15 Chic Rooms in Orange and Black

"I love a tent room. The black and white stripes are a simple play on the look," designer Mary McDonald says about the back terrace of this Los Angeles house. She carried the theme onto the porch's walls and trim with Ralph Lauren Paint's Bone Black and Atlantic Winter. Cabana Stripe Lagoon by Editions. Rug by Ballard Designs.

In the living room, midcentury modern pieces mix with contemporary pieces. "I'm not afraid of color," designer Heather Moore says. "I knew I wanted to use orangey autumnal tones, and I chose Ralph Lauren's Cork for the walls. It's a burnt umber, a saturated color that doesn't read as flat. It has more reflectivity and depth than that.

Orange bedding accents brighten a guest room in a San Francisco row house. "I don't like Crayola colors," designer Benjamin Dhong says. "But I do love orange. It's happy, perky. You don't need a lot to make a statement, and it looks really good with brass."

In designer Stephen Shubel's "moody and eclectic" bedroom in his California house, he mounted flea-market finds against a black wall. Genuine Fake Books wallpaper by Deborah Bowness creates the illusion of more space. Comforter and striped pillowcases, West Elm.

Strong color — Benjamin Moore's Fresno —"keeps the mudroom from looking like your everyday mudroom," designer Mona Ross Berman says of this space in a New Jersey beach house.

In the game room of Windsor Smith's Los Angeles house, Ralph Lauren's Bone Black — "a true black," Smith says — is used in a flat finish on the walls and in high gloss on the trim."When you walk into that room in the day time, your eye goes straight outside," she says. "Black stretches the perimeter. With black walls and black carpet, everything floats and the room seems boundless."

Warm, coppery orange, owner Ann Leggett's favorite color, prevails in the master bedroom in a New Orleans cottage. "Orange is warm and bright, and those attributes, to me, equal happiness," designer Susan Noble Jones. Raso quilted cotton coverlet from Bellino Fine Linens; table lamp from Sunbelt Lighting.

In a Manhattan apartment, the kitchen's existing cabinets were lacquered in Benjamin Moore Black and accented with polished-nickel hardware from Hamilton Sinkler. "It's the Hollywood version of a service kitchen," designer Nick Olsen says. Venetian blind, Manhattan Shade & Glass, with Samuel & Sons Zig-Zag trim. GE Profile refrigerator.

In a Hillsborough, California, kitchen decorated by Melanie Coddington, the hand-forged iron Chauvin lanterns from Dessin Fournir were painted white inside to reflect more light onto the island. Shaws Original fireclay apron sink from Rohl. Faucet from Rocky Mountain Hardware. Bosch dishwasher. Benjamin Moore Aura in Salsa Dancing on cabinets and Oatmeal on walls.

Brass boat-cleat pulls gleam in the shipshape home office/wet bar of a Cape Cod-style house in New Jersey decorated by Michael Aiduss.

In a Menlo Park, California house decorated by Matthew Leverone, an armchair in Robert Allen's Astamor adds a vivacious contrast to the master bedroom's neutral headboard, in Pindler & Pindler's Barstow leatherette.

Sheathed in dark-stained pine with simple cabinetry, the master bathroom in an Alabama lake house decorated by Susan Ferrier has the look of a rustic retreat.