I did mine with wallpaper in the dining room. Just one wall, but I found the WP first which had the colors I planned on using for paint and other decorating.

I love accent walls. I would choose your color scheme, then find the paint color you want for the accent wall, then go from there. I think it's easier than doing it the other way around.

The first and last accent wall I did was in 1970. Nice traditional harvest gold and cream wallpaper with harvest gold walls. I thot it was very stylish!

I'm sure it could look nice but I think more difficult to balance a room with a bright or dark color on only one wall with pale color on the other 3 walls.

This is only my opinion but there are many ways to give a house "zip" without using an accent wall. When I'm browsing top designers' sites I rarely see accent walls. But it may be that I'm not looking for them so don't see them.

David Bromstad uses them all the time on his show Color Splash. And the other day I was at a home where the owner did a great job incorporating an accent wall in the master bedroom. Using the 5 colors of a paint strip, she painted 3 of the walls in the lightest shade which was a light browny beige. Then she used the middle shade for the accent wall and then with the darkest color she stenciled a cool pattern on the accent wall. It looked like wall paper and the combination as a whole looked great.

Do you mean painting one wall a different color than the other three? I have deep terracotta walls in my LR, on all four walls, and a little wrap around wall by the stairs. But I don't have much wall space, there are so many openings into this room (4 square colonial)and have lots of white trim. My grandmother had an orange toile couch, I wish I had taken it when it was offered! Anyway. Terracotta looks great with cream and beige, so I say go for it! You might want to paint the ceiling a light blue, just for kicks.

I painted my last accent wall 10 years ago and it wasn't high contrast, but just one shade darker than the other walls and the accent wall had textured paper on it. Those 2 together made a nice display.

I'm not a fan of high contrast accent walls as I think they disrupt the flow of the room. In lots of cases I see, the rooms would look better with all walls painted the same color and accents of other things throughout the space. I find a lot of times people don't take their furniture or fabric color into consideration when thinking about the accent wall and then the fabric or wood tone clashes or fades right into it. I see this a lot on Rate My Space rooms. Just some thoughts for you to think about.

If I were to do an accent wall today, knowing what I do, it would be as last time, with some type of texture, either wood paneling or paper and one shade darker than the rest of the room.

Having said all that I accidentally ended up with what could appear as an accent wall in my new house. The great room, dining and kitchen are all one big room and I initially painted all of it Rich Creme. Well, after we installed our "cream" cabinets, we discovered they just blended into the wall and we really wanted to show them off. The darker color on that paint strip actually changed color so it wasn't an option. So I painted the kitchen walls a green I brought in from the foyer. Here's are poto's that will give you an idea of my faux pas, but it's not a real bad one and one I can live with.

As they say hindsight is 20/20 and if I had it to do over I would of course paint the great room/kitchen one color that would contrast the cabinet color. The mistake was us thinking the cabinets were white and not matching them to our other increments in the space.
{{!gwi}}

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I don't care for accent walls I prefer the walls to be the same color with contrasting waincoting and crown molding.

.....Jane

But that is just me and who the heck am I? (lol)

You Jane, me Tarzan. ;D Sorry, couldn't resist.

I concur, & accent walls are a little dated.

But, I really like brutuses' so I think it depends on the architecture of the space. I like it when the accents are niches or shadowboxes or even just where the wall turns a corner. You need to pay strict attention to tonal values, deep terracotta and cinnamon brown, or deep terracotta and wicker, not deep terracotta and cream IMO.

I have one accent wall in my house. I made it a gallery to showcase my mother's paintings, that's her engagement portrait in the center. This is the view from the living room entrance and I love it. The color is EK Brick, not the rosy pink it appears on my monitor.

{{!gwi}}

You and me Pairiegirl! (lol)

Will someone please tell my hubby that accent walls are out?

brutuses - Your kitchen looks good. What is the green color in your kitchen?

Dian, yours is pretty.

I am not a big fan of MCM furniture, probably wouldn't go out of my way to buy any, but occasionally see someone here on the board with a chair or table or something, and I have to say...it looks great.
Same with accent walls. Dian's is nice. My friend Peggy has a beautiful accent wall right in the middle of her high-ceilinged LR that is painted deep terra cotta. The fireplace is on this wall, and with her soft light golden living room, the effect is stunning. But in general, I do think they are a bit dated, and I prefer to find just the right paint shade to perk up my room and paint it on all four walls!

Red

Dian - what an awesome tribute to your mom's work. She is talented. Nice.

I love accent walls - (my DH doesn't). I don't have any in my house right now as I don't feel like I have the 'right" wall to do it in my new place.

Terracotta accent with beige walls sounds super nice to me. Hey it is only paint...if you hate it...paint over it but you may just love it like mad!

Haley

Why would anyone think an accent wall is "dated" or "out?" Do you really care as long as it looks nice and you like it?

Maybe it's just me, but I decorate for myself, not whether or not something is "in style."

I say if you like accent walls, then do it! I don't ever see them at all anymore, and when company comes over, they're taken away by the "sudden" change when they enter the dining room.

If something's nice, it never goes out of style. :)

I'm not a fan of accent walls either. I like Jane's ideas - using molding, etc. to accent.

Oakley, no one said not to do them. I agree, if you like it, then go for it. But like you said "I don't ever see them at all anymore", that kind of tells you they are out of style. Styles come and go, do what makes you happy and don't worry about it. Some people may like keeping up with style, and there's nothing wrong with that either. To each their own!

Brutuses - doesn't look like a faux pas to me - your new home is beautiful! Have you all moved in yet?

tina

I like the idea Lukkiirish saw with the coordinating paint color stripes and stencil tying the accent wall to the surroundings, or a wallpaper on one wall with a color pulled from it. But in general, the accent walls I've seen are one wall painted in great contrast to the other walls with no connection. It's a bit jarring and makes me wonder if the person was too afraid to use the richer color on all four walls. If that's the case, I would rather see all neutral walls with the accent color used in fabric and accessories like drapes, pillows, wall art, etc. You can always buy an inexpensive furniture piece on CL and paint it your terracotta color, too, instead of the accent wall if you're just looking for a shot of color.

Prariegirl: Do you mind sharing pics of your terracotta living room and the paint color you used in there? I am in quest of a good terracotta color for my living room to go with beiges and browns. Thanks!

amy-I see brutuses hasn't responded to your question, so I hope she won't mind if I jump in. I saw her asked once on another thread and made note of it, thinking I might use it someday - she had said it was BM Grecian Green (#507). It is pretty isn't it? Hope that helps!

Tina - As with Amys question since Brutuses hasn't responded, I figure I'll pipe in. Last I heard she was moving in December maybe? Not sure, but soon.

Equest, thanks - I wish I had taken a picture the room was really pretty and the color changes noticable but not shocking.

I still don't agree that accent walls are dated. I just think the non professional decorators are finally getting more sophisticated at how they incorporate them into their spaces.

I have an accent wall in my basement and I love it. I also have an "accent space" that was done by the previous owner. The entry way from my garage into the kitchen is done in red. I absolutely love it as I don't think I would love an entire room in red.

Pops of color are great and give you lots of room with coordinating. I actually got my colors from a Behr paint idea card.

Sometimes we confuse "outdated" with "personal preference." Like the above poster, I see accent walls done on HGTV and in some of the home magazines. But really, I have mine because I love them. In the end, thats why do what we do.

lukkiirish, I see the accent walls in decorating magazines all the time, but hardly any in real life.

mzdee, "pops of color" is a great way to describe them. We very seldom see people using different colors on their walls anymore.

I also see accent walls as adding a bit of elegance into an otherwise "boring" room.

They must be out of date cause I just painted my first accent wall. Just a small wall in my family room. Getting ready to do the same thing in my foyer and living room. I have ivory leather furniture in my living room and I want some contrast so I'm going to use the same combo there. Kilm beige with Latte (SW). I have high ceilings everywhere except the dining room and that is all the same color with crown moldings.