Ooooh, that is a cool color. Love the Black Fox room in the link below. What is the metal in the chandelier & sconces? Looks like most use a white metal in the pictures I found, but maybe an antique brass/gold color would be good too.

Here's a Black Fox dining room:

And another picture:

Here is a link that might be useful: Black & white room tips.

Sorry, I can't help because I LOVE your dining room as is. Really classy yet comfy, love the draperies. Good luck with whatever you decide to do. You have great taste so I'm sure it will be lovely.

I think the look you have is pretty!......but I get tired of looking at the same thing too....so I understand. The gray is really pretty....lots of possibilities if you go with it...

I think it can go very contemporary in a glam way very fast. I think I would paint the area below the chair rail white to try and keep it more traditional and offset the black. I like the idea, though. Intriguing!

I am doing a very, very dark gray in my dining room an Black Fox is one color I am considering. I have several samples taped to the walls now. I want to find my drapery fabric before I pick the perfect paint color. I will have white on the bottom and I want to do the ceiling a lighter gray. I say go for it! It's only paint!!!

I don't decorate in traditional style but I think Black Fox is a stunning color. I used black in my foyer at my last house. I just can't envision antique white below the chair rail but that's my eyes.

If you are planning on keeping the lighting fixtures in their present finish, think about painting the ceiling a metallic gold or painting a metallic gold glaze.

I love black rooms. My friend, who is a decorator/renovator, recently painted her master bedroom black, and it is beyond stunning. She had an open house for Christmas and all of the guests were so impressed with it. She used pale, almost ice-blue drapes, and silver accessories, such as lamps, etc. and it turned out beautifully.

I hope Texashottie sees this post. She painted her dining room black and it's beautiful. Even though I agree your room looks great right now, if you're ready for a change, I say go for the black.

Thanks for your thoughts everyone and the compliments. Here is a more recent photo of the dining room after we added wainscoting a few years ago. This shows the bottom half of the wall SW Antique White and it will remain this color. All of the trim is this color also.

And here is the study. This room doesn't have wainscoting but I would still paint the bottom half Antique white so that the room wouldn't be so dark.

The chair fabric in the dining room is a sagey green and would not change. The light fixtures are black with tarnished silver detail.

Paint, new drapes, a larger rug for the study, and some new art work would be the most I would do. Furniture and upholstery would remain the same.

I would also love to hear your ideas for table-scaping the buffet...

This is really MHO, so take it for what you paid for it. :)

I think painting two rooms that same black/dark gray will detract from the drama of your dining room and, I'll be honest, I wouldn't want to spend a lot of time in a black room, such as your study. That's why black is such a great color for a dining room or bathroom; they're rooms one doesn't spend a great deal of time in. Maybe someone else who has a black room they DO spend a lot of time in can chime in and prove me wrong.
Dee

I agree with the PP. I would only do the black in the dining room--the dining room and the study is too much black. I think it will look great in the dining room.

I say go for it, especially in the dining room. I've wanted to paint my dining room black above the wainscoting, but DH thinks I'm crazy. Maybe I am. Your dining room is bigger and brighter than mine, so I definitely think it can work.

If you haven't seen it, check out design dump's black study (lined below).

Here is a link that might be useful: Black study

I agree with Dee. I'd do it in the dining room only. It's going to look fantastic!!! Maybe a gray for the study?

Agree as well. It will keep the dining room special.

200% absolutely YES! I was acyually considering that exact same color (SW BF) for a room in our house.

I did paint our DR black 8yrs. ago (at least) and thought that the drama was amazing. Unfortunately in our tiny house the DR was the only place that we had to eat, spread out crafts and fold laundry. It got too cave like over time for me. I would do it again in a heart beat in a room that I could retreat to and not be forced into everyday for long periods of time.

We have black fox on our exterior trim and I love it. I am considering using it somewhere inside too...I just can't decide where.

I think your dining room would be stunning. GL!

Thanks for the vote of confidence everyone!! DH was surprised (to say the least) when I said I wanted black in there!!

Jill, thanks so much for the link above to the black study, as coffered ceilings are next on my list for the dining room and there were some great in progress photos of her ceilings.

I'm back to considering BM's Duxbury Gray for the study. It works well with the Black Fox when I just lay the chips next to each other. I found this photo of BM's Iron Mountain on yahoo images and it looks more like the color chip I have of Black Fox then anything I've found online that states Black Fox. Must be my monitor? Anyone have experience with Iron Mountain?

And this photo from GW states that the color is Wharf but it looks most like my sample of Duxbury Gray....

Your room is lovely, and the Black Fox color is also lovely. It looks like your mind is made up, but . . . if you don't plan to change the chair upholstery, I would not do it. The amount of light your fabrics reflect will change and therefore the color they appear. You have a room that presents as a cohesive whole right now, and the change you propose may make it look like an outfit where you changed the blouse but forgot to change the skirt, in a manner of speaking.

While I love the color Black Fox - your floors from the photo's look pretty red toned. Would it work w/your floors?

I think a black dining room could look really great. It looks like your ceilings are high, I would consider doing something special with them too....maybe a metallic silver?

Have you considered doing the dark walls in a high gloss? Really high gloss--so as to make the paint look wet. That really helps with the light reflecting and takes the "scary-ness" out of the black.

Funny you posted this, I saw this posted on Mission Stone & Tile's blog today:

Here is a link that might be useful: Black Dining Room

I love your dining room now and have in fact been planning to do something similar to mine, but I think yours will be really stunning black. I love the addition of the wainscoting. Do you mind sharing where you got your drapes? I'm looking for some for my dining room and the windows are very similar to yours. Or you you can just send me your discards! LOL! Also, what color is your foyer?

Thanks everyone for responding. I guess I won't know until I do it right? Our ceilings are 9 feet high and I am currently trying to convince DH to build out a modified coffered ceiling treatment in this room. I would then paint the ceiling inside the coffers a color and will most likely come back for advice once it's done. The floors are more of a brown tone IRL then a red.

Bee, I hadn't thought of that but I will consider it. I'll pick up a sample of each and see how it looks before I start.

karoloke...The drapes were a simple and inexpensive DIY project. We needed 104" drapes and I really wanted dupioni silk but the longer lengths are very expensive and I was a stay at home mom at the time. I found these at target for about $20 per panel in the 84" length and purchased additional inexpensive fabric and added about 20" to each drape. Then I added coordinating trim where they were sewn together.

What a great idea to add fabric so you didn't have to buy the more expensive length drapes. They look really nice. I can't really tell that the fabric at the top is different - or did you find the same fabric somewhere, or buy an extra panel for the fabric? It just looks like a valance with trim at the bottom. I like the way they blend with the wall color.

The lower two thirds of fabric were dupioni silk panels that I took to a fabric store and found a striped fabric that I matched to the gold of the drapes. The upper portion is meant to mimic a valance and is gold, sage green and barn red stripes.