20 Accent Wall Ideas & Inspiration to Add Character to Every Room

Upgrade a plain, boxy room with energetic, bold color. Refresh your favorite nook with soft, subtle hues. Read on for inspiration and how-to guidance for a DIY accent wall you’ll love!

If you know how to paint a wall, you know how to paint an accent wall. How to choose an accent wall often presents the bigger challenge!

An accent wall showcases a room’s focal point, like a built-in bookcase, fireplace, or art. You can also use an accent wall to easily elevate a basic apartment space. Other considerations for which wall to choose include…
  • Adding dimension to a room that has minimal architectural detail.
  • Breaking up open floor plans, bright rooms, and rooms with high ceilings.
  • Creating a specific mood, since color impacts how a space makes you feel.
Accent colors are meant to pop, and create visual interest in a space: When choosing an accent wall, select a wall with purpose–your eye will be drawn to it immediately. For rooms with darker color walls, consider going lighter for an accent wall. If the walls are light and airy, consider a deeper, bolder color.

In need of some accent wall inspiration? Look to the other colors featured in the space, picking up a similar color from a piece of artwork or textile can help tie the room together. Don’t forget to consider the direction your room faces and the type of natural light it receives when choosing paint colors for your accent wall.

20 Accent Walls for Every Room

An accent wall provides an easy way to experiment with paint color, while breathing personality and design impact into your space.

Use an accent wall to spice up busy functional spaces like your entryway, laundry room or mudroom. A well-chosen accent color can also enliven small spaces, giving them instant personality. Love off-whites, neutrals or fresh, pale hues? Greige, taupe and soft gray accent walls lend a layer of sophistication to minimalist styling.

Read on for a tour of how accent walls can enhance any space in your home, guided by color suggestions and tips from Benjamin Moore’s color experts.

Dining Room Accent Walls

1. Red Accent Wall: Fiery and Fun

Red paint colors deliver a design glow-up in any room. A red accent wall in the dining room adds the perfect pop for a space where both conversation and wine flow effortlessly. Rosy Apple 2006-30, seen here, offers a dramatic foil for the natural wooden floors and traditional spindle-back chairs. Other accent wall-ready reds include:

2. Brown Accent Wall: Easy Elegance

A graphic swath of bold color enhances any room. In this dining room, Wenge AF-180, a rich brown from our mix-and-match Affinity® Color Collection, adds design depth in an otherwise neutral space. Other rich browns we love include:

3. Green Accent Wall: Verdant Vibes

Fresh, organic-inspired green paint colors are perfect for the dining room. Leafy Fernwood Green 2145-40 warms up this contemporary dining space. This accent wall also helps delineate a dining space for guests and family to linger in an open floor plan.

4. Yellow Accent Wall: Energizing & Optimistic

Add some zest to your dining room with a bold yellow accent wall—or, in this case, accented inset shelves. Inviting and warm, York Harbor Yellow 2154-40 is a reliable option anytime a pop of color is needed, especially when balanced with flattering Atrium White OC-145. Other yellows to try include:

Bedroom Accent Walls

1. Light Blue Accent Wall: Breezy and Beautiful

Combine three hues in the same color family to elevate the impact of color in your bedroom. Here a silvery neutral, soft gray-blue, and pop of stormy blue create a trilogy of charm in this loft bedroom. Steal this look with these blue trilogies:

2. Pink Accent Wall: Add a Wink of Color

Bring some play into a guest room with a cheery pink accent wall. When paired with rich brown, as seen here on the bedding and ceiling beam, the look combines elegance with fun. More pinks we love include:

3. Painted Bedroom Accent Walls: Intriguing Pairings

Tapping into the softer side of color pairings in your bedroom can create a calming, harmonious cocoon. Here, Hint of Violet 2114-60 and Quiet Moments 1563 refreshes the space. More soft bedroom color combinations we love include:

4. Green Accent Wall: Graphic Decadence

Adore your bedding? Build a color scheme around it! Here, teal green Casco Bay 2051-30 in this bedroom, pulls fluidly from the print duvet. The homeowner softens the look with a peachy Pirates Cove Beach OC-80 painted arch “headboard” that enlivens the small bedroom. Consider these punchy accent wall pairings:

Living Spaces

1. Purple Accent Wall: A Royal Touch

Use analogous colors—colors that sit next to each other on the color wheel—for striking contrast against crisp white.

Here, Tear Drop Blue 2053-60 draws the eye down the hallway, a pretty pairing with the Shadow 2117-30 accent wall, a rich purple and former Color of the Year. Other analogous accent wall pairings to consider include:

2. Blue Accent Wall: Entryway

Give your oft-overlooked entryway a bold makeover with a stunning blue paint color. Whether you go for the nearly black undertone of Deep Royal 2061-10 or lean towards indigo with Starry Night Blue 2067-20, an eye-catching blue hue is sure to enliven the place you hang your hat. Make it really pop with a pink front door, like we do here with Conch Shell 052.

3. Brown Accent Wall: Earthy & Engaging

Create a vibrant space for conversing over a good meal with a dining area accented by a sumptuous brown accent wall. As smooth and rich as your favorite coffee, dark brown paint colors bring a luxurious feel to your home, especially in spaces where people gather. Get the look with one of these hues:

4. Light Blue Accent Wall: Bring the Skies Inside

Light blue paint colors bring summer skies inside. A favorite for ceilings and accent walls alike, light blue acts like a breezy hue in white and neutral spaces. Love light blue? Consider these options:

5. Pink Accent Wall: A Fresh Take

Comforting with an added air of sophistication, light pink paint colors give living rooms and other spaces an alternative to neutrals or gray, while being just as flattering. To get the look, try former Color of the Year, First Light 2102-70, shown here, or one of these other pretty hues:

Kitchen Accent Walls

1. Pink Accent Wall: A Kitchen Staple

Go for a modern twist on a classic color combination when you pair gray kitchen cabinets with a pink kitchen accent wall. Steeped in vintage vibes, gray and pink help bridge the gap between warm and cool, creating a welcoming space for cooking, entertaining and more. Other gray and pink combos we love include:

2. Black Accent Wall: Posh & Practical

A black accent wall adds instant style to any room. On the pragmatic side, darker paint colors tend to mask splatter and dirt. It’s a win win.

Black paint colors we love include:

3. Raspberry Red Accent Wall: Color Block with Ease

Color accent walls are a fun and creative way to infuse a fresh look into your home, especially in multi-functional spaces. Make them pop with a statement-making raspberry paint color, like the Color of the Year 2023, Raspberry Blush 2008-30. Other red-coral hues that can elevate a space include:

4. Navy Blue Accent Wall: Anchors Away

Ramp up the wow factor in your kitchen with a navy blue and white color combination. Pairings we love for this high-impact look include:

Bathroom Accent Walls

1. Orange Accent Wall: Wakey Wakey!

While you want your bathroom to be clean, you don’t want it to feel sterile. Enter the colorful painted accent wall!

A vibrant orange, Golden Vista 308 is like a fresh glass of orange juice on a summer morning. Other sunny hues we love for a morning energy infusion:

2. Dark Blue Accent Wall: Make Waves

Dark blue oceanic energy in your bathroom just makes sense. Whether you are highlighting an architectural detail like the alcove here or using color creatively—think a perfectly painted circle with a mirror at its center, or a swath of blue for ornate towel hooks—dark blue is majestic in any room. Consider:

3. Red Accent Wall: Ravishing & Fun

A vintage chair in the same color as your perfectly painted bathroom accent wall? Why not!

Painted in Advance® Interior, which cures to a furniture-like finish beloved for cabinets, trim, doors and more, the monochromatic wall and chair is subtle and sweet.

Cheery reds we love for the bathroom—matching chair or not—include:

“Using paint to highlight the architectural details in your space can take your designs to new heights—try painting the ceiling with a bold color for a dramatic twist on the accent wall.”

Molly Lynch, Color & Design Expert

Frequently Asked Questions


Q. What is the rule for accent walls?

A. An accent wall is an opportunity to bring a pop of color and dimension into your palette. While there are no hard and fast rules when it comes to accent walls, your eye will be drawn there once you walk into the room, so be sure to choose somewhere you want people to focus on. You should also ensure the accent wall isn’t competing with anything else in the room, so be sure to work with the décor and architecture already in the space.



Q. How can I easily create an accent wall?

A. Think about the focal point in the space. It could be a gallery wall, the wall behind the headboard in a bedroom, a wall with a fireplace, or a ceiling with an ornate lighting fixture. Choose the wall with purpose, with the intent of creating visual interest in your space. Once the wall is chosen, head to your locally owned Benjamin Moore store for color samples, project advice and more.



Q. Should my accent wall be lighter or darker?

A. Look to the color of the other walls in the space to determine the accent wall color. We recommend choosing a color a few shades lighter or darker to create optimal contrast. If walls are a midtone or deeper hue, try a lighter accent wall color. For rooms with lighter, softer colors, bring in depth with dark, bold accent colors.



Q. Which wall to accent to make a room look bigger?

A. There are no strict rules to choosing your accent wall, as it really depends on all of the design elements in the space as well as the architecture of the room. Contrast can bring dimension and depth to a room, which can help make it feel larger. Generally, cooler colors tend to recede and give the illusion of opening up the space, while warmer colors make things feel cozier. So, choosing a warm paint color for an accent wall can make it feel smaller than a cooler, breezier hue.



Q. Do you paint an accent wall first or second?

A. If there is a particular color that you really want to accent from a piece of artwork or textile, choose your accent wall color first and then your remaining wall colors. If you are choosing an accent wall color for more of an open concept space, or somewhere that connects several rooms, consider picking your wall colors first, and then your accent wall color.



Q. How much paint do I need for a feature wall?

A. For a feature wall, also called an accent wall, you will only need one gallon of premium Benjamin Moore paint for two coats, and likely have paint leftover!



Q. Which wall should I choose for a feature wall?

A. Many choose a wall with a fireplace, built-in bookshelves, art, or special architectural details like wainscoting. You can also use furnishings to delineate an accent wall; choose the wall behind your headboard in the bedroom, or add a collection of images and wall décor to create a gallery wall. Most importantly, you’ll want to take into consideration how you use and interact with the space. Highlight walls you want to draw attention to, but avoid walls you’d like to hide or blend into the room.



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