Black Painted Interior Walls? Someone stop me!

[MCXL]

Well, I did it. After seeing Kevin54's fantastic black ceiling and red/maroon walls I knew I had to do it. At this point I have open rafters in my garage, no drop ceiling of any kind, (a project for later on)

I consulted with a good friend of mine who does theater lighting design and talked rough figures with him, and based on how the garage is now and the way the walls will change he estimates a 20-30% drop in perceived light. At this point I have 5 overhead fluorescent fixtures putting out roughly 10000 lumen, plus the smaller lights in the garage door opener and two other free standing bulb type fixtures. I intend to put a wall mounted fluorescent or similar strip fixture on the three walls without garage doors on them, which should help fill out shadows when needed.

Additionally, I plan to paint my workbench white, (suggestions for something that is tough on a surface that would be for doing automotive work on? Perhaps not a pint but some sort of counter material, etc.) which should help keep that area a little easier to work on.

And, as was pointed out by KPSquared, my intent is that if I ever sell the house, the whole place will need a reset in the paint department, and that is just fine, I have no loan on the house (inherited it) so I don't really need to worry about paying painters 500-2000 dollars to get the paint ready for sale with whatever happens to be in vogue at that time.

If those among you saying that I will hate it end up being correct, I will either paint the walls white over the black, or paint my planned shelves white instead of the mid grey (or maybe a color) I am currently thinking.

I appreciate the input that everyone gave, even if it didn't really change my course at this point. We shall see how things play out.

I look forward to keeping you all in the loop on how things progress. The project should start in earnest this upcoming week.

 

[xtremek]

I'm all for painting it whatever color you freakin' feel like, but the practical side in me see the phrase "... work on my own vehicles, and DETAIL them." Won't that make it super hard to see what you're doing? Every time I've seen a detail shop, they're lit up like daylight, with enough light that you could almost wear sun glasses. But as far as getting black paint, that should be an easy task. I had HD mix me up some so that I could paint a checker board around a room. Good luck.

 

[MCXL]

******** paint correction is best done in darkness with a single bright spotlight. That highlights the smallest errors. (Well that and the sun, but working outside is not not option with some products, and in MN it ain't sunny all the time.)

 

[frank_c]

I painted my hallway black, with bright white ceiling and trim and a dark gray laminate floor. I have most of my concert poster collection there, and that brings some color to the area. This is "my" part of the house, my bedroom, guitar/computer room, and a small bathroom. The rest of the house is "normal/boring"...for now. I work nights every other month and like it dark.

My friend scrunched up her face when I told her my plan, but when it was done she said that with all the artwork it totally worked.

Black wasn't too hard to do after painting the guitar room dark purple. The Sherwin Williams color name was "Voodoo." Small bedroom with two windows, plenty of light when I want it, can get pretty dark and relaxing when I need that.

Most black paint is pre tinted, so unless you were looking for a custom mixed color IDK what the problem was with getting it.

Yup. When I handed the guy the color sample, he pointed me down the aisle and said it came pre-mixed and here's where I'd find it while he mixed the white.

 

[Kevin54]

I painted my hallway black, with bright white ceiling and trim and a dark gray laminate floor. I have most of my concert poster collection there, and that brings some color to the area. This is "my" part of the house, my bedroom, guitar/computer room, and a small bathroom. The rest of the house is "normal/boring"...for now. I work nights every other month and like it dark.

My friend scrunched up her face when I told her my plan, but when it was done she said that with all the artwork it totally worked.

Black wasn't too hard to do after painting the guitar room dark purple. The Sherwin Williams color name was "Voodoo." Small bedroom with two windows, plenty of light when I want it, can get pretty dark and relaxing when I need that.



Yup. When I handed the guy the color sample, he pointed me down the aisle and said it came pre-mixed and here's where I'd find it while he mixed the white.

Pics Frank....we need pics.

 

[TheEquineFencer]

We need pictures of the girlfriend.

I second that!

"You know 'that look' women get when they want ***? Me neither." -- Steve Martin

 

[frank_c]

Pics Frank....we need pics.

If I didn't have the kitchen torn apart and strewn through said hallway I would have...

 

[Geek]

I hit the subscribe button to this thread when the vibratior picture was called out.

Looking forward to seeing pics of the garage!

 

[TheEquineFencer]

I hit the subscribe button to this thread when the vibratior picture was called out.

Looking forward to seeing pics of the garage!

I want to see what the G/F that's using it looks like myself...with the garage of course...

 

[Toxicscrew]

Doc hit several things on the head there. I did this black master bedroom for a client last year. I was very skeptical, but it turned out really nice. If you have lighter cabinets/shelves etc it might work out well. Also depends on the amount of wall space you have.

Glad you are going for it, will definitely need pics of finished product.

 

[Denwood]

Our film/photo studio (900 sq/ft) and projection room (400 sq/ft) are painted entirely flat black, but in both cases those applications call for zero reflected light. I would never, ever paint a work space like that though as the light loss is much more than 20-30%. My estimate is more like 40-50%.

 

[carhouse]

I have black walls in the garage.

The best part is it makes everything very secure because if you get a lot of break-ins they have a hard time finding the good stuff.

Here is a few pics of mine from different angles and some with the lights on and off.

I would say go for it!!!

This is what it looks like with the lights off.

This is what it looks like with the lights on.

This is what it looks like looking through the garage door opening into the garage.

This is what it looks like standing at the inner wall looking outside through the garage door opening.

Sorry I had to..

 

[gayler]

Another shot of the dog on the bed from the OP (Lacey, 6yo Border Collie frmale):

And some of my other dog, Ares, (3yo Border Collie male)

Enough pics of the dog! Need pics of the girlfriend with the magic wand!

 

[gayler]

"Paint it black"... That was a song right..not a room color? Paint it black and when you get tired of it you're going ask yourself when it takes 4-5 coats of primer/paint or more to recover it "what the hell was I thinking".

How about make it a white room with black curtains? That would be cool!

 

[DRP6833]

Ever been to the Blackhawk Museum in CA? Their car display areas are all black - walls, ceiling, floor - with the vehicles spot-lit.

 

[MarkG]

I don't think I've ever seen a shop with 'too much' light-----even with white walls! There's no way I'd paint them black. It's not my shop though---I couldn't care less what other people want to do to their walls! I'm sure it will show all the dust, dirt, and scuffs just as well as a black car though.

 

[brwnelky]

I'll be waiting for pics. And your dogs look nice.

 

[Colin Len]

Ever been to the Blackhawk Museum in CA? Their car display areas are all black - walls, ceiling, floor - with the vehicles spot-lit.

Just googled some pics of that museum... looks nice, but still very dark. I imagine they're using a lot of light to illuminate the vehicles. But where you really see how dark it is is in the wheel wells and under the cars. The shadow of the car creates a total black spot in those areas, I can't imagine trying to work on anything or find something you dropped under the car in conditions like that. Depends on what sort of work you'll be doing in the space but I'd think for any automotive type work you'd be at a huge disadvantage.

 

[Geek]

 

[GRX]

Black walls in a work space? No, no, no. Bright white for obvious reasons. Possibly gray or something similar on the lower section to help hide dirt. Also ... I want a pretzel now.