What To Consider Before Adding More Than One Accent Wall In Your Space

Accent walls are a great way to add interest to boring blank walls and highlight sections of the room you want to direct the eye toward. The mere abundance of awesome accent wall ideas may make them tempting to use quite liberally in your home to achieve the design results you crave. However, there can be a danger of too much of a good thing. Installing too many accent walls can leave rooms looking chaotic and unbalanced. There are a few ways you can make more than one accent wall work in your space to your advantage by paying close attention to their placement, size, materials, and color.

The right placement of an accent wall and design can lengthen or cozy up a room and define certain areas or features like a fireplace or piece of furniture. You may also want to use accent walls to add texture and dimension or hide unsightly elements, like a fuse box or mounted television, through camouflage. By using more than one accent wall with these things in mind, you can visually manipulate your room to get the desired effect.

One great reason to use two or more accent walls in a room can be to create zones via one or two paint colors. This is ideal if you have a larger multi-use space that can be broken down, such as multiple seating areas in a single area that benefit from some definition. It's especially perfect for adjoining walls that meet at corners or small cubbies and corridors, like the area under the stairs. Using a single color in an otherwise undefined entryway, a reading corner, dining nook, or around a toilet in the bathroom can make these spaces feel more intentional.

You could also manipulate the visual space of the room by using a single accent color on opposing or unconnected walls. This can often help make vast open concept spaces feel more closely tied together and coordinated. While two of the same size walls may compete in a smaller space, repeating an accent wall color on half or partial walls can echo the color and draw the room together.

Another great approach if you want to add more than one accent wall is to mix up your materials. This can create a fun multi-layered look. Combine a wood paneled wall with a fun wallpaper mural on another wall. Or build a rustic accent wall from planks and pair it with a solid color across the room. Alternatively, add slender picture molding on a colored accent wall to contrastwith a boldly floral wallpaper on another wall. The differing textures will work together rather than compete for attention if done well.

You can also create a coordinated look with multiple accent walls by using similar color shades, like a room painted with dark green and a lighter sage on an adjacent wall. Or use small bits of a repeated shade on the wall surrounding certain pieces of furniture, built-ins, or art.For neutral spaces, try a subtle variation in lightness or darkness to make the room feel less boxy, or layer some complementary colors on a single wall to draw two accent colors together seamlessly.