Color Feast: When to Use Black in the Dining Room

White interiors are more popular than ever, but I'm going to make a pitch for often-overlooked black as a feature color in your dining room. Injecting a generous swath of black is an easy way to add drama and elegance to a space. But before you clad your entire dining room in the hue, check out my tips for working with black along with these seven sensational black dining rooms to inspire you.

A floor-to-ceiling black painted wall is very tricky to pull off. It requires an abundant amount of natural light to avoid its feeling overwhelming and oppressive. But painting just a portion of the wall will give you a sharp dash of sophisticated black without making the space feel like a cave.


Black flooring really grounds a space without making it too dark. Additional hints of black in the furnishings and accessories, along with plenty of white, will give you a dramatic backdrop for splashes of brighter hues, such as the yellow in the artwork displayed here.


Here's another dining room with a black floor and white walls that is striking without feeling too heavy. For those fond of white spaces, think about adding a good bit of black to the mix for some nice contrast.


Here's how to do a full-height black painted wall. This space gets plenty of natural light, which combines with the abundance of white to create an open and airy feel despite the large black accent wall. Black absorbs light and tends to look flat, so by pairing it with glossy finishes, you'll get some much-needed sparkle.


If you have interesting architectural details to highlight, use black with white (or another light hue) to set these features apart from one another. You can really see and appreciate the beautiful barrel-vault ceiling due to the high-contrast colors used here.


Typically you want your dining room to have a cozy and intimate vibe. If you have a tall ceiling, you can visually lower it and create intimacy by painting it black. Again, you'll want a good amount of light, and I'd limit the use of large amounts of black in the remainder of the space, so it doesn't get too dark and cave-like. The black ceiling here also provides a great backdrop for that fabulous Sputnik chandelier.


Looking to add drama to your dining room but leery about painting your ceiling or walls black? Consider other often-overlooked places where you can inject black, such as on doors, wood trim or light fixtures. These black painted sliding barn doors, as well as the large black-framed mirror and oversize black-shade pendants become the focal points of this charming dining room.


Every paint company has a handful of blacks to choose from. Some are cooler, with hints of blue or green, while others are warmer and head toward brownish black. You can really see these subtle differences when you view the color chips side by side. Greenish and brownish blacks can sometimes look a bit murky to me, so I like to stick to blacks that have some blue or white in them.

Black paint picks for dining rooms (from left to right):

1. Bravura 140-6, Mythic Paint
2. Black Magic D58-6, Olympic
3. Dark Engine DE6350, Dunn-Edwards
4. Black Mica A2009, Glidden

See more ways to use black in your home

Tell us: How have you decorated with black in your dining room? Post a photo in the Comments section below and share the details.

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