Accent walls have been described as adding an exclamation point at the end of a sentence. The idea is to choose a wall or portion of a wall to serve as, you guessed it, an accent. A bright or bold color might overwhelm a room if used everywhere, but if used in one or two distinct yet deliberate locations, can bring a bland room to life.
In my last house, the two walls that segregated the kitchen from the great room provided an excellent location for the accent color - a deep Sherwin Williams brown. The antique decor was the perfect the compliment to the dark color. Similarly, the fact that the flat screen TV was back-dropped by this wall made for the perfect home theater experience.
Accent walls can include faux or trompe l'oeil finishes, or the can be used to accent a faux finished wall with a solid color as in the opening photograph.
Whatever you do, the color of the accent wall will set the room apart; the color will draw the eye to that wall. Accent colors also work well as plant shelf back-drops, especially if the shelf is illuminated. The color change adds depth and highlights the contents of the shelf rather than the architectural variation of the shelf itself.
