20+ Accent Wall Ideas – The Ultimate Guide

Explore all our favorite accent wall ideas and get expert tips to design your perfect accent wall.

Our clients often ask us to select paint colors for accent walls.  It’s an easy and low-risk way to add color and dimension to a room. We especially love accent walls with today’s neutral paint interiors.  

But putting accent wall ideas to use in your home isn’t always easy. Keep reading for our expert guide to some basic rules to follow for colorful accent walls that work in your space.

*This post contains affiliate links for products I use and love. If you click on some links and make a purchase, I will get a small commission at no cost to you. This helps pay for the costs of the blog, so I can continue to offer great content to our readers.

Is an Accent Wall Still in Style?

This is one of the most common questions we get asked as paint color consultants. 

Our answer? Accent walls are here to stay! They’re a simple way to add a bold pop of color to a space without feeling overwhelming. And there are so many different types of accent walls that you can find the perfect one – and the perfect paint color – for any room of your house.

Accent Wall Design Tips

Select a wall without windows

Windows will add backlight and make the color difficult to see.  Instead, choose an inside wall or a wall with something you want to highlight such as a piece of art, a fireplace, or a dining room wall.

Start and end the wall on an inside corner

This makes the transitions more harmonious.  It’s also much easier to cut in an inside corner than an outside edge.

Limit your accents to one per area or room, and consider the whole-house palette

Use accent colors carefully and mindfully, or they could start to look disjointed.  Consider the colors throughout the house.  Even if they are not in the same room, they should all harmonize together.

Pull the accent color from an interesting feature in the room

Your accent color should always relate to another part of the room.  Consider a color from a piece of art, a throw pillow, bedspread or a gorgeous countertop. 

For the headboard wall below, we matched a gorgeous deep blue-green color from a family heirloom painting over a fireplace. 

The painting was on the opposite side of the bed in the master bedroom, and ties in perfectly with the headboard accent wall. Benjamin Moore Gentleman’s Gray (2063-20) (Sample) was a perfect color from the picture.

What is the best way to test accent wall paint colors?

Just like any paint project, testing your accent wall paint colors (Article) before painting a whole wall is very important. This is especially true with accent walls because we tend to use darker or bolder colors for this application.

If you’re going with a dark accent wall color, it’s important you choose one that won’t be too dark for the light conditions in your space. The way you learn if a color is too dark is that when you test it in the room, it looks black on the wall. We call that “blacking out.” 

It’s also important to understand that the same color can look very different spaces and lighting conditions. In the image below, for example, two accent walls (one in the living room and one in the stairway) are shown in the same space.

Both sides are painted with Benjamin Moore Britannia Blue (Article), but they look vastly different because the stairway has much more natural light.Thankfully, testing paint colors has gotten a lot easier. In the old days, testing meant we painted a large poster board with sample pots and a huge mess.

Sample Color

We always recommend that you test paint colors (article) in your home because lighting can completely change a color, both on interiors and exteriors.  

In the old days, this meant we painted a large poster board with sample pots and a huge mess. 

Now we have a better way to test paint, with Samplize Peel-and-Stick samples!  

• Samples pre-painted with 2 coats of real paint from the manufacturer.
• Large 9” x 14” samples to see the color better in the lighting.
• Delivered overnight
• Colors are accurate
• Less expensive than painting a large poster board with sample pots
• No mess, and no toxic paint to dispose of

I use these in my color consulting practice for exact results. Discover Samplize peel-and-stick paint samples via the link below.

20+ Accent Wall Ideas To Try

Bedroom Headboard Wall

One of our favorite placements for accent walls is the headboard wall in the bedroom. We chose Gentleman’s Gray from the fireplace painting above for the bedroom accent wall pictured below. It contrasted beautifully with the 4-poster bed.

Notice how the wood glows next to the rich blue-green wall. The wood has red undertones, which are a complementary color to green and opposites on the color wheel. Walls, ceiling and trim were Sherwin Williams Extra White (SW 7006) (Sample).

Fireplace Accent Wall

A splash of dark blue accent color on a fireplace wall can add drama.  I love this accent wall because it hides the TV over the mantle and lifts the eye to make the ceiling look taller.  The color is Sherwin Williams Cyberspace (SW 7076) (Sample).  You should have lots of light if you use Cyberspace. Otherwise it will look black.

We used a similar technique in our client’s home below. We painted the whole fireplace wall – even the bookshelves – with Benjamin Moore Britannia Blue (Color review article). The bookshelves are a satin sheen and the wall is matte, offering some depth and texture despite all being the same color.

Painted Ceiling Accent Walls

Ceilings are the fifth wall, and ceiling colors add amazing dimension.  This looks amazing with crown molding to define the space.  The green-gray ceiling color pictured below matches the slate fireplace and is painted with BM Millstone Gray (1581) (Sample).

This entry ceiling is BM Wrought Iron (Sample).  The dark color makes the room look taller and pairs perfectly with the black dining room color.  The wood table warms up the black and white (BM Cloud White (Sample)) palette.

Bathroom Vanity Accent Wall

This bathroom renovation used Benjamin Moore Rosepine (Sample) as the accent wall.  We really liked the way it contrasted with the violet gray floors and cabinets.  The rest of the walls are painted BM Balboa Mist (Sample).

Office Accent Walls

Consider an accent color behind your desk.  This mid-toned accent is BM Kensington Blue (Sample).

We also used a BM Kensington Blue accent wall in the office of our client’s home pictured below. Kensington Blue works well in this space because it’s similarly muted as the rest of the colors in this office (including SW Sea Salt (Color review article)) and the home’s color scheme (Article).

Stairway Accent Walls

This accent wall is at the top of a stairway and is painted Sherwin-Williams Iron Ore SW 7069 (Sample).  This soft black is dramatic when contrasted with the warm beautiful hardwood floor and SW Agreeable Gray (Sample) walls.

We later painted this space with Sherwin-Williams Cheviot (Sample) walls and the Iron Ore accent wall still looks great!

Powder Room Wainscoting

In my powder room I pulled the dark teal out from the wallpaper. Read about this powder room project in this project spotlight: Bella Blue Powder Room with Wallpaper (Article).

Benjamin Moore Bella Blue (Sample) was an exact match with the blue flowers in the wallpaper! I drenched the wainscoting from base molding up to the chair rail, and even the drywall in-between. I experimented using a matte sheen on all surfaces (chair rail, drywall and base molding), and it looked fantastic for this type of color drenching application.

I also painted the ceiling with Bella Blue just for fun, and it has become the most popular bathroom in the house.

Dining Room Accent Walls

You can also use the dining room as an accent itself, with all the exposed walls.  In this dining room we used SW Granite Peak (Sample) as a dark blue accent.  Since this room was already fairly dark, we couldn’t use a really dark blue such as Hale Navy (Color review article) or Cyberspace (Color review article) because it looked black in the room.

We later painted this room with Farrow & Ball Oval Room Blue (Article) and I absolutely love the way it looks. It’s a bit more colorful and bold than Granite Peak, but still muted enough that it doesn’t feel overwhelming in this space.

This fabulous dining room has an accent wall on the bookshelf wall, and it runs along the length of the table. The color is SW Arugula (Sample). This was taken in an apartment we stayed in Paris.

Living Room Accent Walls

You can place a living room accent wall behind a sofa as long as the wall is clear of windows.  This photo shows an exposed stone accent wall in an ancient building in Paris.  The stone is the same that was used to build the apartment building.  This is also a great opportunity for a wall gallery.

Exposed Brick Accent Walls

The exposed brick accent wall in this Paris apartment is beautiful. The building was very old, so it was likely exposed and not chosen, but you could add this kind of wall to a home as well.

Wallpaper Accent Walls

This gorgeous work-from-home office has a beautiful wallpaper accent wall, and was designed by our client.  If you pick another material such as wallpaper as your accent, make sure that the walls are painted one of the colors in the wallpaper.  Don’t forget about removable wallpaper and pre-made murals.

Board and Batten Accent Walls

Even if you want a neutral or one-color room, it’s still possible to add an accent wall by using a trim technique like board and batten on one wall. 

My SEO specialist Danielle did this in her master bedroom (painted with Sherwin-Williams White Duck (Article) ) and it really helps the headboard wall stand out despite being the same color as the rest of the room.

Wainscoting Accent Walls

A similar technique to board and batten is to add a wainscoting accent to a room. This is a great way to add color to a space without making it feel too dark.

In the client’s home pictured below, we used BM Britannia Blue (Color review article) for the wall color above the wainscoting and BM Oxford White for the wainscoting itself.

The dining room pictured below uses a similar color palette , with Sherwin-Williams Needlepoint Navy walls and Sherwin-Williams Pure White shiplap wainscoting.

Bookshelf Accent Walls

If you have large bookshelves or other built-ins in a space, try making them the accent. In the client’s office pictured below the built-in shelves and cabinets are painted with Sherwin-Williams Needlepoint Navy and add a lovely pop of color behind the desk.

Mural Accent Walls

Consider murals as accent walls, or in this case accent closed doors!  In this photo, the artist painted her murals on the closet doors of Maddie Camilli’s studio.  The artist is Julia Williams, https://www.thedesignosaur.com.  Instagram handle is @thedesignosaur.

Picking the Perfect Accent Wall Paint Colors

Once you know where to paint your accent wall, it can still be tough to choose the perfect paint color. Here are a few of our best tips and our favorite accent wall colors.

Should accent walls be lighter or darker?

Accent walls are typically darker than the rest of a room’s walls, but there is no hard and fast rule. A light accent wall in a dark room could look really nice – you just need to test it out to see if it works in your space.

How many shades darker should an accent wall be?

If you search for this online, you’ll see a lot of recommendations to paint the accent wall the same color as the other walls, but two shades darker. This can look very nice, but it’s definitely not the only way to do accents! I love going with a much darker color or a much more colorful hue. 

It is helpful, however, to ensure the undertones of your primary wall color and your accent color align. This will keep the same looking harmonious.

What paint finish is best for accent walls?

Normally, it’s best to paint accent walls with the same paint sheen (Article) as the other walls (typically an eggshell finish or similar). 

If the color is darker, I prefer a flat or matte sheen on drywall to make it look silky. Otherwise the light bounces around and looks obnoxious if the color is dark and it’s too shiny. I have a couple of rooms with dark paint like that in my house that I’ve been meaning to paint over with a matte sheen.

If you’re using bookshelves or built-ins as an accent, paint them with a shinier satin sheen.

Key Learning Points

Accent walls can make a room come to life, especially in a bedroom, behind a fireplace, or even on a ceiling.  Paint isn’t the only way to create an accent.  You can use wallpaper exposed brick, stone, shiplap, or wainscoting.

Don’t forget to test your paint samples.  We love to test with SAMPLIZE peel-and-stick samples.  Check out the SAMPLIZE website HERE.

Online Color Consulting

If you still need help with paint colors, check out our Online Color Consulting Packages.

Related Articles

• BM Pearly White Color Palette (Article)
• BM Classic Gray Color Palette (Article)
• BM Britannia Blue Color Review (Article)
• SW Granite Peak Color Review (Article)
• SW Cyberspace Color Review (Article)
• BM Onyx Paint Color Review (Article)
• BM Slate Teal Paint Color Review (Article)
• Black Walls are the New Gray (Article)

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About the Author

Hi, I’m Michelle Marceny, founder, owner, and Principal Color Designer at The Color Concierge. I believe a fresh coat of paint can completely transform a space. The Color Concierge was born out of my drive to help clients fall back in love with their homes. My clients trust me to help them find the perfect paint color for their home – whether it’s a whole-house paint color scheme or ideas for a single room. 

Since The Color Concierge was founded in 2017, we have completed over 3000 color consultations, both online and in-person.  I am a Certified Color Expert with 7 years of experience creating interior and exterior color palettes throughout North America.

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We love your comments! Please note that the blog is meant as general advice, and it is not possible to give out specific answers to your paint questions. If you want more specific advice, our Online Color Consultations will help you pick your paint colours. Thank you for your understanding.