Paint the wall black

Paint a wall black: Instructions and tips

If you're thinking about painting your walls black, there are a few things to consider. But one thing is certain: with black wall paint, you will always achieve an individual and extraordinary ambience.

Table of contents

1. How does a black wall work?
2. Examples from our paint community
3. Which colours go well with a black wall?
4. Painting black: Simple instructions
5. Painting the ceiling black
6. Painting wall tiles black
7. Painting window frames black
8. Frequently asked questions & answers
9. The right choice of dark wall paint

What effect does a black wall have?

Black is a colour that absorbs a lot of light. Your room should therefore be well lit. Our ecological wall paint The Valuable Wall Paint really comes into its own with the really dark colour shades. It looks soft and velvety, almost powdery. This wall paint gives the wall tremendous depth, giving you the feeling that you can step into the wall.

In many rooms, the wall opposite the window is generally best suited to being painted black. However, you can also paint small rooms such as guest toilets completely black. Or maybe you could paint all the walls of the room half black and paint the upper part and the ceiling a muted white?

Any piece of furniture and any colour can be set off fantastically against a black wall. That's why modern or classic art looks particularly attractive on a black background. Alternatively, you can enhance the impression of depth by placing black furniture in front of your black wall. If they are painted in the same colour shade as the wall, they virtually disappear into it.

Examples from our string community

In our large painting community, painting friends share their impressive projects with each other. Some of them have already painted walls black. Let their tips and tricks inspire you!

Which colours go well with a black wall?

Black harmonises with any colour. Every colour shade that you combine with a black wall has a special luminosity. Of course, slightly tinted white tones and soft, light grey tones go very well. Gold and silver are also great contrasts to a black wall, and particularly bold people combine black with red.

Paint black: Simple instructions

Whether you want to paint a wall or a piece of furniture, tiles in the bathroom or a staircase black - in principle, black paint can be applied in the same way as other dark colours on the respective surfaces. To achieve a perfect result, however, it is important to pay special attention to a few things:

1. Perfect masking

As a general rule, you need to mask off very dark wall paints particularly carefully. This is because irregularities are particularly noticeable with dark colour shades. If you still have white wall paint left over, you can pre-paint the edge of the tape first to ensure that no colour gets under the tape.

2. Working from top to bottom and wet-on-wet

Painting large areas black can be quite challenging. It is important that the substrate is not absorbent. For highly absorbent substrates, such as plasterboard, first apply a primer coat of To Prime Walls - MissPompadour Wall Primer. When painting afterwards, always make sure to paint from top to bottom into the still wet paint. Make sure you work quickly. The paint should not dry during painting.

Pro tip: Apply plenty of slightly thinned paint to the roller
Always apply plenty of paint to the roller. It is best to dilute your paint with a sip of water. This keeps it open for longer and makes it easier for you to really paint wet-on-wet. That way, it won't dry streaky

3. Be sure to paint twice

The black colour only develops its velvety magic with the second coat. Additional coats may also be necessary for dark colours.

Painting the ceiling black

You can visually lower a ceiling by painting it black. This can be a particularly desirable effect in extremely high rooms. This effect is further enhanced if you draw a 30-50 cm wide strip of the dark ceiling colour down onto the wall, depending on the ceiling height. However, a black ceiling can only be considered for very well-lit rooms.

Painting wall tiles black

Black is also a chic bathroom colour, especially as taps, shower fittings and the like are now also available in black. A horizontal room layout is often recommended in the bathroom, where the lower part of the room is decorated in black and the upper part in a light colour. Tiles can be beautifully painted with black colour.

To Paint tiles, choose black varnish in Eggshell Varnish quality. It is resistant to water and cleaning agents. We also recommend a primer coat with To Bond & Block primer to prepare the smooth substrate perfectly. Please note, however, that even Eggshell Varnish does not tolerate standing water.

We show you more tips and tricks in our blog Painting tiles.

Painting window frames black

If you paint interior window frames with black paint, you change the character of a room enormously. This gives it an industrial design. However, bear in mind that the black colour on the windows absorbs a lot of light. If you want to paint your window frames, we recommend using a varnish quality again. Take a look at our blog on painting windows. Here you can find out everything you need to know about this topic

FAQs: Frequently asked questions

The right choice of dark wall paint

Just as white is not the same as white, there are also different shades of black paint, although you would describe them all as "black" at first glance if you looked at them individually. The deep dark Black with Black from MissPompadour is the closest to a classic black shade. Blue with Black is a cool black that comes from the blue colour spectrum. Black with Velvet has a few grey colour components that give it a touch of softness and elegance as well as a slight purple shimmer. A black that has a visible green undertone is our mysterious Green with Black, while the deep dark Brown with Black, as its name suggests, contains brown pigments that give this black its warmth. Black with Slate, a great anthracite shade that goes particularly well in a modern ambience, has a very natural look. If you want something a little less dark, Grey with Black is a great alternative. Each of these shades of black creates its own atmosphere and brings its own colour effect to the room.

Pro tip: You probably won't use the black colour on all the walls in a room. Choose the colour for the remaining walls very carefully. A clear white colour can look incredibly harsh. It's best to use a colour shade that contains pigments of your shade of black. It's best to order our colour cards. They will help you to match the different colour shades perfectly

colour shades for your black wall