I personally don't like accent walls, but there are some here that do, so basically if it's what you want then you probably should do it.

Laurie

I just realized kcc31 did exactly what your talking about with the barn red wall. Check out her post.

Laurie

I love carefully done accent walls. In my last home, the walls were tan and I painted the inside of my bookcases next to my fireplace red. It added so much interest. Currently, I have my kitchen and family room (all open to each other) and warm yellow, and I painted the farthest wall a copper color. Our sectional is deep brown. We wanted to add interest without any one color that would really pop out. We really like it. I don't think accent walls are a thing of the past, but I do thing that you do not see quite as much contrast in them as you used to in relation to your other walls in the room. I do not care for accent walls that I used to see, such as one sponge painted wall in a room, but I know that it not the look that you are going for. Your idea sounds great. Can you post some pictures?

Its a great way to get a pop of color and create visual interest. My entry way from the garage is a deep red. I LOVE it. The original owner did it and I kept it. I don't think that I could handle an entire room in red, but the entry way makes me smile every time.

I also have one in my basement. Its the TV wall. We love that too. Took the color scheme from a Home Depot idea card.

Try it. Its just paint. If you don't like it, paint over it and keep it moving.

I don't think accent walls are dated, however, the red or dark burgundy ones are getting very predictable (esp for the dining room).
There is also a color scheme that seems to be too popular now with khaki/tan/light coffee, mustard yellow, dark sage, and red/deep burgundy with black accents (and often with slate blue).
It is like the mauve, peach & seafoam or mauve & "country" blue color combos in the 80s/90s which was alternately black, white, gray & red and then hunter green with a medium burgundy further in the '90s.
I should add that I am a real estate agent, so I get to see more interiors locally than regular folk. It is not that the recent colors are not nice, but that they are done to death and it is hard to be enthusiastic as if I have not seen it a lot already. They will certainly date the time they were painted and are already near the end of their time.

In the world of art there is no such thing as dated. What looks good can be from 2000 years ago, or yesterday. There is such a thing as being architecturaly correct. Accent walls are great for providing strong or dark color on one area focal point, and letting the other areas be lighter. The idea of the dark red on the fireplace wall sounds great, and the other walls in tan. However, the most important thing is that both colors are brown based hues, so that the 2 colors coordinate well with each other. Post pics for more ideas.

Here is a link that might be useful: Coloritbeautiful

Dianalo--I am a little confused from your post. Are you saying tan and the barn red will soon be dated. I chose the red accent wall because My dining room is painted that color entirely and since an accent wall should tie in to another room, I chose it. It also helps the flat screen to disappear which is helpful. Thanks for any advice you can offer.
Thanks to everyone who took time to respond. If any of you have pics I would love to see them. At this point, I could either go all red or just the accent wall. Any suggestions?

Bump

I only consider accent walls if the rooms are lacking in architectural interest. Then I put them throughout the home so that there isn't just one accent wall.

I saw lots of accent walls in Europe, and was intrigued by them. These were very modern and some transitional type homes. I wondered why more people were not doing them here. But maybe it's a good thing that they are not, so that the OP can be a bit different and enjoy her red wall!

Joanie & coloritbeautiful said it perfectly. I think the barn red would be gorgeous around your FP.

We re-did our dining room last year, it has white beadboard on the bottom and the one long wall I used black wallpaper with pastel Hydrangeas on it. The flowers have the exact same colors as the other walls in the DR, along with the kitchen, and the room preceeding the DR, which is in the red family.

I say do it! I've said this before many times, don't worry if something is in style or not, as long as YOU like it, that's all it matters!

In fact, I got my idea for the accent wall from this forum!

I used a wallpaper accent wall in my daughter's bedroom. We love it-
sorry for the out-of-focus photo-

Thanks so much for your replies. I am going to do it! I have always been one to go with what I like so why stop now.
Shellfish--I love that room! You picked a great looking wallpaper and paint to coordinate.

The link to Coloritbeautiful is arguably spam, but who's to say for sure.????

What concerns me the most is that it would seem that the website, Coloritbeautiful, is predicating it's color scheming theories on Don Jusko's "The Real Color Wheel".

Now, if Don has given the website, Coloritbeautiful, permission to use his Real Color Wheel, then there is no issue. Perhaps I missed the credits to Don on the website or maybe I'm just confused about the whole thing  very possible.

I'm sure no one would be silly enough to think that issuing a "thank you to all who helped with the site" in lieu of obtaining legal permission and including proper credits would be acceptable.

Once we get past who should be using The Real Color Wheel, there's the issue of taking an artists tool for painting on canvass and attempting to superimpose those theories on three-dimensional structure. Artist theories about color that often do not translate smoothly from the dimension of canvas to our three-dimensional world and vision system.