going for bold and bright, choose a vivid red, yellow, green, purple, or blue accent. Add chairs, tables, framed art, fabric wall hangings, lamps, or pillows in the same color to achieve your ideal look. If you prefer something a bit more subtle, choose decorative pieces in pastel pinks, grays, blues, or metallics. You really can’t go wrong pairing up a color or two with a black-and-white interior.

Few will argue against adding plants to a living space. Whether you’re seeking to soften the angular lines in a room, fill a blank space, or create some colorful focal points, greenery is the way to go. For decades, we’ve been aware of the health benefits of surrounding ourselves with plants in the home. Aesthetically, green plants not only add a focus, but they also bring contrast into and complement a black and white space.

Straight lines, deliberate curves, circles, triangles, squares, and loads of other geometric shapes are natural additions to any black and white styling. Paint big and bold patterns on one wall, or map out intricate, fine-lined geometric wall art using masking tape to help you create straight, sleek lines for an interesting conversation piece. Geometrics are a popular go-to in the world of interior schemes and they fit perfectly with contemporary and traditional styles.

Painted ceilings may not be on your radar, but they should be. They’re unexpected, a bit mischievous, and absolutely elegant when done right. Paint the whole ceiling black to trick the eye into seeing it as higher or lower, depending on the wall color. A black ceiling also adds drama to black-and-white patterned walls. But, if you’re not crazy about an entirely black ceiling, opt for a geometric pattern instead. Or, paint a section on a wall behind a piece of furniture and extend it slightly onto the ceiling for an interesting effect.