The thing nobody mentions about black light fixtures is how differently they read once the sun goes down versus when you bought them under store lighting. In the showroom, a black pendant looks sharp and decisive. At nine at night with one lamp on, it practically disappears into the ceiling, and all you see is the glow it throws, not the fixture itself. That's the actual selling point, and it takes about a month of evenings to notice it.
Where black goes wrong is in small, bright rooms that already feel a little closed in, a windowless bathroom or a narrow hallway with no other light source. In a space like that, a black fixture just becomes another dark shape competing with the walls, and during the day it can look heavy instead of sharp. It also shows dust and water spots faster than you'd expect, so a matte black flush mount in a steamy bathroom is a weekend chore you didn't sign up for. It does its best work in rooms with some natural light to balance it out, over a dining table, in a living room with a big window, or as a reading lamp next to a dark leather chair, because the black stops being a color and starts acting like a frame for the light itself. It also suits older homes with some trim and moldings already going on, since it reads as a fixture detail rather than a stunt.
On finish, flat matte black is far more forgiving day to day than anything glossy or with a slight sheen, because gloss shows every fingerprint and dust streak under direct light, and matte just quietly doesn't. A soft black with a hint of warmth in it, almost charcoal, tends to sit better in a room with wood floors or warm paint than a true cold black does.
The difference between a fixture that still looks good in three years and one that doesn't shows up at the joints. Run a finger along the seam where the shade meets the arm or base. A good one has a tight, even weld or a clean screw fitting with no visible gap. A disappointing one has a seam you can feel, paint that's slightly thinner at the edges where it was sprayed instead of coated, and a base that feels light and hollow when you lift it. Pick it up. If it feels like it could tip over from a slammed door down the hall, it probably will.
Next to it, I'd put a warm bulb, nothing cool or blue, and a rug with enough texture to keep the room from feeling like it's all hard edges.
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