Inspiration Archives - Elle C. Wolfe Interiors, Alpharetta, GA

How To Add a Dark & Moody Vibe To Your Home

by Elle | Jan 20, 2023 | 0 comments

What is Dark and Moody Interior Design and How to Achieve it?

Dark and moody interior vibes is an approach to interior design that focuses on creating bold, dramatic spaces with deep colors, dramatic lighting, and luxe materials. The type of place that feels like Paris or Harlem in the 1920s. The type of place where cool people hang out and you need to know the password to gain entry. The type of place you would like to saunter into and has Davis’ Bitches Brew on repeat if you did not have to leave your comfy sofa and ever-growing stack of to-be-reads.

This type of interior design seeks to evoke feelings of mystery, and drama, in the home. Its elements embrace the use of dark colors such as black, navy blue, dark green, brown, and deep red to create an atmosphere that is both inviting, warm, and mysteriously cocoon-like. Exactly where you want to be found on a rainy Sunday.

We call it #darkanddecadent around here.

It also includes elements such as velvet furniture pieces, luxe fabrics, ornate mirrors, and statement light fixtures to enhance the look. If you are looking for a way to add more drama to your home decor then a dark and moody interior could be the perfect choice for you!

Rolling in the deep

Apprehensive about rolling into the deep end of the dark and moody aesthetic? Stick your toe in this bold and cozy feeling with a smaller, ancillary space in your home. Such as a powder room, transitional hallway, entry closet, or your bedroom. Make this space your design lab for experimentation. Smaller, controlled private spaces like these are the perfect places for the unexpected. A bit of design delight.

5 Ways to add a dark and moody feel to your home.

1. How to use texture to add the perfect dark and moody feel to your home.

Use rich dark textiles such as velvet and suede to add texture and depth to any room. Balance the dark tones with lighter accent pillows, and rugs to keep the overall look cohesive.

Think nubby textures like chenille, faux fur, tweeds, velvets, linen, and boucle. These textures are coupled with a rich smoky palette adding depth and layers. All contribute to the cozy, comfortable, mysterious vibe of the dark and moody aesthetic.

Placing a variety of these textures throughout the room invites the eye and hand to notice as the textures are experienced. Adding to the soothing warm and comfortable feeling of the room.

2. How to use lighting to add the perfect dark and moody vibe to your home.

Ambient lighting is essential for creating a cozy and inviting atmosphere. Lighting sets the mood for any occasion. To transform a space to a dark and moody environment with lighting without compromising comfort consider the function of the space.

If the space is a pass-through hallway or entry a few wall sconces or pin dot recessed fixtures down the hallway are enough to light the path while still creating drama.

Choosing the right ambient lighting for your home is an important decision that should be made carefully. There are many creative ways to add mood lighting to make your home feel cozy and inviting.

If unable to hardwire a wall sconce, use a battery-operated sconce. Or Candles in sconces that use batteries offer a soft flicker without the flame.

If you’re looking to add a darker, moodier feel to your home, lighting is one of the best tools in your arsenal.

Put all overhead light fixtures on dimmer control switches to control the intensity of light. I almost never turn overhead lights on to their full brightness level.

Light the perimeter of the room with table lamps. Countless lighting solutions are available to create an inviting atmosphere in your living space that reflects your personal style and preferences.

With the right combination of fixtures, lightbulbs, and dimmers you can easily customize the mood of your home in a way that best suits you.

To subscribe to the dark and cozy atmosphere use darker lampshades instead of the typical white linen or light shade. Even tinted or smokey glass bulbs, or Edison bulbs lend an air of mystique with a softer glow for shadeless fixtures.

3. How to use art to add the perfect dark and moody feel to your home.

Experiment with a different color palette or art medium when adding a dark and moody aesthetic to your home. If you typically like florals or landscapes try a floral print with a dark background.

Instead of a pastel watercolor landscape try a muted oil painting or charcoal sketched landscape rendered in earth tones. Or a seascape depicted on a rainy day.

Not ready to commit full-on to the dark side, yet? Purchase moodier art with intention and buy the largest size you can afford to make a dark and moody statement. Art is not only two-dimensional.

Don’t forget three-dimensional art objects like woven platters, ceramic plates, wood bowls, vessels, books, and trays in all manner of textures, colors, and finishes.

I have a client who loves to travel to tropical islands. She and her husband live high-stress jobs in the D.C. area so vacation for them is almost always beachside.

This particular year the travel destination was the Dominican Republic and the wife was totally smitten with this huge, pointy, straw hat she discovered in the local straw market.

Needless to say, it was not going to fit into any of their luggage and the wife had to wear the hat tied to her back through international airports and customs.

Picturing this 5′ tall lady with this big straw hat under the exasperated eye of her husband trudging through the airport still cracks me up.

When it came to styling the wall above a console table in the family room a gallery wall was decided upon. On one end of the table was a tall lamp, a stack of travel books, and a few small mementos.

The huge, pointy, straw-market hat prominently hung on the wall above the travel alter table……..Vindicatedddddd!!!

4. How to use low contrast to add the perfect dark and moody vibes to your home.

The dark and moody aesthetic is typically characterized by a low contrasting palette with very very subtle variations. This is considered a monochromatic color scheme. The color does not have to be all the same color but subtle shifts in color like a paint strip in a painter’s fan deck, where the color gets darker and darker the further down the paint strip you go. To stay in the same color intensity, the third position down on the fan deck has a similar hue intensity as all of the other third-position colors throughout the fan deck, in theory.

I won’t bore you to tears with color theory but if you were so led to use a hunter-green grasscloth wallpaper behind your olive green upholstered headboard this is what is meant by using low-contrast elements to practice the dark and moody vibe.

5. How to use paint/wallpaper to add the perfect dark and moody feel to your home.

Gotcha! You thought I was going to start this whole dark and moody shebang off with paint, didn’t ya? Well, sort of….but do as I say, not as I do. with this story.

*Melinda was a pharmaceuticals rep and wanted to interject a fresh, new feeling into her townhome, keeping most of her existing furniture except for one or two items and she was expecting to see a big change. One caveat was *Melinda did not want to paint and did not like color. Her entire house and wardrobe were all beige on beige, on beige.

I get it, there is too much to think about and you set yourself up for success by eliminating options and streamlining everything down to the basics to make your life easier and be professional. In the name of efficiency, you strip your personality out of your home and you find yourself living in a gelatinous beige box.

Until a global pandemic comes along…..And you realize that the beige box of safety is too constricting.

After much deliberation and back and forth with *Melinda we decide to stay in her comfort zone of beige, but move waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay down the fan deck to Benjamin Moore’s Forest Brown to paint the one wall behind her oatmeal-ish colored sofa.

Do you want to know what happened?

*Melinda. Absolutely. LOVED. ITTTTTTT!!

Like Happy Tears loved it and wished she had done it sooner.

For dark and moody you don’t have to go all Wednesday Addams. No shade to Wednesday. ( I think she might be my long-lost Meyers-Brigg twin.) Whimsical Goth is not for everybody but we can still play in the dark and moody coffers.

Another option to add some moody coziness to your walls is peel-and-stick wallpaper. There are a gazillion and ten patterns, options, and color stories to try. Even if you are giving the old ‘peel and stick’ a skeptical side-eye on how easy it is to really not ruin your walls-you can always put the wallpaper on a large canvas or thin wood panels and use 3M command strips to hang the wallpapered panels on the wall.

DO NOT GO OUT AND RANDOMLY SELECT A DARK PAINT COLOR. <<<<<< Surefire way to absolutely hate your new dark and moody vibe.

Intentionally select a color based on an inspirational or beloved fabric swatch, area rug, piece of art, throw blanket, or photograph…….. Whatever it is. And you know how back when you were all #teamlightandbright and select the lightest hue in the fabric to paint with? Well, since we are here in our chosen Experimental Design Lab Space it is Opposite Day and we are going to get a sample paint swatch of one of the deeper, moody colors in our inspirational item and see how it feels.

Live with it. Look at it during different times of the day. Lick it. JUST KIDDING!!!!!!!!

I wanted to see if you were still paying attention. But seriously, if you love it, then go ahead and paint the whole wall, or get wild and paint the whole room!!

Names have been changed to protect those uninitiated to the dark side.

This isn’t just about trends and what is in or out. We never follow all that noise.

This is about being seen and finding your people.

This is about finally following an aesthetic you love and carving out a space in your own home for it.
To learn more about how to add a dark and moody vibe to your home. 👇

Click to continue to follow along with this dark and moody design series- When Elle Freezes Over.

See you on the Dark Side.🖤

How to decorate a bedroom inspired by Emily in Paris

by Elle | Oct 28, 2022 | 0 comments

Emily in Paris.

Unapologetically optimistic and feminine. Declared boldly in various pink fashion confections, patterns, and glam meets boho individuality. With a bit of Audrey Hepburn’s inspiration in the head-turning ensemble in the Paris Opera Garnier scene.

Emily is so passionate about life and work, However, she does not take herself too seriously. She navigates a new culture and language with many faux pas’ in her work and personal life. Watching Emily botch client relations and then scramble to fix everything with her people-pleasing ways is half the fun of each episode.

For the uninitiated Emily in Paris is a Netflix series created by Darren Star. The main character, Emily Cooper (played by Lily Collins) is unexpectedly offered a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to transfer from her marketing agency’s Chicago office to their Paris office for 12 months.

This month’s Storied Spaces is the bedroom imagined and inspired by the fashion-forward Emily Cooper of Emily in Paris. Deeply personal and individual.

The Bed for How to Decorate a Bedroom Inspired by Emily in Paris

Taking cues from our muse Emily and imagining she wants her bedroom to feel feminine, quirky, and cheerful.

Keeping in mind feminine, quirky, and cheerful using these tenets to create a bedroom makeover for Emily in Paris.

Since the focal point for any bedroom is the bed let’s start there. The bed needs to be scaled properly for the space and not only be functional but aesthetically pleasing. Bed options are upholstered headboards or wood headboards, or four-poster beds. For Emily, an upholstered headboard is selected for its au current nature.

Since one of our design tenets for the room is feminine let’s look for a headboard that has some feminine curvature to it. Since we know pink is Emily’s favorite color, an upholstered headboard, in some shade of pink, and curved would be ideal. We don’t find a pink headboard but this one seems to be Emily’s favorite shade of lipstick, so we are on the right track.

Next, still focusing on the main focal point wall with the bed we can decide what finish we want the wall behind the headboard to be. Since our first upholstered headboard choice is not pink but more in the red, pomegranate family we still have an opportunity to make a statement with the color pink.

The Wallpaper for How to Decorate a Bedroom Inspired by Emily in Paris

With the popularity of wallpaper and the gazillion options in color, pattern, and texture available we can begin there. Referencing back to the tenets of feminine, quirky, and cheerful this is what is kept in mind to narrow the search for wallpaper.

This is also where you get to be a voyeur into my thought process. I know the aspirational city is Paris and that our muse is very fashion-forward.

Therefore I will look for a chinoiserie patterned wallpaper that is French since Miss Emily is the high-priestess of pattern mixing in her wardrobe.

Chinoiserie / sheen-wah-zuh-ree /

Noun

French

a style of decorative or fine art based on imitations of Chinese motifs.

Now we are on a roll! *Pun intended!*

We have this juicy pomegranate upholstered headboard and we find a French motif wallpaper with a chinoiserie pattern with a lovely blush pink background and nearly a perfect berry accent color in the pattern throws a kiss to the upholstered headboard sitting in front of this beautiful wallpaper.

I’m telling you this is a fist-pumping moment to bring this love affair to life.

The chinoiserie wallpaper is our hero, a statement-making element that grounds the room and creates the color story for the space. This chinoiserie pattern not only offers up additional colors to delight the eyes but births a color palette.

If a chinoiserie pattern doesn’t speak to your soul maybe a flora and fauna, animal print, or geometric pattern will. Choose something that is multi-colored that will provide a color palette. Remember, the textile artist has already created the color palette for you so one color will automatically, ‘go’ with another color in the scheme.

The finesse comes with how much and where to use the color palette.

Let’s see where we are in creating our Storied Space for the Emily in Paris bedroom.

We have a beautiful, sinuous velvet upholstered headboard in a bold color. Check.

We have a chinoiserie patterned wallpaper which adds visual and textural interest. Check.

The Nightstands for How to Decorate a Bedroom Inspired by Emily in Paris

Now let’s look for some functional items like a nightstand or dressing table for our muse, Emily in Paris. The French are known for mixing the old and new and here is a match-making opportunity to pair a distressed, vintage, or found table with a new plush upholstered bed.

Mwaah…a match made in decor heaven with the patina iron base and wood top table.

Along with a vintage-inspired bronze mirror for makeup and OOTD selfies.

The Light fixtures for How to Decorate a Bedroom Inspired by Emily in Paris

Light fixtures offer the opportunity for function and style. Our uber-feminine Emily does not shy away from bling and baubles and the chandelier for her bedroom does not either. The cage-like brass structure is mimetic of the Eiffel Tower and offers light and fantasy to the room.

The Area Rug for the Emily in Paris Bedroom

We bring our color palette down to the floor with an area rug. A traditional open scroll pattern was suggested for the area rug repeating the occupant’s favorite color. The large open pattern of the rug does not compete with the smaller detailed chinoiserie patterned wallpaper.

The Accessories for Emily in Paris Bedroom

Back to the bed, with a series of solid and patterned decorative pillows to mix and match to contentment.

If you look closely the wallpaper has some light blue, green, and yellow so any arrangement of pillows in these color families will bring cohesiveness.

For accessories, we know that in her wardrobe Emily is a little over the top so, of course, she would be a maximalist when it comes to home decor but we only added in a few key ideas to consider for accessorizing your own Emily in Paris bedroom.

We started with a female bust as a nod to femininity and the historic architecture of Paris. The bust would look nice sitting on the nightstand on top of a pile of fashion books. A black finish on the bust was selected to bring out the subtle black outline in the chinoiserie pattern in the wallpaper.

The artwork is a portrait of a fashionable woman with a fairly solid background to give the eye some relief between it and the patterned wallpaper where the art is to be hung on the wallpaper. The black and brass frame is a hat tip to the other brass and black finishes of the chandelier and the bust, respectively.

Finally, the black and white hair-on-hide ottoman serves as a linear approach to the traditional black-and-white French stripe. A perch to apply lipstick in front of the dressing table or to try on the perfect stiletto

I hope you enjoyed this Storied Space of Emily in Paris’s bedroom.

Download the complete Emily in Paris Design Guide by clicking the image below for paint colors and the resource product list.

Has The Japandi Relationship Gone Sour?

by Elle | Aug 12, 2021 | 2 comments

Japandi is the intentional blending of the Japanese and Scandinavian design influences. You know, like that nauseating pop-culture activity of blending a celebrity couple’s name into one unfortunate nickname.

The Japanese aesthetic is practical, clean lines, slick with a focus on craftsmanship, but can be a little broody and muted in tone. Value is placed on quality and sustainability.

Meanwhile, a Nordic breeze blows in Scandi, short for Scandinavian, she has a natural, crisp, rustic vibe that seeks to shake off the chill and cozy things through her practice of Hygge, pronounced *hoo-ga*.

Hygge is an overall feeling of homeyness achieved through rustic textures, order, lighting, scent, and plants.

The Japanese philosophy of wabi-sabi, (so fun to say) believes there to be beauty in imperfection or patina. The more an object is used, and worn, the more beautiful it is.

The ethos of wabi-sabi is the juxtaposition of the rustic and the refined and claiming beauty in all of it.

The essence of the Japanese and Scandinavian design styles is rooted in minimalism, simplicity, and a neutral color palette. at the heart of it, they are soul mates.

As far as creative couplings go, Japandi is the global love child of minimalism.

The relationship could live in perfect harmony in the world of minimalism and beyond because they have just enough in common to live in perfect harmony while maintaining their individual identities to make this a timeless endeavor.

For the uninitiated, the Japandi design style is not simply adding some wood tones to your gray rooms. It is a very intentional design approach that respects intention and pride of place.

Last year as we all hunkered down at home and critically looked at how, where, and the why of living. Collectively we decluttered, we enjoyed simple pleasures and we remembered why we hated 1,569 piece puzzles of Bambi in the wilderness.