Many people shy away from using dark colors in their homes for fear of making a space look smaller, darker, and less appealing. But with some of the most beautiful woods, such as mahogany, walnut, and rosewood, naturally coming in dark tones, leaving them out of your interior design is a shame, especially when adding a noble dark wood cabinet to a lightly painted room can really make the design pop.

Choose the Right Room

Remember that your choice of colors will create a feeling in your home, and using the wrong color scheme from the beginning will dictate how you decorate your space. While dark colors can be more intimate, they can also create the notion of a smaller space, so you should avoid decking out a low-beamed area, small downstairs toilet, or closet with dark wood. An open hallway or high ceilinged living room is a much better choice.

Create Contrast

Use dark wood wisely and you can create beautiful and stylish contrasts; go overboard and you can create a black hole. Don’t add dark wood to dark walls, as the wood and color will overwhelm the space. Dark wood works great when contrasted with light backgrounds and used in moderation. Nice soft neutral tones with dark cabinets on the walls can look amazing.

Too Much Wood’s Not Good

If you live in a wooden cabin, with wooden floors and wooden walls (especially if it’s dark wood), adding wooden furniture to every room can be overwhelming. And dark wood on more dark wood can look like a living nightmare. To add light and space to your home, think about using open glass sliding doors or windows with a dark wooden support in the middle. The dark wood will really stand out in the light space. If you want to mix up your furniture, try a combination of wood and steel, or a dark wood kitchen unit with white marble top. Check out vintage industrial designs if you want to modernize a rustic cottage feel.

Use the Light Wisely

If your home doesn’t get a lot of natural light, then make sure you position your artificial lighting carefully. Highlight what you want people to see and don’t fit powerful overhead lights that make people feel like they’re being interrogated. If you’ve got a lot of dark wood furniture, try painting the ceiling white and using brighter light bulbs.

It’s true that an excess of dark wood in your home can create an almost sinister impression, but if you keep these few key factors in mind when deciding on the distribution of your wooden pieces, you can achieve the right balance and convert your home into an interior designer’s dream (rather than a comic book nightmare).