I'm feeling a bit rebellious.

Once upon a time our home’s second guest bedroom served as my office (I worked from home before I opened my little shop). I used to live in this room. Well, for 40 hours every week anyways. So, I built this super huge long desk (11ft to be exact) to give me plenty of space to work my day job, moonlighting as a work station to accommodate my projects.

The desk was awesome – a sawhorse from Ikea and a couple sheets of plywood and I was one happy girl. Once the shop opened though, I rarely stepped foot in this room. It sat unused for a good couple of months before my man talked me into a fish tank.

I agreed to support a community of little fishies in our unused room under one condition: it had to be a pretty fish tank, and I wasn’t referring to the stuff inside the glass walls – I was concerned with all the junk that goes along with these wonderful pets.

We decided that in order to have a pretty fish tank, it would take some planning and might I add designing to get a tank set-up that we both would be happy with. I must say my man has done just that – he’s topped a nice white chest (that hides all the pumps and gadgets) with a rimless 57 gallon salt water tank, complete with hanging lights over top. It’s great! (and that comes from the not-so-fish-enthusiast)

With the tank up and running, we needed a place to sit and enjoy our little reef friends. Mission accomplished, thanks to Craigslist and our new friends who sold us their awesome leather couch. Now, the room needs some personality.

I know I should probably stick with the flow of the rest of the rooms in our house, but I’m so against that right now. I’m feeling a bit rebellious, if I must say so. A bit edgy, unexpected, and dare I say bohemian? Ok I’ll cut to the chase: I want to paint our room dark. Not like a dark shade of green or blue, but dark. As in almost black. I just feel like it makes everything in the room pop, especially an awesome fish tank. It’s almost a neutral, but has more personality than white. More soul.

When the thought first popped in my head, I began searching my books and magazines for inspiration – for those who have gone to the dark side, if you will. Much to my surprise, I found tons of inspiration. Check out some of these rooms.

Images courtesy of coco & kelley and Domino

What do you think? Am I crazy? Can I pull it off in my house? I'm thinking of adding the pops of aqua like you see in the last couple of photos - I'm hoping that will help unite our home, as that aqua color is found throughout our house. I especially love this last photo. Not that I want my room to look like that, but I like the feel. I love the live trees and the random art. The richness of a gentleman’s cigar lounge with a bohemian flair.

That’s it. I’m going for it. It’s just paint, right? I’ll keep you updated… :/