Black paint inside is a bold move, but there's no better place to show off a bold move executed flawlessly than in the bold, flawless pages of national home magazines. Dredged up today from AD Design File, Architectural Digest's satisfyingly codified and color-coordinated digital archive, are 12 shots of black paint done right: with richness, depth, and drama. Represented: dining rooms and bedrooms, matte rooms and glossy rooms, subdued rooms and theatrical rooms, cluttered rooms minimalist rooms, and a dozen other Dr. Suess-esque dichotomies that prove, even inside, black is just as dynamic as any other pigment.
↑ Beloved maximalist designer Kelly Wearstler is never afraid to go ultra-rich when it comes to her interiors, so the fact that this glossy black dining room she designed for a home in Bel Air, Calif., comes paneled in antiqued mirror is not totally far afield. Ditto brass sculptures, a Howard Werner table, Paul Evans chairs, and a chandelier that looks like it's likely to be found 20,000 leagues under the sea. [Jan. 2013]
↑ Maroon 5 frontman Adam Levine once tapped designer Mark Haddawy to create this glammy, rock-n-roll bedroom for his hideaway in Hollywood Hills, Calif. On the walls: portraits of music legends, including Kurt Cobain, Bob Dylan, and Stevie Wonder with Bob Marley. More photos of his pad, right this way. [March 2012]
↑ The designers at Bilhuber and Associates painted the shelves of this New York library black, then brought in a Louise Lawler photograph of lightbulbs and a 19th-century English desk. [Feb. 2012]
↑ In this Manhattan living room, interior designer and architect Robert Couturier brought in a pair of Louis XV gilt fauteuils (with their original silk velvet upholstery) to offset the contemporary wall sculpture of Louise Nevelson. It's all grand and quirky enough to mirror the apartment's location: perched above New York's Columbus Circle, on the 78th floor of the Time Warner building. [May 2007]
↑ Only the New York abode of professional perfume expert could be this globby-glam and sophisticated. Frédéric Malle's dining room features a Roberto Matta painting to temper the starkness of the black walls. Also spotted: a Le Corbusier table (!!), 19th-century English chairs, and a silver urn came from Château de Groussay. [May 2011]
↑ Inside the Manhattan apartment of fashion designer Kasper, a monochrome print is spans the width of a slate-top serving table. [April 2011]
↑ A giant all-black room does not exactly scream "Rhode Island," but it's exactly the hue art and antiques dealer Richard Kazarian used to transform an derelict shoe store in Pawtucket. There's a zoo of treasures found inside the 1,400-square-foot space, including "Walrus-covered" (gulp) Art Deco club chairs on either side of a cast iron dog. [Sept. 2006]
↑ Across the pond in a contemporary London manse, this entry hall may be utterly devoid of items that point to signs of human life—seriously, it's particularly pristine, even for expensive London residences, even for Arch Digest—but boasts such finery as a candelabra in the fireplace, a sculpture on a "Macassar-ebony base," and "a cascading light fixture hanging above a Pierre Cardin table and Jules Leleu armchairs clad in velvet." [May 2013]
↑ Gilles Mendel, CEO of J. Mendel, a family-owned luxury clothing brand that began with the work of a furrier besotted by the Russian aristocracy, slicked the entire breakfast area of his Manhattan apartment in noir. The chandelier is black-lacquer, the custom-made table is in a black marble, and the vintage J. L. Møller chairs with Spinneybeck leather seats keep with the chroma theme. [Oct. 2012]
↑ Also found in Mendel's Manhattan pad: this all-black bathroom, outfitted with black towels and an equally inky shade of granite. [Oct. 2012]
↑ In Mendel's living room, a vintage (floating!) sofa occupies the tiny kitchen-adjacent living room. [Oct. 2012]
· Black Interiors [AD Design File]
· All The Printed Page posts [Curbed National]
Loading comments...