Faux Finishing - Need Your Opinion re: Accent Wall

My hubby and I are remodeling a house at the beach, and are using "beachy" colors throughout. Our kitchen is an L-shaped galley style with a breakfast nook in the short end of the L. The breakfast nook opens into our den. There is no actual door between the kitchen and the den, just a threshold.

We put a chair rail up in the kitchen, & have painted a turquoise color below the chair rail. Above the chair rail, we did a white base coat, and I then sponged on pastel green and blue colors. The chair rail & trim are white.

The kitchen turned out to be beautiful, but now we've got to paint the den (which has no chair rail).

I'm thinking about painting three walls in the den a blue color and sponging the accent wall. For this accent wall, I again want to use white as the base coat, but this time, I'd sponge on 3 colors - blue, green and peach. The green & blues that I will be using in the den aren't the same as those used in the kitchen, but they complement each other beautifully. Again, all the trim will be white.

I'm trying to decide which wall I want to be the accent wall. (We're not beach front, so there's no spectacular view from the den that I'd want to highlight.) Would it look too strange to sponge the den wall that butts up against the kitchen wall? (Remember that the sponging in the kitchen is just above the chair rail, but the den's sponging would be on the whole wall. Also, different colors will be used in sponging the den.)

If you think it would look too weird, how about if I break up the breakfast nook area from the den by painting the threshhold? Or, maybe I should just choose another wall to be the accent wall?

Thanks for your help, everyone!

Susie

Hi there,

From a design standpoint, if the kitchen and den share a wall, your best bet is to make that match, however since there's no chair rail you can't really do that. So, you should make the den portion of that wall solid and it should be the solid color of the kitchen wall.

do you have any pics to make sure i'm understanding correctly?

Also, was sponging the only technique you thought of? Is it soft or chunky design?

I would recommend keeping the den sold across the board especially if you don't plan to match the colors. By match I mean take one or both of the colors from the kitchen and bring it through.

The point of keeping a shared wall 'shared' is to not break up the space. When doing many techniques that close together, the floorplan looks choppy.

Can you put a piece of molding from the baseboard to the ceiling where the two rooms divide? That will give the illusion of a threshold without building an actual doorway. This will give more options for the den, though I would still not recommend the shared wall done in two different finishes (same technique diff colors). And the den should be in colors that are either lighter or more saturated than the kitchen colors so it doesn't look like you tried to match the blues and greens and missed the mark.

Just my thoughts,

Nikki

Sorry to be so ignorant, but how do I upload an image? I click the "insert image" icon, but it asks for a url for the image, & the image is on my hard drive?

Thanks

Hiya,

go to photobucket and upload to an album there, then it will create a URL to paste into these posts.

I'm new here and it took awhile for me to find an easy site.

Question: did I seem short in my post yesterday? when I read it it comes across as not very friendly and I didn't want to come across that way. I guess it's easier to explain things in person than typing. :-)

I look forward to seeing the pics!!

Nikki

Hi Nikki,

Thanks for the info about uploading pics. And you did not at all sound short in your reply to my question. I think the problem is that I'm not at all artistic, so it's hard for me to communicate what I mean.

I understand what you mean about shared walls, but this is not exactly "shared" in the sense that the kitchen and den share the same wall. Rather, in this situation, the wall in question is around the corner from the kitchen wall this is sponged, but is visible from the kitchen.

I don't have any recent photos, but below is a pic taken several months ago. It was taken in the den. The large expanse of wall that is visible (with the light switch) is the wall I'm considering as an accent wall. As you can see, this room opens into the kitchen beyond. If it helps any, I have also included a floor layout that we used to decide on our tile pattern.

In the den, I am considering sponging either the wall that I have indicated, or the wall that it adjoins that opens into the hallway.

When I sponge, I like a soft, fairly muted effect, so I'll be "watering" the paint down with a good bit of glaze (1:4 paint:glaze ratio).

I hope this helps explain what I have in mind, and thanks in advance for your input!!

http://i410.photobucket.com/albums/pp189/catwomn_photos/accentwall.jpg

http://i410.photobucket.com/albums/pp189/catwomn_photos/Accentwalllayout.jpg

This is not at all what I thought you were describing. They're completely different rooms the way your floorplan shows, now I see it! :)

Since you can see a small amount of proposed den wall from the nook/kitchen (I think I have it right in that you'll be able to see both walls next to each other when in a certain part of the already painted room). I would say to do the 2nd choice of wall, not the one indicated in the floor plan.

To see both walls with the same technique but different colors might look messy, you're best bet will be the other wall so you see the affect in each room, not together.

:-) I want to see pics when you're done!!!

Nikki

Thanks, Nikki!

The more I thought about it, the more I was thinking I needed to sponge the other wall. I was afraid that having 2 sponged walls together might look too disjointed. You've just confirmed my thinking.

I usually have an idea of what I want to do, but sometimes it's really hard for me to envision the finished product to see whether it's really what I want or not!

Thanks so much for your help! It'll be probably 2 weeks before we're able to get down to finish the den, but I'll take pics this time & post them later! Thanks again!!

Susie

Hi Nikki,

I followed your advice and just sponged the far wall in the den. I think that both our kitchen and den turned out lovely, and really exude the relaxing, airy and beachy atmosphere we hoped to create in our beach house.

Here are some pics of the kitchen:

This one is looking into the kitchen from the den:
http://i410.photobucket.com/albums/pp189/catwomn_photos/Kitchenb.jpg

This is a view of the galley portion of the kitchen:
http://i410.photobucket.com/albums/pp189/catwomn_photos/Kitchend.jpg

This is a view of the breakfast nook (yet to be furnished) in the kitchen:
http://i410.photobucket.com/albums/pp189/catwomn_photos/Kitchenc.jpg

Views of the Den:

If you turn right at the breakfast nook (above photo), you will walk into the den. This is the view you see.
http://i410.photobucket.com/albums/pp189/catwomn_photos/Den.jpg

This photo is taken from the other side of the den looking back into the kitchen. Notice that I decided to use my beloved Frog tape to paint the illusion of a threshold between the kitchen and the den to help separate the two rooms.
http://i410.photobucket.com/albums/pp189/catwomn_photos/Den2.jpg

What 'cha think???

As a final note, I have to tell you folks how proud I am of my hubby (myself, too... but mainly him) We not only laid the tile ourselves (first ever experience laying tile), but Doug also designed and built all of the maple kitchen cabinets and installed them himself. (After ripping out all the old cabinets and floors, and re-doing all the electrical and plumbing to bring it up to code.) I mainly cut tiles, helped lay some of them, washed the tiles after Doug grouted them, etched the seashells in the kitchen cabinet glass and painted the walls. I'm aftaid that Doug got the short end of the stick on these 2 rooms! Hopefully, I'll be able to help more on the remaining rooms.

Thanks for all everybody's input. I've been snooping in on so many threads and stealing advice, that I can't thank everyone!

Susie :)

Hiya,

I'm so sorry I hadn't gotten back to you sooner, haven't had a chance to be on much as I've been working on updating my bathroom.

Your rooms look great! Very professional looking paint job and tell your hubby the kitchen cainets look wonderful!

I definitely think you've achieved you airy feel throughout your spaces and thank you so much for the compliment of taking my advice!

Good luck on your future projects, if they turn out like this one, they'll all be great successes!

Nikki