Painting walls - accents or all the same

[hannamaren]

If you were painting walls in a bedroom, and you wanted an accent wall or two, which walls would you paint? 
Would you paint the wall behind your bed, the headboard wall? If you painted 2 walls, would you do opposite walls? Is that weird? 

We want to do off-white plus greyish as an accent.  One wall is the headboard, the opposite wall is nothing, the other sides (perpendicular to the bed) are window and closet respectively. 
what do you think? One wall only? 

And then in an office bedroom? An accent wall? Or keep them all the same colour? What colour for an office?. 

[Susie]

I am not an accent wall person, but if I were, I'd do one accent wall on the headboard wall. I think accent walls are best when they actually accent something (like the headboard) - I don't like when the paint itself IS the accent. I'd say no accent wall in an office bedroom. And as for office colors? Completely anything you like. Pick based on the other things in the room. Or look
sites.google.com/site/thepaintbio/Home
or
www.favoritepaintcolorsblog.com/
for inspiration.

[stephm0188]

There are very very few instances where I like them. They're pretty outdated.

Generally, I'm only a fan of them when:
- there is a unique feature of the room to highlight... vaulted ceiling, fireplace, built-ins, whatever.
- it's a large multi-purpose room but one space needs definition (think large combo living/dining rooms. an accent wall in the dining room can break up and define the space)
-you want to incorporate a large scale pattern that would overwhelm the room if done on all walls.

[wawa]

Feb 11, 2013 21:44:13 GMT -5 stephm0188 said:

There are very very few instances where I like them. They're pretty outdated.

Generally, I'm only a fan of them when:
- there is a unique feature of the room to highlight... vaulted ceiling, fireplace, built-ins, whatever.
- it's a large multi-purpose room but one space needs definition (think large combo living/dining rooms. an accent wall in the dining room can break up and define the space)
-you want to incorporate a large scale pattern that would overwhelm the room if done on all walls.

I totally agree with this.  Accent walls just because you can't bring yourself to commit to a single color are outdated (and I never liked them when they were in).  If you need to define the space in some way or want to bring in some special wall treatment that won't play well on an entire room then go for it, but I wouldn't paint one or two walls different colors just because.

That said...dude, that's me.  You do you.  (unless you are painting to stage the house for sale. In which case...yeah, don't do accent walls)

[sierramist03]

I think when done right they look nice in maybe one room of your house.

[hannamaren]

Thanks everyone. I think my H is afraid of colour, even grey, so a compromise is one wall.

Another accent wall would be the longest wall in the living room. This is one of those big rooms with rooms coming off of it in an open concept. I think it will work.

[rugbywife]

We were going to do an accent wall in our living room but decided against it. We do have a very small accent wall in our kitchen (See PIP, the small wall by the stove is painted red). In the basement we are going to built-ins in the basement and I will be painting the walls behind the shelves for sure (in that case a deep pumpkin orange colour).
 

[tarheels]

I don't think accent walls are awful awful. I think they can be done right. I did one in DH's bachelor work apartment, because living in a land of Rice Paper White is depressing and it was too much work to bother painting all 4 walls for a short-term place. I think it looks ok, though all the girls here could hate it and just be sparing me their opinions!

[TBM]

Feb 13, 2013 0:07:10 GMT -5 tarheels said:

 I think it looks ok, though all the girls here could hate it and just be sparing me their opinions!

lol

I do think it looks great, and I still love that painting.

I think accent walls can look good, and I don't think they are outdated.  Just because they aren't everywhere, like they were a while back, doesn't mean that they can't work.  Like everything else...some people do them well and others....don't.

[tarheels]

Feb 13, 2013 0:22:14 GMT -5 TBM said:

Feb 13, 2013 0:07:10 GMT -5 tarheels said:

 I think it looks ok, though all the girls here could hate it and just be sparing me their opinions!

lol

I do think it looks great, and I still love that painting.

I think accent walls can look good, and I don't think they are outdated.  Just because they aren't everywhere, like they were a while back, doesn't mean that they can't work.  Like everything else...some people do them well and others....don't.

I'll tell MIL "a friend" complimented it   Truth be told, it's one of my least favorite of hers.  It has a...tumultuous feeling to it IRL.  You would not be surprised to learn that most of my art has a serene vibe to it