An accent wall in the interior is a vertical plane in some room, different from others in color and/or texture. This is a certain type of decorating the room, with which you need to highlight a separate part of it. It happens that there are several such elements of interior decoration in one room, but more often single variants are used.
Three reasons to create accents in the interior
- The main reason for using such a technique is creativity. Some designers prefer to give expressiveness to the project through the arrangement of unconventional upholstered furniture, others decorate rooms with accessories, such as figurines or paintings, and some decide to diversify the view by attracting attention with a bright wall, bringing something unusual and making the entourage mysterious.
- Another reason for such a decision would be not so much an artistic technique, but a geometric one. Using the right calculations, you can visually correct the space: make it more proportional, reduce or increase the volume. Light shades will create the effect of spaciousness, dark shades will create a closed effect, and a mirror accent on the wall will be ideal for small rooms.
- The way of zoning. It has a separating function. With the help of an active one wall, you can allocate a certain place under the rest zone or office. Especially relevant option for studio apartments, where there is very little space, and you want to separate both the kitchen and the bedroom.
Five ways to reproduce an accent wall in the room
Method 1 – Painting the wall
The easiest option for highlighting a certain wall is to paint it in a different color from the others. If all vertical planes are light or made in muted tones, then cope with the task will be very simple: you only need to change the intensity or change the gamma to a more colorful. And if all the walls in the room are already bright or saturated shades, then it is possible to accentuate one of them by applying some kind of pattern or changing the texture, the use of coarse or fine grained glitter will also help.
Method 2 – Wallpapering
Here is a little different story than with paint. Although the market for building materials and a large selection of different fleece, vinyl and paper wallpaper, it can not always meet expectations. Firstly, the lighting at home and in the store is very different, which can significantly affect the final result.
Secondly, even if you pick up with the help of exhibition samples a good combination of one and the other, not the fact that the delivered product will be the same batch. Therefore, it is better to pick up wallpaper from a single set: now manufacturers make a lot of paired options, which are used just for such cases. Or you can use a great idea with photo wallpaper, which almost always look winning.
Method 3 – Finishing with modern materials
Here we are talking about not the most classic, but really trendy trends in terms of interior decoration. These include: various decorative plasters with unique patterns, natural wood veneer, PVC tiles with imitations of leather or stone, 3D panels of plaster or polymers, and much more, with which you can effectively highlight the wall.
You just need to go to the construction hypermarket to look at the exhibition samples, and then choose for yourself the one that you liked. There are so many finishing materials available today that creating an exclusive design project is quite a feasible goal.
Method 4 – Mobile decorations
Creating bright walls in the interior is not the only way to highlight accents. Decorative finishes are the most popular and simple methods for expressing a particular part of the room, but not the only ones.
For example, if you buy an apartment with a ready-made repair or you just want to change something in your home with the help of design, then you don’t have to use the first three methods, because there is a radically different solution – a mobile accent wall.
It can be framed with mirrors (one large in an elegant frame, several in the form of tiles, mosaics), hung with paintings or series of photos under glass, decorated with vinyl stickers with beautiful pictures, etc.
Method 5 – Exotic accessories
Strangely enough, the accents on one wall in the interior can also be made with the help of some certain details that attract the general attention. I would like to note, people’s eyes are always caught by the place where there is fire, water, flora or fauna.
This refers to ntraditional or artificial fireplace, now you can even buy biofires, which emit real flames, but do not emit harmful substances into the atmosphere as a result of decay. Or put a large aquarium with sea creatures or a home fountain flowing down from above. Also good are green hedges made with creepers and other plants that can sprawl over a large area.
The four principles of creating an accent wall
The use of accent walls in interiors is always the introduction of something modern into the entourage. However, you need to pay attention to how to approach such an artistic technique from the right position, armed with some tips from designers:
Range and proximity with a palette
Warm shades seem to be more voluminous, so they tend to visually bring objects closer. Long walls in narrow rooms should not be painted in yellow or red tones. With cold shades it is the opposite: in practice they compress the space. Therefore, if you want to slightly create the effect of space, it is worth using such colors as gray-blue, lilac, ashy-purple and so on.
The right color combinations
Each color has its own perfect or nearly perfect pair created by contrast or saturation. Here is an example of complementarity: black has white, green has red, yellow has purple, turquoise has orange. However, this game is based on confrontation, and this is not good for all interiors. If you’re afraid to make a mistake, you can use another approach, which acts almost a win-win – monochrome, based on a combination of shades of the same color with different saturation.
Accent options and texture
Texture is the relief or property of the surface. In a decorative finish, it should “get along” with both the leading background, and with the style of the interior and all its attributes. If it was decided to paint all the walls in one color, then when creating an accent wall, it is worth trying to focus on changing its qualitative features: create a roughness or some kind of 3D composition, standing out due to light and shadow.
Drawing a graphic pattern
If you need to highlight a certain plane with drawings, then you will have to pay attention to some features of the pictorial nature. The simplest of them: horizontal lines will make the room longer, vertical – taller, ornate prints or plant drawings will create an atmosphere of coziness, repeating uncomplicated patterns like cages or blotches will give rigor, and complex traditional ornaments can be excellent companions in classic interior styles.