Tips For Painting A Moody Colour and Keeping a Room Bright

I am so pleased at how bright and inviting this updated room is even painted with a moody green and with lots of black. — I am so pleased at how bright and inviting this updated room is even painted with a moody green and with lots of black accents.

A moody, strong colour can make such a difference to a room but would it make the room that I was updating, too dark?

Our daughter Sydney has never really lived in this room as she left for university two months after we moved into this house. Because of this, the room or Sydney herself, never really demanded the attention the room needed. So, with no return in sight, as Syd pursues higher education, I decided to update this room for a guest or Syd, whomever decides to stay.

Sydney's room with boring and a bit dark before — Sydney’s room was boring and a bit dark before

I have been influenced by the moody coloured rooms I have seen on social media but I did not want to make the room feel dark. Here are some of the things that I chose that helped the room feel light.

Moody Wall Colour

The wall in this room was previously grey and I felt that the grey may have swallowed up the light.

I chose Cushing Green by Benjamin Moore as my moody colour of choice. I feel that this colour bounces the light. This is a good reason to test colours in your room to help determine in advance if your colour absorbs the light or not.

I just love this moody colour Cushing Green that we added to the room. My hubby is installing the black and gold light and the artwork that I made myself.

Just Paint A Moody Colour on a Feature Wall

The other three walls were already white and I decided to leave them that way. That really helped the room feel bright. The ceiling is also white, so that helps.

Leave Space Between Dark Pieces of Furniture

The basics in the room were all staying. She has a wrought iron black bed, nightstand, dresser and dressing table. They are all black. If I was starting from scratch, I would have introduced some wood and varied the finishes, but not in this minimal update. I think there is enough space between the pieces in this room with the white or coloured wall in between, that they don’t feel heavy and dark.

Drapes Should Pull Back Away From the Window

I added black-out drapes to help block out the sun in this east facing room. I just love the black-out drapes from Giant Tiger. They do the job to block out the sun and are inexpensive. Since the panels are only 31 inches I bought several panels to give the needed width. These are the same drapes we used in our One Room Challenge Master Bedroom Update and we are so pleased with them.

These inexpensive black-out drapes will darken the room when necessary but they pull back far enough to let the light in.

You may ask, when maintaining light in the room was a goal, why would I add black-out drapes. Well, first maintaining light, but also blocking light are both important factors. In addition, I have the curtain rods extend far enough so that the drapes are not covering the window when open. This ensures that light can flood in.

Lighteness in Flooring

Another important light bouncing surface is the floor. There was no rug in this room previously. And I felt that the dark floor, although beautiful, also swallowed the light. So I chose this black and white rug from rugsUSA . Yes, I added more black in this room where I was trying to ensure light. But, the white in the rug brights a brightness to the floor that wasn’t there before so I think it helps to have white on the fourth surface.