Decorating and Design - How to do accent wall?

We're going to paint the kitchen and the adjancent family room. I'm thinking to paint the kitchen in Ben Moore's Rust color, and a wall in the family room in Rust too (this wall also connects to the kitchen). Does it sound like a good idea? By the way, we have hardwood floors through out, light wood color kitchen cabinets and window trims. For furnitures in the family room, there're black leather sectioanls, a rug in red with some yellow and brown, and also walnut(?) coffee/end tables. Then, what color do I paint the rest of the walls in the family room? I originally wanted to do yellow, and bought Behr Autumn Gould color, but it looks kinda like mustard. Is it too much or intensive to go with a Rust accent wall, which is already kinda intensive? Should the other walls be more of neutral to the accent one, like beige or muted yellow(toasted sesame). Please help!

Thanks,
Joan

yes, the other walls should be sort of a neutral or less bold color than the accent wall. otherwise, you don't have an accent wall, you just have a loud room with no focal point.

i like the idea of carrying the rust from the kitchen into the LR on the wall common wall. then do the other walls in a more neutral color like something muted from the gold/tan family. if your mustard color is too yellow, tweak it more toward the brown side so you get more of a camel or caramel or warm tan color (toasted sesame sounds good, so does honey wheat or something like that). take your cues on the exact color from your flooring/woodwork. if your floor is orangey, then stay on the orangey-tan side with the paint. if you use a too yellowy gold, the floors will scream orange & clash with the walls, as you've seen. you could also go with the brown in your rug, just lighter. but probably the golder color will be better with your woods than a browner color.

whether or not this idea is good or not, though, depends on what furnishings are up against the wall, where you really want the focal point to be, etc. always have a good reason for what you're doing. don't just have an accent wall for the sake of being able to say "we did an accent wall". you know? in your case, i think it will help to keep these 2 rooms seeming like one big room. if you painted them each a different color, it would exactly define each one & you'd see 2 "small" rooms. elongating that one wall will stretch the eye to see 1 big space, instead.

Thank you so much Annette for the quick response! You confirmed what I was thinking that the room would be too loud with those two bold colors.

The reason behind the accent wall was that I originally wanted to paint both the kitchen and the family room in Rust. But hubby thought it would be dark and intense having so much redish color(he's probably right!) So, I thought of doing an accent wall as a compromise, and also creating kinda of flow there since there's only a half wall that separates the kitchen/nook and the family room.

I was debating which wall to be the accent wall. The wall I mentioned earlier was connected to the kitchen with 90 degree angle(so not the same wall as the kitchen wall), and it's behind the TV and the stand(both black). Across from the room there is the wall that is extended from the kitchen/nook(sharing the same wall), and the black leather sectional sofa sits there. So, one side is the TV and the other is leather sofa. And there's much more wall space behind the sofa than it behind the TV.

Do you think it's a good idea to do an accent wall? If yes, which wall would you choose?

Thanks!

Joan

sorry, having trouble picturing your layout.

like i said, have a reason for doing it. is there a picture that would look better hanging on one color versus the other? or maybe the sofa is better up against one vs. the other? maybe there's a window on the wall & that makes that wall kind of dark, so use the gold there instead of the darker rust? i don't know without seeing it, really. anything that makes the 2 rooms seem like one big room gets my vote.

Thank you Annette for the help!

I have decided to paint the kitchen and family room in Pottery Barn's Chestertown Buff(by Ben Moore). It's a dulled yellow/gold color. It looks beautiful on the color chip and in PB's catalogs. Then, I want to paint one wall in the family room in Ben Moore's Rust color. Hopefully they will look nice on my walls too.

I also decided to paint the living room, formal dinning room and all the entry/hall way in a light to medium green, then the fireplace wall in the LR(also the high ceiling wall) in an accent color. I'm thinking to use a kind of medium beige color called Victorian Gold color. I was told it has a little yellow in it. The color chip seems to match my sofa and the green/beige rug. But, is it a good idea to paint the accent wall in a neutral color? Because the accent wall is usually dark and bold. And what's a good color accent color to go with light/medium green?

Thanks in advance!

Joan

are you sure you want that much green? 3 rooms of green? i don't know about that. you've got a gold kitchen & family room with an accent of rust. why not continue with the gold & then accent with the green somewhere? i think you're losing focus.

usually, people want a dramatic foyer, or a dramatic dining room. you wouldn't have either by painting those rooms plus the living room all the same green.

maybe use the beige in all those areas & accent the wall behind the beige sofa with the green?

Thanks Annette for the quick response!

Our sunken LR and DR is one open space. When you enter from our front door, you immediately see the high ceiling LR, DR and the hallway on the 2nd floor. I was going to paint those areas in a light green, then one wall in LR with the fireplace in an accent color like medium beige. Is that still too much green?

Our kitchen and family room are on the other side of the house, The kitchen is off the DR, but you can't see it when you're at the front door. So, I thought I could do two different color schemes, one for the kitchen/family room (gold/rust), and the other for LR, DR and upstairs hallway(light green/beige).

Now I'm not sure whether it's a good plan.

Joan

so, the focal point of the room, the fireplace, will have the blah-est color around it?

what color is the fireplace? and wood, tile, brick, what?

can you paint the foyer different than the LR/DR?

Because of the way the high ceilings were built, it's best, also the easiest to paint those 3 areas(LR, DR and foyer) in the same color(a lot of the walls are connected to each other, hard to cut the walls to paint different colors).

The fireplace has cream/beige-ish tiles around it, and a light wood mantel. So, everything is very light and neutral color. Now, it does seem very blah for the fireplace! Argh!

How about painting those places also in Chestertown Buff color, like in the kitchen/family room, then the fireplace wall in green?Does it sound better? Is it going to be too much yellow/gold?

Thanks,
Joan

that's what i'd do. use the Chestertown Buff everywhere except your accent wall of Rust in the family room and the Green wall around the fireplace. that way, you've got good flow & continuity with a couple of accents of color. the house will seem bigger, too, instead of too chopped up into sections. the focus should be on your furnishings - furniture, rugs, wall decor, accessories, draperies, etc - not the paint on the wall. the walls are the backdrop for your furnishings.

if your foyer is floored in a hard surface, i'd get an area rug to put there that has your 3 main colors in it, to set the stage for your color scheme. then all the rooms will relate from that central point.

just FYI (not what i'm recommending you do): another option for creating a place to stop one paint color & start another, when the walls continue from room to room, is to use a chair rail. usually there are doorways that you can run the chair rail into and thereby stop a paint color, whereas without it, the paint would have to continue over the doorways.