The popularity of subtle pearl greys, silver greys, and neutrals carries on, particularly for kitchen and bathroom tiles, yet our interior furnishing colour schemes are continuing to embrace dark accent colours. So, if you want to stay on the dark side, take a look at these suggestions for add dark colours to your interiors…
The Dark Floor Option
Flooring for large open space can be a bit of a minefield and once it’s done, it’s done. There’s no going back once the choice has been made and the tiles (or planks, parquet, or slabs) have been installed. We often offer several pieces of advice, such as a pale neutral is great if you’re intending to have darker cabinets or furniture. Dark timber-style planks or black to dark-grey tiles are good if you’re planning to install light-coloured kitchen cabinetry or to act as a contrast against white sanitary-ware. These are our Kromatika Hexagon Grey wall and floor tiles. Grey isn’t necessarily an immediate go-to with antique wood finishes, but we feel it works very well here, and provides the necessary contrast with the rest of the room.
Black As A Neutral
Walking through the deserted high street recently and happily peering through lit-up windows (ok, it was Halloween time!) we actually lost count of the number of black, navy, and dark-grey living rooms glimpsed! Many had spectacular mirrors positioned in the centre of the chimney breast, and there were some striking lamps, strings of fairy lights, and centre-piece pendants visible too. So we’re definitely embracing dark themes, and we’re guessing many of those newly painted rooms were lockdown Part 1 projects! So, here’s a suggestion…pair your dark walls with mirrored furniture and glass lamps for a very chic look. These accessories are from the Knightsbridge Collection at Carme Home. And if you want black floor tiles to complete the look, try our stunning Lounge porcelain tiles in Black, available in a Matt or Polished finish. Perfect.
Beautifully Encapsulated
This shot perfectly illustrates our point about dark colours – these are our Doblo Matt Grey porcelain tiles, available in both square and rectangular formats. It shows how well dark tones can work with white fittings and wooden cabinetry, with a spot of natural greenery to add colour.
Back to Brave Ground
It’s entirely appropriate to mention Dulux’s Colour of the Year for 2021, Brave Ground, again, as it’s shown here as a delicious contrast to black-painted stairs, walls and window joinery. What a contrast, and, dare we say, a ‘brave’ colour combination. Try combining with our Tejos Medium Oak Porcelain Wood Effect Floor Tiles, for a neutral-dark look.
Two Darks in One
If you’re looking for floor and wall tile ideas, you are very likely to be looking at kitchen ideas too, so we thought we would help out by showing you this amazing combination of two dark colours – the cabinetry here is the Somerton kitchen in Baltic Green from Burbidge Kitchen Makers. The scheme includes walls and joinery painted in a similar colour, and the overall look is intriguing and unexpectedly clever – as we’ve mentioned, many designers go down the contrasting wall/cabinet route. In fact, the contrast here comes from the flooring – try our Paintwash Almond Wood Effect Wall And Floor Tiles for a similar effect.
Shedding Light on Dark Tones
Although the overall interior theme is dark here, it’s not overwhelming, thanks to white ceilings and plenty of natural daylight (and that white-painted exterior wall as well!). These are our Burlingstone Marengo Mixed Stone Effect Porcelain Wall & Floor Tiles, which come in three other shades – Bone, Grey and Taupe – and which are designed to look like natural stone. A very good example of a dark kitchen that isn’t actually dark at all…great inspiration!
With Warm Considerations
Add some dark tones to your interior schemes with the Black Ground Low Bioethanol Tripod fireplace, available from Lime Lace. A nifty purchase that could nail down a dark colour scheme in the corner of an open-plan kitchen-living-family room, and it can also be used outdoors too, which is rather a fabulous idea when we are all facing the possibility that outdoor entertaining may well go on through the winter and into spring.
Shelf Service
Well, you may be considering improvements and upgrades to your kitchen that don’t actually involve new kitchen cupboards, just excellent solutions to a lack of storage perhaps? If this sounds like you then have a think about the Zuiver Cantor Wine Shelf from Cuckooland. There’s a narrower version too – we can see this sitting at the end of a run of cabinets – adding super storage as well as a swoop of dark colour.
A Lick of Paint
Yes, it’s kind of ‘we’ve all got better things to worry about’ but we can’t resist bringing you news of a new paint range from Lick, which, wait for it, provides peel and stick paint sample colours. Now why hasn’t anyone thought of that before? It avoids fiddling around with tester pots or tubes and sponges, and sample squares are posted out easily and quickly from the Lick website. So here are three fabulous colours from a range of 49 (and there matching wallpapers too!). From left; Dusky Olive Green 05, then centre, we have Teal 03, which is a charcoal blue with grey undertones, and right, Black 01, a graphite black with blue undertones.
Happy planning and designing and as always, we look forward to enjoying your pictures of your projects embracing Dark Trends – share your pics with us over on Twitter tagging @TileMountainUK or on Instagram!
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Linda has worked as a freelance interiors writer and blogger for many years; she has written for most of the major home and design magazines, including KBB Magazine, Grand Designs, Homes & Gardens, House Beautiful, Period Homes and Good Homes. She made the break and moved from London back to her home town of Shrewsbury three years ago and has just finished renovating her house. She also works in an interior design studio, produces copy for brochures and website, tries to tame her garden, aims to finish all the home furnishing projects she has on the go … and loves walking.