If you watch any home improvement programs (especially on HGTV), you may have noticed that bold room colors and accent walls are popular. Designers love to use bold colors. My Indianapolis area customers often ask me “is this color too much for this room?” So, today’s topic, when is a bold color right for a room, and when is it wrong? The answer is it depends…
First, consider the architecture of the room and of the house as a whole. Some styles lend themselves more toward bold colors than other styles. A room with a vaulted ceiling can “handle” a bold accent color because of the scale of the room, whereas a ranch with standard eight foot high ceilings might make you feel closed in if the color is too dark. With low ceilings, medium tone colors are usually a better choice, but dark colors with low ceilings can work under the correct circumstances.
Second, consider your furniture’s fabric, flooring and lighting (natural and artificial) in the room(s). Usually the accent wall color or color for the entire room is taken from a color found in the furniture fabric or from an area rug/carpet/flooring (carpet, tile etc)..So if you have a couch with a vivid floral pattern you can pull any number of colors out of that pattern for an accent wall, or room color. Same is true for carpets/area rugs.
And three, if the room gets lots of natural light, you want to make sure that when the sun hits the accent wall, it does not wash the room in that color. If you have a red accent wall, and the sun hits it directly, it is going to give off a pink glow to the room. I’m not passing judgement, but I think most people would not be amused by this.
So keep in mind the scale of the room , tie the color of the accent wall to something else in the room, and remember that lighting can change the look of your chosen colors. If all three things are working together, your room will look great. If you’ve had a chance to view some of my work on the Greg Mrakich Painting website, you will find examples of how bold accent walls and use of bright colors can really bring a room to life.
Tags: choosing colors for interior rooms and accent walls, Greg Mrakich Interior Painting Tips, home improvement, Interior Painting, interior painting with bold colors
