Wondrous Black

By Chirag Sharma

Photography: Courtesy World Wide Web

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Black is a beautiful and naughty colour. Naughty, because it plays on your psyche in manners untold; manipulating both - your senses and your spaces...

Black is a very difficult colour to understand. Although we see it commonly used in our gates, grills, our kitchen platform, our television set, maybe a peg table, a lamp base and perhaps the telephone, using it as a natural part of the selected scheme of colours in the interior of the home is not a very oft repeated option.  

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Incidentally, black is the most versatile of all colours. It can blend positively with all kinds of shades. Dark colours and pastels alike can be anointed with the colour to enhance the overall décor. When used in the right manner, black can both – enhance a space and reduce it, thus strongly manipulating it – a feat that other colours cannot achieve as dramatically! For example, if an old ceiling with a lot of offsets, pipes and beams etc., (generally in passages) needs to be camouflaged, the best colour to achieve this slight of eye would be black; thereafter a light fitting hung below the lowest point of the ceiling would hide it completely!  

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The psychological implications of black are considerable. Designers use it in myriad ways – with a slight sheen to add a touch of glamour, whereby the colour complements the surrounding palette breathing in sophistication, charm and solidarity. , Subtly applied, thin borders in black help in ‘closing a frame’ or, in the layman’s language – finish the design in totality, communicating clarity in the design and décor.

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When used in soft furnishings, accessories and the like, this is one colour that can be gainfully teamed with vibrant colours like maroon, magenta, gold, bright red and the like and equally stunning are its combinations with a pastel based variety. But its most stunning combination lies with white! Absolutely nothing can beat the dramatics of a black and white décor!!

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Since the colour does not absorb any light and thereby does not reflect any either, it tends to empower a décor with uncompromising elegance. It defines contours and draws specific attention to the scale and form of an object or wall. Actually, every little aspect of this colour is based on one principal premise – its usage. Where it is being used, how it is being used and to what extent it is being used – are the three primary diktats that guide the application of black. The key lies in control – a systematic control of the colour in relation to its surroundings. And then, it unquestionably works its magic!!