Color Advice 101: When to paint ACCENT walls
09/28/2009 11:39 AM by Gretchen Schauffler
The same living room with the same furniture can look either cold and pretentious, or intelligent and thoughtful depending on the wall color that surrounds the space. Wall colors give the loudest first impressions about who you are and how you feel about your home. Often, if we fall in love with a rich, saturated, strong, and gorgeous color, we become afraid. Afraid of what it will say about us—that it will be too much or take over. You want it somewhere because you love it so you think that an “Accent Wall” is the answer to having that color safely. But there are risks involved.
An accent wall can look like a heavy block of color lunging towards you or a flat unattached shape floating in the middle of the room instead of a focal wall that adds depth and pulls the room together. There is a fine line between beautiful or overbearing, chic or forced.
Because walls are largest color surfaces in your room, color mistakes become larger than life. Ask yourself the following questions when considering an accent wall:
1-Do I have a wall that really needs to be shaded, highlighted, or deepened or am I in love with the color I’m afraid of?
2-What would the rest of the wall colors and ceiling color have to be to make the accent color look balanced and nestled in–not tense or heavy?
3-Will adding an accent color add interest to the room or make does it make the room sink or float at one end?
Devine Bordeaux, a deep wine color may look stunning on every wall instead of just one because the room craves it.
If properly sandwiched between deeper, supportive neutrals like Devine Filbert, Mocha, or Pecan instead of lighter shades, Devine Bordeaux can bring focal strength without standing out like a stop sign.
Your room is a box, with 4 sides, with a bottom, and a ceiling lid. All sides of the cube should have beautiful color and be balanced by great color relationships on every side. Sure ways to use accent walls is to balance big furniture, shelves, alcoves, or fireplaces. Think of accent walls as L-shapes ad U-shapes, and ceilings not just single rectangles!
Don’t forget; a color within a beautiful color relationship, like a sunset, brings awe to the eyes, and joy to the mind. That’s what the power of color. Embrace that power and make your room say what you want it to say. Don’t have it any other way.
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Hi Gretchen,
Your article is very timely for me. I’m planning to paint an accent wall in my family room using Devine Paprika. The wall surrounds the fireplace (red brick with a white mantel), and I will hang a painting above the mantel that has dark colors: a black background with dark red, green, blue and gold leaf. The red in the painting matches Devine Paprika perfectly. However, I am confused as to what color to paint the surrounding walls, which are now an off white. My family room connects to the kitchen, great room style, and it is too large of an area to be all red. Any suggestions for a color to compliment an accent wall that is Devine Paprika? (Incidentally you did a color consultation for the previous owners of my home in NW Portland on many rooms – it was a big selling point!)
Many thanks for any ideas – Jen Frink
— Jen Frink 10/02/2009 08:40 PM #
Jen:
There are so many great possibilities with our colors, specially Devine Paprika, a red that seems to snuggle perfectly behind colorful art. These empower you to be confident about self expression in your home so your home can feel exactly how you want it to feel. So on that note, Do you have the Trend-Proof Color Collection? Have you gone through our Color Discovery Process?. Let the colors speak for them selves in your home. Certainly Colors like Devine Pecan, Mocha, Cafe, Filbert, Siamese, Peanut, ect…you get the picture. I can suggest 20 but I want you to be empowered by letting our colors tell you which one(s) can snuggle perfectly among your things, on walls, and ceilings. I can help you narrow it down from there! You will be surprised on how all you will need is confirmation then…
— Gretchen Schauffler 10/06/2009 10:20 AM #
Picking a paint for an accent wall has always been a challenge for me because I am not sure of what to do. Thanks for this article…I think I might be able to step forward.
— Dentist Sunnyvale 10/22/2009 12:29 AM #