"Feature wall"?

Gagjo I too saw a friends living room many years ago which was all white. She had large leaved plants in it which looked gorgeous against the white background. For about 25 years I always repainted ours white too as it was a perfect foil for everything we had in the room. Now we’ve moved I’ve opted for a very pale yellow in the living room, pale pink in the kitchen and soft lilac in the bathroom. The bedroom was already white so we’ve left that and with white furniture, long white curtains etc it looks lovely so we can still have our white’fix’. Each to their own but feature walls don’t do it for me.

We are about to move into a rental place. The master bedroom and the lounge room both have one "feature" wall painted red. Not a colour I would have chosen but I'm going to have to live with it while there. The joys of renting.

My Husband hates preparing for and hanging fresh wallpaper, so when we bought our Newbuild house around 20years ago he made a rule that decorating walls in rooms should be Emulsion paint only. I did bend the rules a little by having a Dado rail fitted on the hall stairs and landing, and always painted the lower half with a darker shade and the upper with a lighter shade of the same colour bought from the colouriser ranges within the large DIY stores. I then used the darker shade to stencil a design just above the Dado rail. This fashion lasted for a few years before the Boarder print rolls with the sticky backs came into vogue. Today we keep the twotone Dado rail.idea, but long gone are the Boarders and stencils we once had before.
The rest.of the house is decorated in fairly neutral shades of Creams and Beiges, and my new Kitchen is a shade called Cashmere, with accents of Reds, Burgundy, Greys and Creams in the blinds and small appliances jst to give a little fairly easily changeable colour. We add colour to. our bedrooms by using fairly bold pattern bedding and Matching curtains, a different design for each room, and to our lounge by using feature coloured cushions and rugs, again easily changeable without much fuss of disruption. The rest of our toilets and bathrooms are tiled, and again we add a splash of colour by using co-ordinating Towels and bathmats. When we get tired of a room, we just send the old rugs and cushions ect to the charity shop, and buy some new again, a total change of scene achieved in less than a day!

You'll like this one!

If you like to read in bed phoenix I would warn against dark lampshades on bedside lamps - make it hard to see!

Ooh Riverwalk I think that may just be a bit ott chez phoenix

Tanith if we did it, then it would be paint, like yours.

If the wall behind the bed has curtains then that in itself is a feature.
Have you considered papering/painting the wall opposite the bed.
Lewis and Wood and Little Greene have some really beautiful classic wallpaper.

I have two in my house both paint not wallpaper, the wall behind the bed is deep teal the other walls a silvery pale blue. In the living room I have *MousesBack’ ( yes it is a colour?) on the chimney breast and a very slightly lighter colour of the same shade on the rest of the room. I really like both.

What about a washable vinyl trompe l'oeil?

Or do it the hard way and paint it yourself!

Phoenix, I only learned a few days ago, that the wall in our main sitting room which has (imo gorgeous William Morris) wallpaper on it, could be called a Feature Wall.
In my head, it was an attempt to stop us having to paint that wall a couple of times a year to stop the scuff marks caused by 4 small grandchildren and 3 large dogs. It's worked a treat. 18 months on, it looks as good as new.
Question - if I'd extended the wallpaper round to another wall, would it have become Two Feature Walls, or a half decorated room. Who knows these things???

GagaJo we have usually had a fresh green curtains and bedding for Spring/Summer, then deep wine for Autumn/Winter. A right faff to change.

Now looking at the biscuit curtains and chocolate lampshades as a possibility for year round.

(Have to take the curtain poles down every time we switch!)

Any talk about feature walls always brings to mind back in the mid-1950's when my Dad offered to decorate my bedroom as I wished it for my 16th birthday,. Also had a new bedroom suite then. DIY decorating was still pretty new, and was nowhere near as simple as it is today. Much wallpaper still required all the edging cut away, and wallpaper paste was different to what we have today,.
Anyway, I spent a long time working out what I wanted in that bedroom. The wall opposite the door had two small windows, and I decided to have that in a different wallpaper to the other three walls. Then to have curtains in the colour of the other 3 walls there and a large piece of curtaining to cover my divan bed, which I could move flush against that wall - giving it the appearance of what we now call a 'day bed'.
Well, my father was furious when I told him I wanted one wall decorated with a different paper to the other three - accused me of trying to make a fool of him. Arguement continued for some weeks, finally got him into wallpaper shop to talk to man there who told him that this was the new modern way. I did get it done with my 'feature wall', but Dad never actually confessed that he thought it looked good.
In my old house in London I made the chimney breast in the through lounge the feature wall. also in my bedroom had the wall behind the bed painted blue and the other walls all white.
Some rooms do lend themselves to this sort of feature, others do not. Am spending quite a lot of time considering how to decorate the bedrooms in my new flat and Living room. Will not have a feature wall in the Living room, it is a quirky shape so does not lend itself to that.
TBH - does not matter what is/what is not in fashion, it is down to those living in the rooms and what they like that matters,.

I always have all white houses now. I lived in a rented, pristine, white, minimalist house many, many years ago and loved it and have emulated it ever since. It's calming and tranquil and my very messy mind loves the very minimalist surrounding.

IF I want colour, I add it with lighting, furnishings or extras (I don't want to say trinkets, because I don't have trinkets!).

Although your house is cream, that is still a neutralish shade. Lovely to have in a bedroom, as Grandmafrench says. Why not vary the colour of bedding and your headboard/curtain? You could ring the changes by having 2 or 3 options, depending on mood/time of year.

I only have one Feature wall, and that's in a bedroom.
It's a carpet that covers the whole chimney Brest which the bed is against.

Coffee, chocolate, cream, biscuit. Sounds very calming for a bedroom. Sometimes it's easier to choose a colour from an item of soft furnishing in the room that you like - cushion for example. If your curtain or curtains have pattern, maybe there is a strong contrast colour there which you like the look of. Or, decide if you want a contrast wall, whether you are a green or blue person or veer towards rose or grey tones. A smart grey would look stylish with the other colours (IMHO of course!). Wallpaper and contrast walls are, apparently, very "in" at the moment, so you are probably spoilt for choice.

If you want ideas Google ‘ Feature walls’ or go to Pinterest .

Thank you J52 although if we go for it (which I doubt) it would only be on one wall, so not many areas to try it in.

I do not like them,but each to their own.

I like the curtain "headboard" , I would have the curtain as a feature with an unusual print fabric.

Try out an area by painting a large piece of paper with the colour. Hold it up in different areas to see if you like it.
It’s your home, make it to your taste, rather than what might be in fashion, and enjoy your ‘nest’!

Maybe not too different, GagaJo!

We have no borders, or dado rails or swagged curtains! The curtains in the bedroom window are purely there for window dressing, we rely on a roller blind for shade and privacy.

I was just having a bit of a think, and thought I would canvass opinions on GN.

The curtains are a sort of damask in a colour called biscuit, although it could be more coffee coloured, depending on your perspective!

The shades on the bedside lamps are (will be) chocolate, and as mentioned the walls will be ivory.

Just idly wondering if the wall behind the bed (with its sort of hangings, see above) might look good in a different colour?

I dont have any feature walls either, I dont like them but that is personnel taste.

I can't bear feature walls. Very 1990s, in my opinion. BUT I'm also very anti borders, dado rails and swagged curtains so maybe our tastes are different.

I've got a feature wall in every room (except the kitchen and bathroom, which are tiled) - wallpaper on one wall, paint on the others.