• Bold colors for your wallspaint image by CraterValley Photo from Fotolia.com
  
  The decor of our home is a direct reflection of our personal taste and style. When it comes to color, we are often tempted to stick with old-fashioned notions of white and beige. Breaking out of this box can lead to discovering new colors and patterns for your walls.
  
  

Using Shades

• Once you establish a color choice for a room, using various shades of the color will break up the monotony. Using stencils, add flowers, geometric shapes or other objects to the wall in a subtle manner. For example, if you select a light shade of blue for your primary color, medium-blue stenciled flowers randomly placed will add dimension to the wall without stark contrasting. If more color is desired, deeper shades of your primary color will add more contrast or more stenciled shapes will enhance the effect. Using a larger stencil also broadens the contrast of the color, while using a smaller stencil gives a softer appearance. Objects that are too small, however, will lose their visual effect and may appear as dots or blotches on your wall.
  
  

Contrasts

• The use of contrasting colors in a room gives it a bold and bright appearance. A room with plain beige walls can be changed into a centerpiece by adding a bright green stripe around the center of the room. Add trim around the windows, ceiling and floor in a contrasting color for a dollhouse effect for the room. Using high-contrasting colors, such as reds and blues, will add a bold effect where softer colors, such as pinks or lavenders, will keep the room more subtle while still giving it a brighter appearance.
  
  

Stripes

• Horizontal stripes added to singularly colored walls liven up a room by giving it a busy appearance. Add singular thin stripes of a complementary color to a solid wall or consider using a pattern of stripes. Develop a pattern of complementary colors to work with, or use the same color, in varying stripe widths along the wall. Vertical stripes are a much bolder look for a room. A pattern of vertical stripes centered on the wall at rail level will draw eyes around the room.
  
  

Accent Walls

• The addition of an accent wall to a room can draw focus to a particular area. Often the wall facing the entrance door, an accent wall should be decorated as such that it matches the room, but stands out in pattern or color. An option for such a wall is to add stenciled patterns of color. Striping only this wall or adding a split effect of painting half the wall to match the rest of the room and the other half a different color is an option as well. The concept of halving the wall could also involve the addition of patterns or shapes only to the top or the bottom.