lacking dark ambiance? some notes, lists, and projects for gothic interior decor at home, dorm, or with the `Rents!
notes on painting your room black, red, etc.
source: sheryl
contributed by: Sheryl
Black paint, is for neither the faint of heart, or the lazy of paintbrush. It requires a huge commitment, since it generally takes 3-4 coats to get proper coverage. It also requires spending the big bucks for good quality paint. Because at some point in time, either you, or whoever lives in your room after you, will want to paint over it.
Personally, unless you've got the furniture and paraphenalia to go with it, or unless you're very seriously going for the dungeon look, I'd avoid black paint like the plague. Buy black furniture, black bedding, black curtains if you must, but black walls are a bit too much.
source: Oddlystrange
contributed by: Oddlystrange
warm colors (reds and burgandies) tend to excite and arouse. good if you're looking for that although bad if you want a good night's sleep, aparently. I would prolly consider them for something like a living room. cool an greys tend to be more relaxing. If you're looking for a sanctuary think of some shade of grey or blue grey -- they look really good with black wroght iron :)
I dunno I guess I've been reading too many decorating mags lately, but based on my experiences this actually did kinda hold true. I orginially did want to go for a shade or burgandy in our bedroom but decided against it since I have enough trouble sleeping as is. burgandy highlights would be nice though :) also on the black thing -- consider painting the trim that color -- it's still a pain, but I think would allow for more creativity in furnature, carpet and window dressing selection.
source: GothFaeri
contributed by: GothFaeri
there has only been one person to do this really well. and she didnt even do it herself. (winona ryder in Welcome Home Roxy Carmichael) and, well, chances are, you arent her, so stay away. having the paraphenalia wont save you. if everything is black and the walls are white, no one will walk in and say "you arent goth! your walls are white!" so dont get too ubergoth and try to make everything black.
also, any colour you pick is going to have serious effects on you, more than just aesthetics.. reds will make you passionate, but angry. orange will make you happy, but hungry and head achey. yellow will warm and cheer you, but make you sick too. the list goes on... why do you think every fast food place has at least one of their colurs a red, orange, or yellow?! these warm colours would make it hard to diet or not eat alot it they were coating the walls. dont be afraid to be bold, but dont paint all four walls of your room black or red without considering the effects and the alternatives... like a faux finish involving one or more of the colours, using it as a trim, under a wanscotting, or that same colour in a more muted tone...
aged and distressed walls/schemes commentary
source: sheryl and GothFaeri and brahman and ?
contributed by: sheryl and GothFaeri and brahman and ?
If you want your walls to look aged and distressed, buy a few small cans in shades of biege and ochre. Do the trim in either gloss black or gloss white for contrast. This will give your room that Romantic look, which you can successfully compliment with either gauze or velvet curtains, lots of wrought iron candle holders, throw pillows in brocade fabrics, and some wonderfully framed artwork on the walls. I'd probably do all of the trim in black, use some of those wonderful frames and get or make a midnight blue velvet duvet cover. Accent it with lots of cushions in either black or other jewel toned colours, brocade and velvet, lots if tassels, etc. Midnight blue or black curtains (velvet if you can afford it), tied back with big tassels (maybe silver ones? Try a fabric store geared toward the home decor clientele. Black stained furniture, or a wrought iron bed, lots of black accessories, and the requisite candles, incense, etc. i've seen an excellent boulder and mortar wall done with a bucket of white and a bucket of black, mix to suit. was like being in a dungeon instead of a dorm room. one thing I Might suggest is along with painting your walls grey, paint things like columns and what-not on it -- it may sound goofy but I've seen stuff like this done in decorating magazines and it look very nice...
[GothFaeri adds: those sorts of things, columns and scenes, are called trompe l'oeil.. they fool the eye. ive been considering doing this or a mural on my walls, but havent made up my mind just yet. i would trim these sandstone coloured walls with burgundy trim, in a satin finish because i feel the gloss betrays the look.. black or burgundy cotton flowy curtains on an unusual curtain rod with nice finials... lots of candles in matching shades, and iron boxes too... make sure to edge everything in a fantastic moulding, since thats where the eye will be drawn.]
netting and tulle notes
source: Jilli
contributed by: Jilli
feh. mosquito netting at import shops. bah. do it the *much* more inexpensive way! (the following is advice for Seattle natives. Anywhere else in the country, just go find the nearest version of this type of store in your area.) go to Display and Costume Supply by Northgate. go to the fabric section. see those *HUGE* bolts of tulle netting? they charge something like $2.09 a yard, and the width is at least 60". so, purchase many, many yards of tulle netting in whatever colour your heart desires (that they have in stock, that is), and then drape your entire room. I have a bunch tacked up above my bed, and I have scads of it draped over my bedroom windows. (partially to block out light & 'cos it looks neat; partially 'cos I'm always doing projects with the stuff, and that's the easiest place to store it.)
[notes on decorating with tulle and netting appear else where in my web as well]
unknown: If you like that artist-look, get a nice easil (sp?) and prop it up in a corner... and decorate it! I've a rather good one in mine. On the top hangs an Anubis mask I made in seventh grade (hey, I like it! :-)) and my Angel-of-Death wings I made for Halloween last year right above it. (Several yards of wire, a block of plywood, half a roll of electrical tape, and a dozen bags of feathers later, I've a pair of beautiful, black wings! Looks like I ripped them off a huge crow... but well worth the week it took to make them!) Hrm... two clumps of seagull wing feathers (you can tell I like feathers, no?) on the ledge for small paint jars and, a nice peice of cotton - long scarf shaped - tied to the vertical front support towards the bottom are on it as well. In addition, where the painting can sit, I've either a framed poster or a painting of my own.
Thessaly: I remember a really neat project (on Interior Motives) where they made over the end of a room with a piece of plastic screen that had been painted with metallic paint, and held it up with pieces of silver track screwed in with nuts and bolts. It's hard to explain but it looked *really* cool and might be a way to lighten up an all-black room.
notes about gothic kid's rooms
some lovely ideas for a kids room gone goth, or for the particularly fantastic goth grown up... *giggle* let loose that inner child!
Ismene: A suggestion I once read about getting murals done is to have them done on canvas, which seems like a much better idea to me. You can glue or staple the fabric to the walls, but still take the murals with you if you move. ALso, if you're renting, your landlord won't kill you (probably).
GothFaeri: this is true for any sort of wall painting or faux finishing... buy lengths of canvas at the fabric or art store, either with gesso already, or gesso them yourself, then go to town on em!>
Lampshades!
source: Interior Motives, House Smart, GothFaeri's brain, and Miz Stewart
contributed by: GothFaeri and Miz Stewart
Draping fabric or scarves over lamps will dim them and make the room more dramatic. (but make sure the fabric is at least 3 inches for the bulb... add a tall finial if this is a problem...Drape beads and necklaces over the shade also!
get a plain paper shade, paint it black or some dark colour, then stencil on a design. use an Xacto knife to cut MOST of the design out, leaving each piece connected at at least one point. bend out the shapes, allowing the light to pass through. sharp floral stencils look neato, as does ivy. ive done this with bat shapes too, leaving the top of the head and the tail connected, pulling the wings outward. or cut the designs out completely on a very small lamp, optionally replacing the shade bits with coloured cellophane, and allow it to cast pretty patterns on your walls at night...
if the light bulb has a low wattage, or the shade is far from it, you can use hot glue to put found objects on to the painted shade, like feathers, beads, stones, dried roses, cutouts from handmade paper, crystals, bones, *fabric*, or a collage of pictures, magazine or photo!
easy victorian lampshades: purchase a cheap (less than $10) lampshade frame and one yard of satin, one yard of lace (black's especially nice), 3 yards or so of gimp [gothfaeri didnt know one could purchase gimp by the yard!] and one yard of fringe at the fabric store. cut out satin and in sections roughly the same size as the sections in the frame and glue them on. (Aleene's tacky glue works especially well) let dry, then glue on gimp, and fringe.
if you have large amounts of a flowy fabric, or even scraps of several kinds, you can bunch them up and hot glue them down onto the shade. tuck dried flowers or any of the mentioned found objects into the folds to cover your glue spots.
window treatments!
source: ? and GothFaeri
contributed by: ? and GothFaeri
Hang black lace over your windows with tacks. Add a cool long scarf over the top, as a sort of valance (scarves with fringe on the ends look specially nice. The black lace especially stands out in the daytime.)
to soften the light coming in, take a trip to the art supply or import store and pick up either rice paper, or some other semi-translucent textured paper, like mulberry paper. the mulberry paper looks absolutely wicked when used in this project! also buy an acrylic glaze. you cut the paper to the size of your window, and glaze the window on the inside. carefully apply the paper (no bubbles!) and let it dry. you'll still get light, but not so sharply. if you use darker colours, you get less light.
for minimal light, try a sturdy upholstery velveteen in a dark colour.
anyone can sew draperies! or just use fusable hem tape, fabric glue, rivets, or staples.
quick, easy and cheap frame-ables
Sp!ke says: Here's a cool trick I learned from some friends of mine: Just find some goth-ick (as opposed to gothish which sounds silly) wallpaper or giftwrap, tear off a sheet and frame it. It sounds odd but it works...
unknown: framed foil skulls. I gave my friend a glow-in-the-dark skull (lifesize, really cool looking, and I can't find another :( ), and he'd take that and press foil onto it to take the shape. These were stuck in frames, and in one case, covered an entire wall of his living room. Another cheap, easy, and easy to remove way to nifty up a room. newspaper clippings of murder, suicide, satanic rituals and other evil taped for display on the walls. Tarot cards look cool framed. Frame them in a reading, by themselves, or just randomly under glass. Put a piece of velvet underneath them in the frame. Get old picture frames in thrift shops...big ones. The more distressed, the better. Hang them on your wall. Put smaller pictures inside, in a grouping. Ever see those lovely earring racks that you can screw into the wall? (If you haven't, thye are a metal rack, with small holes and slits on crossbars for the earrings to hand on/through - either post or french hook - and nearly always come with pegs along the bottom for necklaces, bracelets, and rings.) Those look wonderful suspended from small-link chains (available at any hardware store). For a rather unusual look.. try construction sites. Seriously. Talk with the workers, they are rather nice and will often give you much tape to decorate your room with for free. (Right now, I've a "Police Line - Do Not Cross" on my door.. I'm still looking for a "Danger - Explosives" one though!) Also... just about any street sign can be a rather nice statement! "One Way", "Do Not Enter"! Ermm... just don't get caught while you..obtain those! ;-) dried plants, no matter how you display them, can never go wrong (unless you can't walk through the doorway! ;-)) Hanging them from the lock on a windwo can be quite decorative, or from just about any hook on a wall, or from a curtain rod.
Lacrima adds: in areas with large latino populations, they carry many Catholic-type pictures of saints, statues, etc.
GothFaeri says: also, buy stuff like carpe noctem, and blue blood , or other gothy mag's that feature poetry or articles on artists that all have art you can cut and frame. saint post cards! and the mexican tarot! frame em! a favorite picture, painting or calligrified poem. type it up in a pretty font. do like the romans and frame a mold made in polymer clay from your favourite charms and sacred things, or the positive from a gothy stamp or seal. take a bit of those expensive Star Powders, cheap True Colors, or Mettalex powdered mettalic pigments, sprinkle a bit onto a round of polymer clay, and impress onto that any stamps or shapes you might like. could be fun if you used the aforementioned foil-pressing technique, and pressed all of your friend's gargoyles when you visited their homes, and made a gargoyle gallery! or pressed all of your favourite jewelry, charms, or other found objects...in an all greyish room, framed gift wrap? badtz maru paper in a black gloss frame, or angel gift wrap. all sorts of mundane stuff can be framed... your very first morbid art for instance! i know velvetsting has pictures he drew as a very small child of different coloured bats, which would be a really nice touch framed in a gothic living room... maybe if you have or know small children, you could have them draw things for you, or write scary stories on halloween paper and frame these. margaret: go through Design Tuscano for pictures. Stick the pictures in cheap silver or black frames The number for the catalog is 1-800-525-0733. [they have gotten awefully clever about overlapping pictures, overlaying page numbers, and putting items in the photo just barely obscuring the cool stuff. i dont know *why* they dont want us to have good clear pictures, but there are a few that are flawless. you'll have to see for yourself. the catalogue is free, and once you ask for it, youll keep getting the updated ones forever!]
Ligeia: I saved all of my corks & made a really cool cork board. It's easy, first save your corks. Second find, build, buy an interesting frame. Third glue a piece of stiff card board onto the back of the frame. Fourth, glue the corks onto the card board. It helps if you arrange the corks in interesting patterns. [a giant swirl!] Last but not least, hang it on the wall:)
thessaly: You can do things like this with mirror tile. I was watching Interior Motives the other day (commence drumroll) and they had a project where they set a mirror tile into a frame on a piece of board that had been painted a contrasting colour, put some thin moulding around the edges, and carefully (no "amateur strings") used a hot glue gun to glue silk flowers all over the edge of the mirror. It looked cheesey while they were doing it, but so pretty when they finished. These both sound like projects for the Victoriangoth type... and could probably be nicely modified for medieval or "black and white and silver" mod/asian/tech looks. [faeri adds: use latheing strips: cheaper than molding. sand them a bit if you like... use one tile, or many with lathing overtop of the seams. hand opposite a window to make a space feel bigger, bringing the outside in. instead of silk flowers, use pertty beads and dried leaves and flowers, extending some of the beads and such onto the mirror, so it would almost seem a pool of mirror surrounded by these... cosas! :}]
Raven Black: I was looking through a kids magazine and it had the kewlest idea (making the instructions a lot shorter than a 9 year old reading level) you make a picture frame [gothfaeri says; you can buy cheap unfinished wood ones at your local craft store, or scout the flea markets and thrift/99cent stores.] then glue (w/ a hot glue gun) puzzle pieces(from the puzzles where you lose more pieces then you can put together) onto the frame and it looks rad! [gothfaeri says: you can also purchase plain white puzzle pieces, which you can paint in gothy colours, and then disassemble and glue to your frame...]
flying Green Cow: Know calligraphy? (Some books show a how-to for it.. it's really not all that hard to learn, just get the angle right!) Use calligraphy to either fill in a shape or use it as background, with a silhouette (sp?) with no writing in it for the focus. (I just finished one for my art class - eep, it's only art foundations, but I love any art I can get! - it's a profile silhouette of Bela Lugosi, and the backgruond has "Bela Lugosi's Dead" sprawling across it.. Turned out rather nice, actually!)
