This beautiful turn-of-the-century apartment in Sweden (via Sjöman Frisk) has been fully painted with different shades of dark grey for a moody effect that looks stylish and characterful. The open-plan living kitchen has a slightly lighter shade of dark grey walls, while the bedroom features a deep charcoal grey that is a few shades darker and almost seems black from some angles.

The bedroom and living room are adjacent to each other, which means you can see the gray paint colors throughout the space nicely complementing each other.

Rather than going for a feature wall, the owners of this apartment didn’t hold back and painted every single wall in dark grey, including the window and door frames for an impressive effect. Imagine this apartment with white walls and it would have a lot less depth wouldn’t it?

A living kitchen with dark gray walls

A living room area with grey walls and green accents

The asymmetric shape of the dark grey living room includes a sofa and a dining area, which all evolve around a dark grey color palette that is warmed up by the wood tones that add some warm undertones to the palette.

The living room works well in such a dark color scheme because of the abundance of natural light coming through those tall windows. Note that the wall space above the windows has been kept in the same color as the white ceiling, to make the space appear bigger.

The soft grey sofa is combined with a light grey area rug and green tints in both the throw pillows and the plants and the round mirror on the wall reflects the dining space from the living room area, which is such a nice touch.

A dining area with a mixture of dark grey, black, and oak wood

The large black dining table adds more depth to the dark grey walls, while the dining chairs soften out this palette. The large artwork on the wall is a great focal point in the living room altogether and lightens up the dark grey walls in the space. Rather than going for a gallery wall, you can select a big piece like this one to really break up dark gray walls, and you don’t have to hang all the individual picture frames in the right spot, which is a big plus.

The Flos AIM modular pendant lamp* above the table adds a little something special and ties the living room design together in such a nice way. This lamp works so nicely here because of the high ceilings and fits the color palette perfectly.

A white kitchen with a black countertop to accentuate the dark gray walls

While the lighter area rug and the white armchair in the living room brighten up the color palette slightly already, the white kitchen with black countertops really adds some contrast to the interior design of the living room.

The black laminate countertop and the black open shelving match nicely with the dark grey walls and the white subway tile backsplash and mimic the contrasting palette of the dining area. When you combine grey walls with black accents, it brings out the dramatic touch mid-grey or dark grey walls can add to a room, while if you combine it with tints of dark blue, it will have the same effect yet in a much cooler fashion.

A bedroom with charcoal gray walls and dark curtains

The dark gray walls in the bedroom are a few tints darker than in the living room, which makes this space even more dramatic. Since there is only one window in this narrow space bedroom, the daylight that comes in is far reduced, making gray walls a great choice to enhance the small-space look.

While the dark gray walls and the dark curtains add a lot of depth to the space, the single print above the bed, the light and white bedding, and the lighter gray paint color on the built-in wardrobe brighten up the wall color a bit which adds a lot of interest to the interior design.

A back bedroom home office space against the dark gray walls

A modular String shelf* in black has been added to the gray walls opposite of the bed to add a small spot to work from the bedroom. The deep color palette of the black shelving and the gray walls have been warmed up by the reds in the accessories and the art print on the wall.

How to achieve dark grey walls in your own interior design

Will dark grey walls work in my space?

While a dark shade of gray walls can look very impressive in a room of any size, this wall color tends to work better for more spacious, well-lit spaces. If you are working with a darker, smaller room, I would go for gray walls that are a few shades lighter to open up the space more.

Are gray walls difficult to style and decorate?

Gray, in all shades, is a neutral color, and even though you can vary on the warm or cool undertones, giving your walls a gray coat of paint will result in neutral walls, which can serve as a perfect backdrop for a wide range of colors and materials in your decor.

How do I select the right paint for my grey walls?

Selecting gray paint for your walls is not that tricky, yet you do have to try out samples first as the natural light and the materials in a room can highly influence the cool or warm undertones that are brought out.

A few paints swatches you can try out for your grey walls

If you want to achieve mid to dark-gray walls like in the living room of this apartment, try out Farrow & Ball Plummett*, which intensifies in smaller spaces and has a modern look and feel perfect for minimal living spaces.

If you want to go for really dark gray walls like in the bedroom of this apartment, go for Farrow & Ball Off-black* and add a dramatic touch to your space.

But as I always recommend to my interior design clients as well, always buy a tester of the paint and take a look at how the paint reacts to the space.

via Sjöman Frisk