Feature Walls - passe?

[lorelilee]

Am looking to decorate my living room and really don't know where to start. What's 'now'?

[LaGuerta]

Becom

[LaGuerta]

Becoming passé IMO and I'm speaking as someone who has one that is 6 years old. Paint not as dated as big wall paper prints. When I see those now I groan a little, whereas 6/7/8 years ago I thought they were very cool.

Let me know when you work out what is now. I am wondering this myself.

[CristinaTheAstonishing]

We are house hunting at the moment and I have seen them in just about every single house we viewed. I think they look OK but then I haven't really seen any IRL, only in magazines, so not oversaturated yet.

[CubiksRube]

Bloody well hope they're still 'OK' because I've spent the entire day painting three of them into our new house!

In my opinion, they're useful if you want to use strong colours but you have rooms that aren't that big. I'd never do one wall bright red or similar, but we've used quite dusky F&B colours and they look great.

[fresh]

Sorry, feature walls were passe ages ago! I would say paint the whole room the same colour, and FGS don't use cream. If you're worried about what's current, have a look at some of the upmarket homes mags (i.e Homes and Gardens/House and Garden but not Ideal Home/25 Horrible Beautiful Homes. Strong colours are in, so be bolder than you think you should be. Last nag tip, don't paint millions of little squares on the wall trying to decide what colour to have. Paint larger pieces of paper or board and stand them against different walls, and behind pictures etc, to see what happens.

[PigletJohn]

Very dated.

I can just about tolerate a wall that is in a toning, but not a strident, mismatch.

For example if you had 3 walls done in Weak Tea, and one in Milky Coffee.

[Paschaelina]

Am I the only one who just paints and papers what I happen to like at the time then? I've never stopped to think before whether what I think looks good is in fashion or not. It either works or it doesn't, surely?

[lorelilee]

I just don't want the room to date very quickly and, I had a feeling feature walls had had their day! I'm thinking of a grey/white combination as want the room light and airy. Has to be child friendly though! Oh lordy, this decorating malarky is stressful!

[herhonesty]

my sister has a rule of thumb. you know when its passe when its in the next catalogue. and they have been for at leaset 3 years!

[CointreauVersial]

I think there's feature walls and there's feature walls. Our kitchen has a darker colour on the end wall because it adds a little depth and warmth to the dining end of the room, but it's a toning shade (mocha) with the other walls (biscuit), so not a "feature" as such.

We are just about to do our bedroom, and have bought some wallpaper, but I won't do the whole room, just one wall plus the alcove; again. it isn't a "feature" but the whole room papered would be overpowering so I'm toning it down with some paint.

I don't think grey and white sounds dated at all; I would go for it. Stuff fashion.

[Awomancalledhorse]

I don't 'do' feature walls, we've got a rubbishy 1970's flat with zero character, so in most rooms every wall is the same colour but in the bedrooms we're doing two walls in one colour & two walls in another.
We're just about to redecorate the master bedroom as it's eyebleeding magnolia/stone/whisper of dullness so we're going for two greens on the same Dulux colour thingy.

lorelilee, what sort of property do you have? What colours are the main bits of furniture in your living room & are you going to do the flooring?

[lorelilee]

Our house is a 16 year old 'kit' type house. The one thing I hate is that all the woodwork - sills, doors etc are a mid brown colour - would much prefer white! I am looking to totally 'do' the living room - i.e. buy EVERYTHING new. It is 21ft by 15ft and, ideally, the front half would be a sitting/lounge area and the back dining. Sorry to say to all you Mumsnetters, but carpet flooring is a must - all the noise echos through the house with the current (even worse) laminate. Any tips would be most welcome!

[CristinaTheAstonishing]

Karndean/Amtico is quiet and comes in all sorts of patterns. You can throw a rug on top to add colour or interest.

[CristinaTheAstonishing]

Obviously, talking about floors there. Rugs on walls are a bit passe :)

[gettingeasier]

I am with Paschalenia and would say do what you would like to have.

I have just moved into a house with a couple of rooms with feature walls and think they look great , its what you do with pictures lights shelves etc that make the difference.

[Awomancalledhorse]

Lorelilee, with you on carpets, wooden floors/laminate is awful.

Is the living room the room you're starting with? If it is I'd recommend bulk buying the door handles/light switches for the entire house if you're replacing them (before I moved in DH stupidly bought new light switches for only 2 rooms, by the time he decorated the others they'd been discountinued so he had to rebuy them).

Our carpets are a mix of Brintons & Carpet Right; For our long living room we went for a 'speckled' carpet as the mix of colour breaks it up a bit, and doesn't make it look like we've got a vast expansive living room (plus the colour hides stains really well); www.carpetright.co.uk/ashbourne-rich-velvet-2.html (sorry can't hyperlink to save my life!) is what we've got.

I think in a room of your length you could get away with making one of the end walls a feature wall (helping to 'zone' it as it's going to be multifunctional). We put a massive rug under the dining table/sideboard so it helps distingush the different areas.

If you're doing the entire room, pick whichever item is most important/key to you; the sofa, the walls, tv stand, curtains etc first & then design around that colour.
Because we picked the brown carpet first, we've gone for a netural-ish tone (art deco dark wood furniture, black sofas) with splashes of red (red cushions, curtains, rug, artwork with bits of red & ginger me)!