I and A Mag Jan20

Back to Black
Sophisticated, intense and eye-catching – use black in your interior to create drama,
interest and on-trend style.
Image : Balfour designer sofa, £965, Sweetpea & Willow:
0345 257 2627; www.sweetpeaandwillow.com
To make an impact when designing a room,
sometimes it pays to go against convention. This is
why the use of black in an interior is so surprising
and, when employed with thoughtfulness and
flair, so successful. What could be more different
to the typical room with all-white walls than one
that uses a significant amount of black?
This timeless colour is bold, luxurious and actually more versatile
than you might think. For a start, just as there is a huge variety
of shades of white, so there are many different shades of black,
ranging from cool, blueish blacks to warm, red-blacks. Looking
carefully at paint swatches and then testing the paints out on
your walls (examining them at different times of day and under
various lights) will demonstrate their
underlying tones and help you determine
what works best for your room.
Secondly, bear in mind that although
black itself is dark, the room in which
it is used doesn’t have to be. Yes, in a
small room, such as a snug, WC or study,
black can be used to emphasise a feeling
of cosiness, but in a larger space it can
help improve the sense of proportion and
create a feeling of intimacy. To avoid a
sense of gloom, ensure that any room in
which you plan to use significant amounts
of black has both large windows and
plenty of reflective surfaces (glass, mirror
and gloss paint) to provide daytime
illumination, and include a good variety
of artificial lighting – ceiling and wall
lamps, floor and table lamps – to create
gorgeous pools of warm, welcoming
light at night.
Image : Haddon kitchen in charcoal and
burnished bronze, from £15,000; Burbidge
Kitchen Makers: 024 7667 1600;
www.burbidgekitchenmakers.co.uk
If all-over black is a step too far, employing black as a strong
accent within a room is an excellent compromise. This could
mean covering a wall or two in black to provide a strong
contrast to your furnishings, or perhaps painting around the
room below the dado rail, creating a comfortable sense of
grounding. Black can work exceptionally well for wall-to-wall
bookshelves or as a run of kitchen cabinets. Or you might
prefer simply to choose a selection of smaller accessories in
black – picture frames, table lamps or a side table, for example
– to give a crisp, graphic look.
However you decide to use black, it will always need to be
combined with other colours. Just as a little black dress looks
great with a bold necklace, black walls team brilliantly with, for
example, a brightly coloured sofa, vivid paintings, a jewel-bright
headboard or a colourful rug. It’s a contrast that really catches
the eye, and a dark backdrop harmonises wonderfully with
intense colours such as crimson, orange, lime, fuchsia, yellow,
emerald and mustard (though not so well with darker colours
such as purple, navy or chocolate). The strongest contrast of
all, of course, is black with white. This combination can be
fresh, crisp and contemporary, though pure black and white
may end up being a little simplistic, and best tempered with
some greys (if you wish to stick with the monochromatic look)
or other colours, and definitely with a variety of patterns in
differing scales, and with textural detailing. Black with neutrals
and naturals also works well – adding timber, stone, hessian,
linen, sisal, wicker and wool, for example, in their natural range
of beiges, browns, creams and greys, is softening and beautiful.
As interiors experts say, even just a touch of black is vital in
every room, enhancing the colours, patterns and shapes that
surround it.
What is black, and how black is it?
Colour, in a scientific sense, is the range of visible light seen
by humans. Black, being an absence or complete absorption
of light, is therefore not considered to be a colour. If, on the
other hand, you consider colour in terms
of pigment, then black is actually a mix
of yellow, red and blue, the three primary
colours. Rather than not being a colour,
it’s actually all the colours! Pure black, in
scientific terms, can only be found in a black
hole, and until recently the blackest black
on earth was a pigment called ‘Vantablack’
that absorbs 99.96% of all light, developed
by British company NanoSystems for
military and astronomical use – and now
reserved exclusively (and somewhat
controversially) by the artist Anish Kapoor.
In September last year, however, scientists
at prestigious American research
university the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology developed (by accident) an
even blacker coating that absorbs at least
99.995% of incoming light. The search for
a completely black black continues…
by Kathrine Sorrell
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