While accent walls are tempting in theory, often they are too risky a décor feature for many people. During the holidays, most homeowners will break out of their usual comfort zone and go “all out,” decorating with abandon. Why not try a temporary accent wall, just for the holidays? You could use paint, of course, but that is fairly permanent in most people’s eyes, not this intrepid decorator; you might have figured out by now.
You can accomplish an accent wall by hanging lengths of fabric, wallpaper or colored paper. Fixing these mediums to walls does not have to be permanent; you can staple them top and bottom to a section of wall that you wish to show off, or you can attach the fabric or paper to a large piece of foam board that can be painted as well.
If you have a special vignette that you wish to highlight, place a large piece of accent fabric behind the vignette and it will act as a great backdrop. You could use a plain silk drape as well, by simply hanging it on a curtain rod close to the ceiling; the drape can be slightly gathered for added texture or hung and stretched out so it will lie flat against the wall. This is a good idea if you happen to have wallpaper or a colored wall that doesn’t agree with your holiday décor. You may want to display hanging cards but don’t want to have competing designs; simply hang or fix cards to the “accent fabric wall” and create your new design.
You may want to add some special excitement to your fireplace mantle by adding a temporary accent color above to punch up the focal point of the room. This space would be an ideal place to add paint if you wanted to try out an accent color without committing an entire wall to it. Simply draw parallel lines from the top of the mantle to the ceiling and paint your punch of color.
Remember that a bold color will take several coats of paint, but the surface area is usually fairly small, so this project does not require a great deal of paint. Your lines do need to be sharp and clean so follow directions when using one of the many painters’ tape products to achieve the look you are after. Once the holidays are over, if you are inclined to leave the color up, good for you; if not, simply paint it out, using a good primer to cover the bold color and re-apply the room color to the wall.