Black & White!

A good friend of mine just bought a gorgeous house in New Jersey but is put off by the light blue walls she has in the living room that made her think revamping the space . The room was much longer than it was wider but she really wanted to paint one of the walls a darker color. As she was looking for my advice I suggested that putting a dark color on the longer wall would make the room look narrower and instead asked her to paint the room a nice ivory white keeping her existing black furniture in contrast. However....she did not like the idea of white/black which made me write this post...
White and Black is always a tough one to maintain but just so you know there are ways to go around it...the walls can be always an eggshell white finish and the mobile elements black or contrasting colors. The latest fashion that gives your space a techno 3-D look, still keeping it in monotone is wallcovering....

http://www.irismaschek.com/

Another way of going about it is always keep a small space all white and add in accent pieces like throw pillows, table lamps, small rugs or sculptures in black or dark color...

Bed by http://www.mantellassi.com/

Another way of doing a bigger room in black/white is black walls/floor with white furniture, now again the room has to be quite spacious and well lit to do so and that can really have a dramatic impact on a space like this...

Bed by http://www.molteni.it

Some practical and very interesting ways of doing a black and white room could involve a lot of thinking and space planning but not if you have your furniture ordered from Espace Loggia for that minimalist look...

http://www.espace-loggia.com/