Decorating and Design - Painting [an accent wall]

We're about to paint our teenage daughters bedroom. She wants to have one wall accented in a darker color and the other 3 walls in a lighter color. We're not sure which wall to make darker. One wall has a double window, the second wall is a full wall and her bed lies up against it with the headboard up against the wall with the window. The third wall has a door, a mirror with a triple dresser underneath and a closet, and the fourth wall is a full wall with 2 double chests of drawers and a bookcase caddy corner to that wall and the wall with the window. The wall with the mirror is opposite the wall with the window. Colors we're looking at are...Dark Color is Iced Cranberry and the light color is a light pink called Delight. These colors come from Home Depot. The brand is Glidden. All suggestions are appreciated. Thanks for everyone's time.

My only suggestion would be to think about having the dark wall be the one with the window. I'm guessing that it's the wall you see directly as you enter the room? At any rate, the light entering the windows will reflect off the other walls, brightening the room, and since no sunlight can actually hit the wall with the windows in it, to me, that would be the obvious choice. Plus the windows will break up the dark color, making it less intense. But that's just my non-educated fashion opinion.

That noneducated fashion opinion made sense to me, I agree with Xsleeper. What you may want to do, though, is wait a little longer and get some opinions on your paint choices from the pros here.

Your eye will be drawn to the different wall once in the room. so which wall do you want the attention to be focused on. ussually people do the wall that has the headboard on it, to bring attention to the bed, however, I have seen teh oposit wall done and both other walls.

how big is this room? if it's really small, you'd be better off using a chair rail or wallpaper border 3 feet up from the floor on all 4 walls & painting the darker color below & the lighter color above. this would make the room seem larger than painting 3 walls one color and 1 wall a different (darker) color.

but i'd like more info:

what finish is on these pieces of furniture (stain color/paint/etc)?

what is the bedding (bedspread/comforter/etc)?

and the window treatment (drapes/blinds/etc)?

this is key information. you need to put color where it best accents what's in front of or near it. for example, if there are light pink curtains on the window, you wouldn't want to paint that wall light pink. you'd want it to be the darker color so the curtains stand out nicely.

also, you might want to play with the furniture arrangement a bit. the focal point for any bedroom is supposed to be the bed, but you've got it shoved into a corner, instead of prominently positioned on one of the solid walls or under the window. a toddler might need all the open space possible in the middle of the room for playing, but a teenager surely doesn't, does she? is there a nightstand? the nightstand can be placed in the very corner which will allow the width of the nightstand for space around that wall-side of the bed, for ease of making the bed. making a bed that's up against a wall, or so close to the wall that you can't walk around it, is the pits.

i would suggest either moving the bed to the center of the 2nd (solid) wall & accenting that wall. or centering the bed under the window (if the height of the window & headboard make that possible) and accent that wall with the paint & also a nice drapery treatment that will frame the window AND the headboard.

An accent wall draws the eye to it immediately upon entering the room. To pull off an accent wall successfully, keep in mind which wall would be the best to accent. As indicated, this is often dictated by furniture arrangement. Accent walls work well on solid walls. They can make a long narrow room look shorter. The color should fit in with the color scheme and can be a color drawn from comforter or rug. In bedrooms the accent wall is frequently the wall at the head of the bed. Depending upon room features, accent wall can be the wall opposite the foot of the bed or a wall with complementary window treatments.