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21 Stunning Wood Accent Wall Ideas

By: Allan Bryce
Wood Accent Wall Ideas

Accent walls give a character to your home. They reflect your tastes and showcase the homeowner’s personality. Of all the ideas, why not give a try to a wooden accent? While wood looks great on floors, it will also look good on walls. 

If you’re looking for allure added to your living space, there are so many wooden textures you can try. Whether you want pallet style wood or polished one, a wooden wall can provide just the right look to allure your sensibilities.

Let’s discuss some ideas for wood accent walls.

Get a Plank Wall

If you have planks lying around from an older construction project, this is the right way to utilize them all. Put them up on a wall and see how they transform a boring and drab wall into an interesting masterpiece.

The best part about this type of wall is that it’s cheap and quick to install. You can use painted planks or raw and natural ones. Better still, you can combine all of them to get a colorful look. Depending on the look you’re trying to achieve, you can also polish or paint the planks once you’ve installed them on the wall.

Try a Wood Pallet Wall

Speaking of reusing old things, have you given a thought to a pallet wall? You’ll find pallets stacked up at the back of retail stores. Because people often want to get rid of them, they are also advertised on Craigslist for free.

What can be a better material for your accent wall than something that’s stylish, beautiful, and free? Cut them up and get out the useful bits. So basically, get the pallets that look like planks. Fix them up with a nail gun and there you have it – a beautiful wooden pallet wall. And you’d be spending almost nothing on it.

Style It with a 3D Look

This is a different concept where the thickness of all wooden pieces is not the same. As a result, the wall gives a 3D look. You can keep it raw or polished according to your preferences. As with the plank style, you can get planks in different colors as well.

However, if you’re looking for natural color or earthen shaded wall, it’s best to go with the natural browns of the wood. You can still create color variations by using different types of wood. You can use dark colored wood like ebony with light colored wood like balsa for contrast.

Go Mathematical with a Geometric Look

If you’re a math freak (and even if you’re not), this wall will look amazing in your living room. Get oddly shaped wooden cubes, well, not exactly cubes. They’re trapezoidal prisms or hexahedrons that are beautifully colored. 

The best part is that these chunks of wood will be cheaply available. Just paint them as a weekend DIY project and you’ll have your wooden accent wall raw material ready.

You can create a mosaic of these chunks or just a randomly colorful wall. It will give a geometric look that will look like abstract art – even if you’re not an artist.

Try Wood Dripping from the Ceiling

Check out this look that’s like wood is dripping from the ceiling. You don’t have to cover the entire wall for this style. It’s like the ceiling is melting and it’s raining wood. Of course, it will be great if the ceiling too has a wooden look. 

But even if it doesn’t this style is attractive and eye catching. The base of the wall behind the “dripping” wood could be a plain painted wall. While this wall is a part of a restaurant, it’s also a great addition in a living room and creates a warm and welcoming ambiance.

Combine an Accent Wall and a Notice Board By Getting a Cork Wall

A cork wall will look unique and beautiful. But more than that, it will also be practical. Since cork is soft, you can use this wall as a notice board. Pinup your ideas, art pieces, poetry, recipes, or whatever you fancy on this wall. 

Cork walls are insulating so you’ll be protected against temperature changes or loud noises. This is why cork paneling is often the number one choice in studios, hotels, and office boardrooms. Cork paneling is also done in movie theaters.

Apart from that, cork can also add a natural vibe to any room because it’s made of wood.

Attract Attention with the Right Play of Wood and Light

Check out these circular cork disks that are arranged beautifully on the wall. And behind them are LED lights that give out a soft and even glow. These plates look attractive and present a dim environment that’s ideal for a romantic evening.

Wooden disks will look great against a white wall. Get different colored cork disks that will give a nice and soothing ambiance to the place. Whether you want to invite your guests over to watch a football game or a date over for cheese and wine, this style will be perfect for all occasions.

Go Grey With a Wooden Wall

Wooden shades don’t always have to be brown. Go for grey colored woods such as heartwood or Indian silver grey wood and see a different tone of colors for your accent wall. A plain grey wall might look boring, which is unacceptable for an accent wall.

Add some bright colored accessories to the wall to make it look beautiful. You can go for photo frames, art pieces or even a large clock. Or you can place a bright colored chair or lamp next to this wall. This wall would look good with a barn door installed in it.

Be Different With a Fish Scale Formation 

Check out these wooden tiles that are arranged in a fish scale formation. With one tile overlapping over the other, it’s giving an exceptional and stylish look that’s both formal and casual. 

Inviting guests over for dinner? This accent wall looks great. Inviting some associates over for a business conference, this is the perfect wall for a home office. 

Available in a number of colors, you can select any type of wooden tile for a fish scale look. You can also add LED lights behind them to give them an even more stylish approach.

Deal with This Dowel Wall

Check out this Dowel wall. An architectural beauty, this is a multipurpose wall that’s shelves built right into it. It’s like a pegboard where you can attach as many dowels to create shelves and other things. It’s one wall that can take different forms on different days.

Monday can be the day you keep accounting books on a shelf and Saturday can be the day when you create a separate shelf and keep a couple of bottles of wine there.

It’s an interesting concept. Let your guests play with the dowel wall. Of course, not very easy to implement, it is a very unique design that won’t be found anywhere else.

Beautify It With a Slat Wall

Slatwall is a wall with slots in it. You can use wooden panels to create a slat wall. It can be installed vertically or horizontally. The advantage of horizontal slat wall panels is that with adequate spacing, it can be used for shelving purposes.

However, vertical slat walls look more beautiful and thus are more suited as wood accent walls. These walls look great in living rooms as well as bedrooms. If you want to make one wall of the room as an accent wall, try installing a slat wall – ideally, behind the bed. Place a house plant near the wall for a greener look.

Get a 3D Wall With Shelves in It

A concept like a dowel wall but different, this one has wooden cuboids and some of them are long and protruding, thus creating shelves.

An extraordinary concept, this wall brings a different kind of 3D look to the room. It’s like wooden chunks stacked together. Except when the chunks get larger, you can place things on them. Art pieces will look great on them. I’m thinking of brass antique pieces. This way, you can accessorize the accent wall.

While this wall has all blocks of the same color, you can play with blocks of different colors and some of them can even be painted to add a splash of color to the room.

Try the Burnt Look

The burnt look is an entirely different type of accent. Instead of a regular wooden look or even colored wooden look, get a burnt look by getting that right finish. Burnt wood is finished with fire for that perfect look.

This will give it a rustic look. While you can use a torch to finish wood but if you’re not experienced, it’s best to let someone else do it. 

A burnt wood wall will be dark in color so make sure the other walls are white or light shaded else the room will look small.

Put Wooden Art Pieces on Your Wall

Instead of covering the entire wall with wood, you can tastefully put large burnt wood art pieces on the wall. The shelf below the wall is looking amazingly beautiful. It’s burnt in the middle but finished on the edges. 

It looks as if it was a complete shelf but it got burnt later. It is going well with the room interiors. The rest of the room is white, including the walls, floor, and ceiling, making the eyes rest on the accent wall. While this room has only nine art pieces, you can cover the entire wall with it to enhance the theme.

Wooden World Map on the Wall

I love maps, especially world maps. I think a globe in the room or a map on the wall makes it look classy. A bit steampunk-ish, maps have an adventurous charm linked to them.

If you’re an explorer at heart, try this wooden world map on your wall. It is dye cut from plywood. But if you’re the kind of person who wants to throw a dart and travel to the place it lands on, I recommend a world map made of cork.

Get a Wall That Speaks of Class

If you like living classy or if your motto is to live life king size, this wall might appeal to you. Containing a 3D look that’s unraveling a mystery, this wall plays with light and darkness. The dark color of the wood is lightened by tactically arranged lights among the various panels.

The couch next to the wall gives it a casual appeal that turns the formalness of the wall a notch down. With books on the table, a setup ideal for lazing on a Sunday afternoon, this arrangement shows that you like living casually but with style.

An Accent Wall Next to the Stairs

Why do accent walls have to be the main walls of living rooms or bedrooms? Why can’t the wall accompanying you while you climb up the stairs be the accent wall?

Check out this wall giving a new look to boring old stairs. With differently colored wooden planks on the wall, it is giving a unique concept to the hallway. 

The white railing is looking good and providing the much needed touch of light color against the dark wall and dark colored steps. The lamp is tastefully installed at the right place so the wood can bathe in the warm glow of light as the evening draws near.

Try Multi Directional Slats

Check out these slats going in all directions. Different and stylish, they look amazing and also give you enough space to place an occasional book between the spaces. Plain slats might start looking boring after a while. These multidirectional slats give a space where your eyes can focus.

You can try different patterns in this slat wall. A single color wall will start looking boring after a while so you can add paint to it or even a burnt look. Placing a house plant will also liven up the room.

Time the Wood Wall Right

Even though the time is right there on your phone and you’ve probably stopped wearing a wristwatch, clocks still look fashionable, especially if you’re decorating a wall for your home office and want times for three different time zones.

This tastefully decorated wooden slat wall has a black frame in which the clocks are arranged. The shelf on the frame is holding a house plant, adding greenery to the room. And of course, there are strategically placed chairs and a desk where you can sit and work while keeping an eye on the time – thanks to the clock on the wall.

Try the Stylish Teal Color

There are only a few colors that are stylish, timeless, and go with just about anything. Teal is one of them. Check out how it’s perfectly going with a raw exposed beam ceiling. Instead of one accent wall, you can get two walls of the same color and the other two of different colors.

This room is plain teal colored and yet looking beautiful. If you’re looking for some color ideas for a wooden wall, teal is a good choice.

Get a Wood Accent Wall with Space for Art

This wall is covered in wood except for a certain area that’s reserved only for art. The pictures are aesthetically arranged in the space. It’s sure to be an attention grabber. The space in the wooden paneling can be used to hang photo frames as well.

The red color used in art is blending perfectly with the reddish brown wood on the wall. A great idea for any living room.

Wood is Always In

No matter what century it is, wood will always look beautiful. The only problem with wood is that it’s not eco-friendly. If you care about trees but also want a wooden accent wall, you can get upcycled wood that’s available for cheap. This way, you can get a stylish rustic looking wall and save money too!