Is the colour black actually that?

I think it's a very dangerous world in the design business!!! As for myself, If i use black, I make sure that I have the textures down, because the textures are a big part of the "shades" you are doing. Also, I don't use too much of a color because of shade issues just like this. Say I bought 4 black pillows, two suede, two cotton. Well those two colors could be very different from eachother and it won't look good. So I'd either have 4 of cotton or I'd have 2 cotton/suede and like 2 leather red pillows, or whatever your accent color happens to be. Remembering textures in decoration is very important. What i'd do if I were you, is I'd gather everything I bought to decorate, and then decorate with what I currently have. Then the rest of the stuff that doesn't match with what I already decorated I would take back and get my money back.