The hidden black within your walls (and why your home needs colour)

WALK INTO ALMOST ANY STYLISH HOME THIS YEAR AND YOU’LL SEE WHAT DESIGNERS CALL RICH, GROUNDING TONES. BURGUNDY. MOCHA. OLIVE. CLAY. NAVY. THEY LOOK WARM. THEY FEEL SAFE. AND THEY ALL SHARE ONE THING IN COMMON.

Black.

It’s the secret ingredient. You don’t see it straight away. It hides inside the pigments. Mixed into the wall paint. Blended into the fabric of the sofa. Sitting in the wallpaper. Even in the art chosen to “calm” a room. But once you notice it, you can’t unsee it.

There’s black everywhere, and designers know this.

Nicky Percival says 2025 interiors will be about deep burgundies, navy blues, terracottas and greens that “cocoon us, offering comfort and grounding.” Vogue points to Beata Heuman’s “butter yellow,” but even that gets toned with grey to keep it gentle. Pantone crowned Mocha Mousse as colour of the year. A fancy way of saying 'brown with a heavy hand of black'.

Black is polite.

It makes spaces sophisticated. It plays well with the wallets of people who like their money to look settled into stone and wood. It’s easy to live with. Walk into any room and it feels tasteful. That’s what money buys - safety and beauty that never argues back.

But here’s the thing. All that black, hiding in plain sight, has a side effect. It mutes the joy. Rooms end up poised, elegant, soothing … but often just a touch sombre.

Which is why a house needs something else.

Not more cushions. Not another neutral print from the gallery down the road. What it needs is colour with backbone. Colour that doesn’t sit quietly in the corner but stands upright. That’s where glass comes in.

Glass has no time for murk. It can’t hide black.

LINDA’S HARD EDGE ART GLASS IN PARTICULAR HAS THE NERVE TO BE BRILLIANT. VIVID REDS. SHARP BLUES. GREENS THAT CUT LIKE EMERALD.

HARD EDGE GLASS LAUGHS IN THE FACE OF “MOODY” PALETTES.

This is balance. The kind people understand when they roll out the yoga mat. Yin and yang. Dark and light. Too much black and the energy drops. Add a piece of strong glass, and the room breathes again with light.

It’s not decoration. It’s counterpoint.

The point isn’t to drown the house in carnival tones. Nobody wants to live in a paint chart. But one Hard Edge glass piece can do what a hundred moody neutrals will never do. It lets the dark have meaning.

It lets the black reveal itself as the backdrop it really is.

Think about it. Light overcomes dark. Nothing else works, only light overcomes dark. Not more beige. Not more stone. Not another mood board of earthy browns.

One piece of brilliant coloured glass art in a carefully built room is like hitting ‘send’. Everything else rearranges itself around it.

Designers may keep preaching the gospel of cocooning shades and grounding earths. Fine. They create the stage. But the drama only starts when colour walks on. That’s when the house stops being just tasteful and becomes alive.

AND THAT’S WHY - AMID ALL THIS BLACK - BRILLIANT HARD EDGE GLASS IS NOT JUST AN OBJECT. IT’S THE ANSWER!