Accent Walls, Yes or No?
Accent walls became a trend several years ago. We’ve all seen it. I’ll admit, I did it and I still do, but not just anywhere! Below are the only 3 areas I recommend doing an accent wall and why I don’t recommend it elsewhere.
Bedroom.
Do this on the wall behind the bed. Don’t do it on any other wall. You will see this in hotel rooms a lot. I think it’s perfectly acceptable. In fact, I have a black accent wall in my primary bedroom. I knew I wanted black, but I did not want the entire room black. It would have been too dark and this isn’t what I was going for. A lot of times, especially in a primary bedroom, it’s a much larger space and so you can get away with just doing an accent wall instead of the whole room. Consider a dark paint color, wallpaper or painted paneling.
2. Ceiling.
Treat the ceiling as your 5th wall. You’ve heard me say this before, but it makes such a huge impact in a room. Consider wallpaper, or a paint color that either matches wallpaper on your wall or something bold to elevate your space. Another idea is to paint your ceiling a shade lighter than your walls. You can do this by asking your paint expert to mix your paint at 75% your original color, meaning your ceiling is the same color but it is 25% lighter than your walls. It seems like a dark ceiling would make a space feel smaller, but it actually does the opposite. It makes the room more dramatic, draws the eye upward and makes the ceiling feel taller.
3. Small area.
You don’t need to do an entire room the same, nor do you need to do even an entire wall the same. Maybe you have a built in bench with a shelf above where you can add some wallpaper. Or above your washer and dryer in your laundry room. You can even paint or apply wallpaper to built in bookshelves acting as an accent wall. You’ll need to thing a bit outside of the box on this one, but trust me it’s worth it in the end!
That’s it! Those are the only three spaces I recommend doing an “accent” wall. Anywhere else you try to do an accent wall, it will just look unfinished, like you couldn’t commit or you couldn’t afford to do it all.