I have a LOT of orange in my house, and in fact, my house IS orange. I've had a look at your Canyon Orange and I think the basic problem is that I would not ever think to combine it with grey. It is similar to my DR ceiling, actually, a room that has wallpaper with a cream background (and the orange in it, along with purple and green). And plain cream on the walls other than that. So if that is your orange colour, I would go with a bright cream, not grey (*and not beige!!!*). But... why is that your chosen orange colour? I would pick an accent colour to help pull together other, less flexible elements in the room, not to create another element that needs to be integrated. The accent colour would be an outcome, not a input. Do you have any prints in the room? I find wallpaper, rugs, or upholstery to be a good place to unite all the different colours. We usually start with a wallpaper, actually, and then the room is always automatically pulled together as long as we stay within sight of the palette of the wallpaper. Maybe you have a piece of artwork, or could add one, that puts your chocolate brown with a good orange and the other tones you are working with? Whatever you use, it could give you the neutral you are after, and help you pinpoint the right orange for the chocolate brown (although I think the shade you've chosen is good for the brown). I know wallpaper is out of style (other than at my house :-)), but from what you've described, a print somewhere in the room might be a welcome change from all the unicolor items. Other orange combinations that we have... the house is P&L Mineral Red and is trimmed with a mid green and Black Magic (dark purple). The stairwell is a creamsicle shade from SW with white trim. And I have some furniture painted a wonderful burnished reddish orange combined with purple in one case, and navy in another. As for brown... I like it with a soft lilac, and I love orange and purple together. You might be able to find a lilac that would work with both your orange and your brown. Sounds insane, I know, but if you keep it very subtle it could work - a clear tone, not greyed. Or a sage green? Anything but grey :-) Karin L

I agree with Alex's definition of an accent wall. I have one in my LR which frames my fireplace and is a focal point for the room. Another rule of thumb is that it is a single wall in a room and not multiple walls. However, the way you are describing just bumping up the intensity of the existing wall color I agree is not really an accent wall. With that in mind, my vote would be for A (but excluding the DR walls). What you have described reminds me a lot of my local Pottery Barn store and it is a very good look and does indeed add visual interest to a large and open floorplan without drawing overmuch attention to itself as would be the case with a true accent wall. You should also take into account the amount of light that your various walls are subject too--since that also has an impact on how the wall colors are perceived. In general the stronger the sunlight a room received, the more washed out a color will appear.

I saw a shower where one entire wall was the fancy patterned tile and the other 3 walls were plain. I think it was posted by Beth H? Maybe she will post that again. It wasn't a strip, it was one of the end walls (skinnier) of a shower.

I’m thinking three dark walls. This is B.M. Nocturnal Gray, but just a guess to colors in the paper. You do need some blue undertone to work with what I call the “mean” west light. My go to for west light is Patriotic White, so I moved down the strip to find something darker. This color would show great with the white crib, and you could add a white rug on the floor, and a white lamp on the dresser.