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I have always loved books, libraries, historical architecture, and anything that feels like it has a little history behind it. Give me an old European church, a beautiful library filled with books, or a room full of interesting antiques, and I’m happy.

I’m also a huge reader. I love collecting books, especially beautiful older editions, and I’ve always wanted my home to reflect that love. I even have a separate book blog because apparently having books all over my house wasn’t enough.

But for years, my decorating style didn’t really reflect any of that.

Like so many homes over the last decade, ours had slowly become a mixture of farmhouse decor, neutral colors, and random things I had collected over the years. I also had a few more unusual pieces mixed in, like curiosities and mounted insect art, but I never really committed to a particular style.

I liked the things I owned. I just didn’t necessarily love how everything looked together.

And then there was the paint.

Our house was painted Perfect Taupe, and while there was nothing technically wrong with it and much of my house is still this color, I was so tired of looking at those walls.

I wanted drama. I wanted color. I wanted a home that felt collected, interesting, and a little bit like an old library.

Essentially, I wanted to bring dark academia home decor into our house, but I wanted it to feel like our home rather than something copied directly from Pinterest.

The catch? I didn’t have a huge redecorating budget.

So instead of buying an entirely new houseful of furniture and accessories, I decided to work with what I already owned, change how I displayed things, and make one very dramatic decision with paint.

And honestly? I absolutely love how it turned out.

It All Started With Sherwin-Williams Urbane Bronze

Here’s the funny thing about this entire makeover.

I originally bought Sherwin-Williams Urbane Bronze to paint our hallway doors.

That was it. Just the doors.

I bought the paint, never got around to the project, and eventually decided that instead of painting the doors, I was going to paint the entire hallway.

Walls, trim, doors. Everything except the ceiling.

Because I hate painting ceilings, and apparently that’s where I draw the line.

And unlike people who spend weeks worrying that dark paint will make their home feel too small or gloomy, I was practically dying to get it on the walls.

The second I finished painting, I LOVED IT.

I mean, immediately loved it.

Everything suddenly felt more collected, more dramatic, and more elevated. The furniture and decorative pieces I already owned looked completely different against the darker walls.

I wanted to paint literally the entire house that color.

My husband thought I was insane.

To be fair, going from an entire house painted Perfect Taupe to suddenly wanting dark walls everywhere is a pretty dramatic decorating decision.

But now? They love it too.

And what started as a hallway project quickly turned into painting the entryway and family room.

I didn’t just change the paint color. I completely changed the feeling of our home.

Dark Academia Home Decor Without Buying Everything New

One of my biggest goals with this makeover was to avoid spending a fortune on new decor.

I already owned so many things that fit the Dark Academia aesthetic. I just hadn’t figured out how to display them together.

For example, I have a globe that I found at TJ Maxx probably 13 years ago.

I also have a raven from Pottery Barn, an old decorative birdcage also from Pottery Barn, an antique-style clock, and a collection of books and other little objects that I’ve accumulated over the years.

None of these things were new.

But in my old decorating style, they sometimes felt random or out of place.

Against the Urbane Bronze walls, with the bookshelves rearranged and the decor grouped differently, everything started to make sense.

I even used ChatGPT to help me experiment with decorating ideas and figure out new ways to display pieces I already owned.

And I think that’s something worth mentioning because sometimes we get so caught up in looking for new things that we forget to look at what we already have.

I didn’t necessarily need more decor.

I needed to rethink how I was using it.

I did purchase a few small things, including picture frames, new prints, and some accessories, but the majority of what you see in our home was already here.

It just finally feels like it belongs together.

Creating a Dark Academia Home Library With Books I Already Owned

This might actually be my favorite part of the entire makeover.

I LOVE books.

Not just reading them, but collecting them, displaying them, and being surrounded by them.

Before redecorating, I felt like my beautiful collector editions only really worked in our formal sitting room.

The rest of the house didn’t have that same library feeling I wanted.

So when I started working on the family room, I knew I wanted the bookshelves to become a major part of the design.

But before I started decorating, I actually cleaned them out.

And I mean REALLY cleaned them out.

I had accumulated so many books over the years. Some I had already read and knew I wouldn’t read again. Others I had simply outgrown or didn’t feel the need to keep.

So I got rid of a lot of them.

This was part of a bigger effort I’ve been making to be more intentional about what we keep in our home, which I also talked about in The Great Clean Out.

Once I had cleared out the books I no longer wanted, I started displaying the ones I genuinely loved.

Beautiful editions, old books, favorite authors, and collections that actually mean something to me.

I mixed those with things like my globe, raven, clock, small framed photographs, and other decorative objects.

I didn’t want the shelves to look like a bookstore display where every book was perfectly color-coordinated.

I wanted them to look like an actual home library.

Because that’s what they are.

Some books are stacked horizontally, others are standing upright, and little objects are tucked between them.

The result feels collected rather than overly styled, which is exactly what I wanted.

And honestly, I think the bookshelves are my favorite part of the entire room.

Making Our Brick Fireplace Feel Like an Old European Library

One of the most interesting architectural features in our home is our brick fireplace.

It has these beautiful arched niches built into the brickwork, and they were already there when we moved in.

You would think that someone who loves historic architecture as much as I do would have immediately known what to do with them.

Nope.

For years, I basically put whatever pictures I had into the arches and never touched them again.

They weren’t terrible. They just didn’t feel intentional.

Once I started redecorating, I realized how much potential that fireplace actually had.

I wanted the arches to feel like little architectural displays you might find in an old European home or library.

So I purchased some new frames and architectural prints, brought in a few candles, and started rearranging decorative pieces and old books I already owned.

I also leaned into the black-and-white and sepia tones that I was using throughout the rest of the house.

The difference was huge.

Suddenly, those arches felt like a feature instead of just somewhere to put random photographs.

And the best part was that I didn’t have to renovate the fireplace or spend a fortune to make it happen.

I just needed to decorate it with a little more intention.

Using Our Travel Photos as Dark Academia Decor

One thing I knew I wanted to incorporate into this makeover was our love of travel.

I love historical architecture, especially the beautiful old churches and buildings we’ve visited in Europe.

And I wanted our home to reflect those experiences.

Not just generic artwork of European cities or random old buildings that I’ve never actually visited.

I wanted photographs that meant something to us.

So I started choosing travel photos from places we’ve been and printing them in sepia tones.

I paired them with cream matting and frames in different finishes, including black and walnut.

I wanted the gallery wall to feel collected over time rather than like a perfectly matching set of frames purchased in one afternoon.

And while we have plenty of traditional family photographs, I wanted this particular wall to tell a different story.

I didn’t want another collection of perfectly posed family photos in an Oregon field.

I wanted people to look at the wall and immediately understand something about us.

We love to travel.

Those photographs aren’t just decorative. They’re memories of places we’ve explored and experiences we’ve shared.

I also purchased an Aura digital photo frame because I have so many photographs I love and didn’t necessarily want to buy a physical frame for every single one.

It’s a modern addition to an otherwise old-world-inspired room, but I actually love that combination.

Not everything in a Dark Academia home has to be antique.

Sometimes technology makes it easier to enjoy the things that matter to you.

The Champagne Velvet Curtains That Made Everything Feel Cozy

Another addition that made a big difference was a set of champagne velvet curtains I found on Amazon.

I wanted to soften the darker walls without taking away from the dramatic look.

And I love how the champagne color works with Urbane Bronze.

The velvet adds texture, warmth, and a little bit of that old-world feeling I was trying to create.

It also helps the room feel cozy rather than overly dark.

I think that’s an important distinction.

I wanted moody, not depressing.

Dramatic, not uncomfortable.

The curtains helped bring in that softness without making me feel like I needed to go back to light-colored walls.

I actually love them enough that I’m considering adding more curtains throughout the house, even in spaces where I don’t necessarily need them for privacy or window coverage.

Sometimes fabric is just part of the decorating.

And in this case, I think it really helped finish the look.

Making Dark Academia Work in a Real Family Home

Here’s the thing about decorating a family home.

It’s still a family home.

We have backpacks, dog crates, electronics, kitchen appliances, and all the other things that come with actually living in a house.

I wasn’t interested in creating a beautiful room that nobody could use.

I wanted our home to feel more stylish and personal, but it still needed to function.

One of the biggest examples of this was turning an unused closet into a family command center.

I was so tired of seeing backpacks and everyday belongings piled on the kitchen table.

Everything needed a home.

So we created a space that could handle our everyday organization without taking away from the rest of the house.

You can read more about that project in my Closet to Family Command Center makeover.

I carried the same darker color scheme into that space, so even though it’s primarily functional, it still feels connected to the rest of the house.

And I think that’s one of the things I love most about how this makeover turned out.

We didn’t get rid of everything practical just to achieve an aesthetic.

We found ways to make the practical things fit into the design.

Our television is still in the family room.

The dog crates are still there.

We still have all the normal things that come with everyday life.

But now the room feels more intentional.

Where I Saved Money and Where I Actually Splurged

I didn’t have an unlimited budget for this makeover (truthfully it was like $300), so I tried to be thoughtful about what I purchased.

Most of the decorative pieces were things I already owned.

The books, globe, raven, birdcage, and many of the little objects on our shelves have been collected over years.

I also reused artwork and rearranged things from different rooms rather than buying everything new.

Where I did spend money was on pieces that would help bring everything together.

That included new frames, printed photographs, a few candles, and the champagne velvet curtains.

Some of my frames came from Amazon, while others came from TJ Maxx.

I tried to choose pieces that felt unique and worked with the collected look I wanted.

I didn’t want everything to match perfectly.

I wanted it to feel like mine.

The things I don’t regret spending money on

Sherwin-Williams Urbane Bronze: The paint was definitely an investment, especially once my little hallway project turned into multiple rooms. But I would spend that money again in a heartbeat.

Our Aura digital photo frame: I love being able to display more of our travel and family photographs without having to find wall space for every single picture.

Our Skylight Calendar: This was another splurge for our family command center, and I have zero regrets. It’s a practical purchase that helps keep our everyday life organized.

The large entryway canvas: This was one of my more expensive decorative purchases, but the scale was exactly what the space needed. Sometimes a larger statement piece makes more sense than trying to fill a wall with a bunch of smaller things.

And that’s really how I approached the entire makeover.

Save money by reusing what you already have, and spend it on the things that will actually make a difference.

What I Learned From Decorating Our Home in Dark Academia Style

I think the biggest thing I learned from this project is that sometimes your decorating style isn’t really the problem.

Sometimes you just haven’t figured out how to bring all the things you love together.

For years, I had beautiful books, interesting objects, travel photographs, and pieces that I genuinely loved.

But everything felt a little disconnected.

Once I committed to the darker paint and started decorating around the things that actually matter to me, the whole house began to feel different.

More collected.

More dramatic.

More personal.

And honestly, more like us.

I also learned that I’m apparently not afraid of dark paint at all.

In fact, if my husband would let me, I might just paint the entire house Urbane Bronze.

Although considering how much he loves it now, maybe that’s not entirely out of the question.

Is Our Dark Academia Home Finished?

Absolutely not.

There are still things I would love to change.

Eventually, I’d like to replace our couch set and coffee table with pieces that feel a little more connected to the rest of the room.

I’d also love to add gallery lighting above some of our photographs to give the walls that old-library or museum feeling.

And there may be more paint in our future.

But my next big project is our bedroom.

It needs a major makeover, and now that I’ve seen how much I love the darker, moodier style throughout the rest of the house, I really want to carry that feeling into our bedroom too.

For now, though, I’m enjoying what we’ve created.

Final Thoughts: You Don’t Need to Buy Everything New to Create a Dark Academia Home

If you’re thinking about decorating your home in Dark Academia style, my biggest piece of advice is to start with what you already own.

Look at your books.

Look at the artwork you’ve collected.

Look at the things you’ve brought home from vacations, the interesting objects you’ve tucked away, and the pieces you love but haven’t figured out how to display.

You might be surprised by how much you already have.

For me, the biggest transformation wasn’t buying a bunch of expensive new decor.

It was choosing a dramatic paint color, getting rid of things I no longer wanted, rearranging what I already loved, and finally creating a home that reflects our personalities.

And if you’re nervous about painting your walls dark?

Well, I clearly am not the person who’s going to talk you out of it.

Because I went from wanting to paint a few hallway doors to wanting to paint my entire house Urbane Bronze.

And I have absolutely zero regrets.

A home should tell your story. And I think ours finally does.