Using really dark or bold colors can be a little scary! Will it over power the room? Will it make the room feel to dark? Will I like it?

These were all questions I had when we built our new house. I found a wall paper boarder that had ships and old maps on it that I really liked. I wanted to use it in my new office. It had a lot of tans and browns and a little bit of burgundy. (This is a man’s office I did not want a bunch of burgundy.)

I really liked the dark brown. However, I did not want my office to seem like a cave. I work in this room, and I need to be able to see. So….I compromised.

I took my really really dark brown (chocolate color), and painted half way up. I then took my “water chestnut” which is a tan, and painted the rest of the way up to the ceiling. This made the room feel really light.

I applied my boarder in the middle, some theme decor and presto my office was complete.

The end result came out really nice. I got to use my really bold color, without it totally over powering the room.

So if you have a color that you are afraid is just too bold to paint the whole room in, try this trick. If you are decorating in a theme then use the boarder to help carry your theme. (My office is done in ships and globes)