Have you ever been curious about what dark academia is and how you can incorporate its design into your bedroom? You’re not alone. Thousands of people are inspired by the concept due to social media trends.
As much as this theme isn’t entirely new to people, it’s a fairly young trend that slowly made its way back into the mainstream of today’s fads. Now the question is, how do you create your design based on this aesthetic?
Let’s take a look at the different dark academic bedroom ideas you can try at home.
What Is Dark Academia?
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Dark academia refers to a visual aesthetic popularized back in 2015. It has varied interpretations on how people define it, but the ideas share a similar concept.
Generally, dark academia is described as showing off academic aesthetics, particularly old institutions like Cambridge and Oxford. It’s also often related to classical literature and Renaissance art vibe.
Gothic motifs are also incorporated, exploring death, romance, morbidity, and horror themes. Other concepts it touches on include the following:
- Murder and mystery
- Cults and secret societies
- Religious portraits and statues
- Greek, French, and Latin cultures
- Romanticism and Baroque epochs
Thanks to the influences of social media platforms, such as Tumblr, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok, dark academia became a prominent aesthetic. Some trend followers take it to the extreme by considering it as a way of life.
How to Incorporate Dark Academia Aesthetic Into Your Bedroom
There are many styles to incorporate in your bedroom to give it a dark academic feel. Once you’ve grasped what the concept embodies, you can have varied interpretations to make the decorations unique and cohesive.
The best way to approach your design is by decorating each part of the bedroom with multiple dark academic themes that complement each other. Each corner of the room will contribute to the overall aesthetic of that Instagram-worthy layout.
Here are some bedroom features and functionalities you can modify:
Lighting
Your bedroom’s lighting can easily set the tone of what style you’re aiming for. Fair warning: dark academia aesthetic often features dull light sources, so your room will look dark.
Try to go for table or floor lamps instead of overhead ones to lessen the room’s brightness. A few casted shadows from the furniture and other objects will give a more gothic look.
If you insist on getting overhead lights, you can also use mini chandelier-like lights to add a bit of pizzazz. However, chandeliers tend to be quite pricey. It’s best to ready your budgets beforehand.
As long as you use warm light, you should be able to embody a dark academic feel. Other lighting ideas include:
- Candles or traditional candle lanterns (be cautious of fire hazards)
- Natural sunlight from windows
- Fairy lights
- Dark metal or wooden lamps
- Warm-tone lightbulbs
Color Palette
As much as dark academic themes have a lot of white and black color combinations, there’s no reason to limit your room’s color palette. There are many other colors you can use to get that desired aesthetic.
You can use forest green, burgundy, maroon red, dark brown, muted gold, and navy blue to break the monochromatic stigma. These base colors go well with accent colors, such as cream, beige, dirty white, dark orange, and other muted earth tones.
If you can’t paint your bedroom walls (likely the case with rental apartments and units), try using stick-on wallpapers. Once they’re in place, you can get some stencils to paint intricate patterns with accent colors.
Bedding
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Just because you’re aiming for a dark and gothic aesthetic doesn’t mean you can’t have a nice-looking and comfy bed, right? Luckily, bedding is typically used for light, contrasting colors to balance the strong base colors of the room.
The idea is to stick with off-white, cream, and beige colors with your bed and pillow sheets for a lighter mood. If you want to complement that with your blanket, you can use forest green or dark brown.
Your blanket can also have embroidery or other dark academic patterns to give it more depth. Soft fabrics like plaid fleece, wool, silk, and velvet are the best materials to use for added texture.
Flooring and Carpets
If you want to go all out with the theme (and if you can make major renovations to your room), wooden flooring is the way to go. This added touch will give sounds of squeaky and creaky floorboards for a more immersive dark academic experience.
You’re free to choose any wooden flooring just try to avoid overly glossy ones as it may contradict the dark look you’re aiming for. These are some of our best recommendations:
- Wood ceramic tile
- Laminate flooring
- Engineered wood flooring
- Luxury vinyl plank flooring
- Solid hardwood flooring
As for carpets, stick with the color palette we discussed above while paying attention to the accent colors. The common go-to for people is Kashian Persian rugs since they have intricate patterns.
However, carpets such as Victorian-designed wool, machine-woven polypropylene, leather, and fur can work just as well.
Wall Decor
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Dark-colored walls and wallpapers are guaranteed to give you a mysterious vibe in your bedroom. You can’t go wrong with using matte black as the base color to lessen the room’s brightness.
Emerald green can also work if you want a dark forest theme. The general rule for using either a solid-colored or intricately patterned wall is to balance it with the furniture and other objects in the room.
For instance, if you want to use dark brown without patterns, you can add extra stuff in the room to complement the plain-colored walls. If you’re going for the latter, avoid going overboard with furniture and other decors to lessen the cluttered look.
Here are some popular wall decors you can add to enhance the theme:
- Traditional or abstract art paintings
- Doodle art and pencil sketches
- Scenic postcards
- Classical music pieces
- Pinned notes and old book pages
- Old newspaper articles
- Renaissance, Baroque, or Romantic artworks
Furniture and Other Furnishings
The furniture you choose to put in your bedroom helps the dark academic aesthetic come together. When in doubt, always go for dark wood materials.
You can save more while sticking to the theme if you look for items in thrift shops. The more vintage it looks, the better.
The usual picks for classic furniture include:
- Apothecary cabinets
- Large gold or wooden-framed mirrors
- Grand Victorian doorknobs and handle sets
- Engraved dark steel or wooden tables
- Vintage velvet or dark leather sofa
If you need a reference to base your aesthetic on, you should check out films and TV series, such as Dead Poets Society, Harry Potter, The Queen’s Gambit, and The Theory of Everything. These shows will give you the inspiration you need to get started.
Miscellaneous Accessories
Once you have the essentials down, you can add a few finishing touches using various accessories that blend well with the theme. These dark academia-inspired objects will create more vivid imagery to improve your bedroom’s look.
If you have a shelf in the room, keep it stacked with traditional books to add some vintage visuals. Spinning globes, traditional vinyl turntables, and chessboards are also welcome additions for extra entertainment.
As for your work desk, the goal is to make it look scholarly as if you’re solving a mystery or studying diligently to get into an ivy league university. However, don’t go overboard with the elements. Stick to what you feel makes sense to your desired concept.
Here are some accessory ideas you can incorporate into your bedroom:
- Quill pens
- Journals and stationeries
- Hourglasses
- White marble statues or sculptures
- Grandfather clocks
- Magnifying glasses
- Leather suitcases or steamer trunks
Dark Academia Bedroom FAQs
These are the frequently asked questions about what dark academia is and how it can be incorporated into your bedroom:
What Do You Need for a Dark Academia Bedroom?
The secret to creating your dark academia bedroom is understanding the concept behind the theme. Try to research your desired layout so you can plan how you want your design to look.
It’s best to go all out and use every corner of the room to make the details cohesive. Switch the lighting, adjust the architecture, and decorate with accessories if you must.
You can gather inspiration from various Pinterest boards, dark academic films and series, and classical literature.
What Is the Purpose of Dark Academia?
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The dark academia concept was born out of an internet aesthetic that got popularized through various social media platforms. There’s no specific goal or political motives hidden within the theme, and it only acts as a design style.
If anything, there’s likely only competition on who creates the better layout on Pinterest or Instagram.
Decorating rooms based on a desired concept proves to be therapeutic for a lot of people, so it’s no surprise dark academic aesthetic captured the interests of many.
Why Do People Love Dark Academia Aesthetic?
Dark academia draws on the idea of pursuing high education with a touch of dark mystery. It’s a unique way of showing an intellectual lifestyle and appreciating the influences of classical literature.
Some people like the aesthetic because of how appealing it looks on social media. We all know how influential platforms like Instagram, Tumblr, Facebook, and Twitter can be, so once a trend sets its course, many are bound to follow if it gets a lot of attention.
Wrapping Up
The dark academia aesthetic has been around since 2015 and is showing no signs of stopping as an influential trend. It goes to show how people follow suit if a certain design concept becomes viral on social media.
Luckily, there are many ways to approach the theme, so you can still make your interpretation unique. All it takes is a little research, Pinterest boards, and thrift shopping to create an immersive layout.
Featured image source: Google
