A.J.Barnes: Black is a Neutral

photo credit Fernando Bengoechea

I believe black is one of the most dramatic colors you can paint a room. Combine that with my point of view that black is a neutral and you can probably understand why I lean towards dark colors. As we approached the final stages of our remodel and it became time to start the paint selection process, I lobbied hard for a black room. C and I had already agreed on the concept of grey, grey blues, and grey greens. I was pushing for Farrow and Ball’s dark Down Pipe black for at least one room. I lost that battle. However, it’s just paint so I still may get my way someday.

I guess I need to remind him of our first house in Atlanta. It was a little intown bungalow. I painted the living room and dining room the darkest grey I could find. In fact, it was so dark grey that it was almost the color of a chalkboard. The rooms had dark wood floors and bright white ceilings and white gloss trim. It was very chic. However, I did have a woman I worked with, when she first saw the house, ask, “Why do you like to live in a cave”? It bothered me that she didn’t like it, especially since she was someone I thought of as a great champion of taste and style. But that was years ago and after working together for a long time, I realized that even though she did have good taste if other people's choices were not identical to her's she deemed them wrong. Now I realize she was just a b*t@# and I should not have given her point of view any thought. In fact, I guess I really didn’t give it too much thought. The rooms stayed that color until I moved out of the house and to this day I still like it!

So there!