How To Choose An Accent Wall To Paint – Now is the time to liven up your home with a fresh coat of paint. As you begin, you may wonder which wall or walls to highlight. Are accent walls even more “in”? Well, I can tell you this: I’ve seen a lot of accent walls over the past 25 years, and I’ve seen many of my clients struggle with accent walls. That’s why I’ve come up with a tried-and-true process for choosing the perfect accent wall for your space. If you have a wall that meets all three of these criteria, chances are you have a strong “candidate” for an accent wall in your room.
“Do I even need an accent wall?” When someone asks me this during a color consultation, I usually ask about the homeowner’s design preferences and whether they want the painted walls to be the main source of color in the room, or if they want elements of the room (eg furniture, rugs, accent pillows). ) for visual interest. Do you have a vibrant contemporary art collection to display? Then you don’t need it
How To Choose An Accent Wall To Paint
Accent wall. You can choose a gallery wall instead. But neutral furniture, no bold colors in fashion for your windows and no shelf of pictures to hang? Then an accent wall might be for you.
Four Ideas For Accent Walls In Your Home
Where does your eye naturally move in a room? A fireplace? Chapter? The top of the large vaulted ceiling. A TV wall in the living room? An accent wall that naturally draws your eye would be an obvious choice, but be sure to consider the context of the wall in question. No natural focal point in your room? Then look for symmetry.
If you think there’s something wrong with your focal point wall, chances are the symmetry is confusing you. An unusual window configuration, a side wall that doesn’t match the others, or an irregular geometric shape can produce poor results when the paint is finished. I’ve seen these configurations work in some rooms, but they should be considered on a case-by-case basis.
I like to keep an open mind when it comes to design schemes and color trends, but there are some hard and fast design rules I will stand by. One of them is this: stopping and starting different colors at the “inner corners” always looks better than starting and stopping colors at the “outer” corners. The “inner corner” treatment looks thoughtful, complete, and the shadows that change from wall to wall help emphasize your accent color.
Pro Tip: Don’t think you have a candidate for an accent wall? Don’t forget the “fifth wall”, otherwise known as the ceiling! When consulting for an asymmetrical room without a dominant focal point, I will often suggest the ceiling as an innovative way to introduce color into a challenging room.
Ideas For Designing An Accent Wall
When I think of the thousands of jobs I’ve done over the years, I see stripes adorning my clients. With accent wall colors, I’ve generally seen people approach them in two ways:
So, yes, accent walls are still “in”. Done right, they can be elegant and even timeless. Just do proper planning and thinking before starting the project.
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Get the latest Old House news, trusted tips, tricks and clever DIY projects from our experts – straight to your inbox. I totally understand why the “accent wall” was a thing in the early 2000s: it’s a “pop” of color in a room without too much risk. I mean, if you hate that one ugly purple wall, you can quickly paint it…in a quarter of the time as a four-walled room. But here’s the thing about doing just that: Well, it looks like you did just that. It’s like a funky approach to bold color (and I can say that because I’ve been there, painted in the past). These kind of toes don’t look very purposeful and give off an “I really couldn’t finish here” vibe, I’m sorry to say. Lately, though, I’ve found myself bookmarking and pinning a lot of pictures… of rooms with accent walls. That said, these are not your 20th century accent walls. Instead, I see very well done accent walls with a purpose. These children have a new approach to life. Read on as I walk you through the keys to nailing today’s accent wall with several beautiful examples (so get your pen ready).
Accent Walls Are Cool Again (& Here’s How To Get Them Right)
Primarily, the use of color will emphasize architectural features such as fireplaces, special room shapes, moldings, etc. always pointing out the thumb. Here in the Brio Interior Design room, the white brick fireplace provides the necessary contrast against the charcoal wall to make it stand out. If you’re not dealing with shiny tiles or surrounding materials, this is a genius way to brighten up a moment of a pretty basic setup.
Painting built-ins as your “accent wall” helps emphasize some of that (vintage or newly installed) character. Whether it’s cabinets or bookshelves, remember to paint all visible parts of the wall (for example, if it’s a cabinet with cabinets below and shelves above) the same color to make it seamless. This works especially well in a room that might be a little too monotonous, like the above shot of the Ryan White-designed home. Yes, the floor is nice (and um, give me that chair, thanks), but it really feels like a transitional space that feels important with built-ins in that perfect sage color.
If the wall behind that couch (in an Argentinian home by Apartment Therapy) is painted white like the rest of the room, your eye might miss that unique wall slope, but in bright cerulean, it’s basically the first thing. Note (followed by the beautiful light streaming through the door, the moldings and the beautiful floor). If you have a room with a different ceiling or shape, think about how to light it or highlight the space around it.
“Wow, that’s an inspiring hallway,” almost no one has ever said, because I just said it. This might be my absolute favorite accent “wall” version of the entire list, except that it’s more of a door/ceiling accent. The ceiling here seems quite high, so to draw more attention to it, it is like an eye magnet to attract the door to the upper space. Also, if they decided to paint the entire hallway a dark royal blue (which I’m sure would work killer too), it would create a completely different atmosphere here. So it still looks bright and cheerful with enough visual interest.
Accent Wall Ideas By Room, Color, & Material
Here it is similar without the ceiling shaft, similar to the item “Paint the door at the end of the hall” from the previous photo. I love that they went beyond this piece of wall and included all the molding and hardware, not just the door.
Another very clever use of an accent wall is to carve out a “purpose” for part of the room without putting up walls or getting too creative with the furniture. In Marion Alberg’s upstairs room, the dining room is separate from the much larger living area (which you can’t see in this photo). A small alcove was the perfect opportunity for this, so if you have some awkward spaces like this, you might want to consider going the accent wall route.
I love the architecture of this place, but I could see how everything being white could be a small note. The creative minds behind Plank + Cushion cleverly made something unique, wrapped it in garnet and painted it dark blue chalk to serve as a workspace. If you want to save money and labor, you can always skip the liner and just go the dye route for the same effect. Also note that they painted the bases in this piece, because if I were to embark on a similar painting journey, this might be a question I might have: paint the bases.
Here’s something different: paint most of the wall to draw attention to the corner. I found this shot on Architectural Digest and at first I thought it was a little funny that I wasn’t fully committed to painting it (in the sense of shooting it to the corners, ceilings or baseboards) , but then I realized this is the best way to do it. There is a dedicated way to have more walls
Accent Wall Do’s And Dont’s
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