Why dark walls look good in a room with little natural light

Why would anyone paint a room with little natural light a dark color?  It seems weird.  And weird wouldn’t necessarily be out of character in this household.  But there is logic behind it!

Last week we painted our dining room dark blue.  The room is stuck in the middle of the floorplan, and doesn’t get much natural light, though it’s surrounded by rooms that are flooded with it.

Last week, the dining room was still the same semi-gloss light yellow that it was when we bought the house.  The color, in itself, wasn’t bad, but here, it was really dreary.  See all the shadows in the “before” pictures that just make the room look drab?  The light color made it obvious that there was no natural light.  While the shadows on the dark walls just seem to add depth and richness.  So many shadows in a light painted room can make it feel cold, while shadows in a dark painted room make it feel warm.

The dark walls have done two things for our room:

1. They give the room definition and clear boundaries and that makes it feel inviting and cozy.

This dining room has doorways in every direction (and the silly half-wall), which make it feel more like a hallway than a room.  But now that it’s painted in such a contrasting color from the other rooms, you can clearly see where the room begins and ends, which is another thing that gives it the warm, intimate feeling.

2. You no longer notice the lack of natural light.  Before, it was all I noticed, it felt like a cave, now it feels like an old fashioned library where you could curl up with a book and stay day.

Much like when driving and your lane is always the slowest, it seems to defy logic that a room without much natural light would feel drab when painted a light color.  It also seems to defy logic that a dark color would make it inviting and make you not realize there wasn’t much natural light.  It seems weird, but it works!  Would you ever try it?