Walls that wow are becoming the norm in homes. Every time I turn around, there’s a new faux finishing technique, fabulous wallpaper pattern or new material being used on the walls, making the walls more of a focal point than ever. If you decide to create a beautiful detailed piece of art on your walls, though, like a gorgeous mural, be careful to keep your furnishings and accessories from competing with the wall for attention. In an over the top wall finish that has a bold pattern or scene, you want to keep your furnishings in smaller or simpler patterns, solids or textures so you don’t overload your eye with too much stimulation. For example, if you have a beautiful mural on one entire wall of a room as the focal point and then add a significant amount of a large bold or really busy pattern to upholstered furnishings and window treatments, the room will become uncomfortable to remain in for any length of time. While you’re in the room, your eye will be constantly moving back and forth from the bold patterned areas to the mural, causing discomfort and tension.

Murals, though, are a fabulous way to add a unique look to your room and I especially love the murals that are painted to reflect your personal style or personality. If you had a mural painted on the ceiling in a tall hallway or entrance of your home, have the muralist depict a scene that relates to your personal likes and the design style of the home. For example, if you love riding horses with your family in the country, you could have a rural scene with horseback riders who look similar to your family members riding through a beautiful pastoral setting. Or if you like spending time outdoors having a picnic or sitting by a lake, then depict that type of scene on your wall. And if you’re painting a child’s room, have the character in the mural resemble your own child.

Wallpaper has also become a great way to add not only color and pattern to a wall, but also texture in some styles. Just remember when you wallpaper, to size the wall first so the paper can be easily removed when you tire of it.

To see what’s hot this year in wall coverings, contact an interior designer or go online and look at the wall coverings rated as the best three brands for 2005. According to a poll conducted by House & Garden of the top designers in the U.S., the three top companies were Brunschwig & Fils, Osborne & Little and Hinson & Co.

Paint, however, is usually the least expensive wall covering. With so many choices, though, it can be overwhelming to decide on which type of painted wall you prefer. That’s where an interior designer can be a huge help narrowing down your choices.

With paint you can create a huge array of unique wall treatments. For example, you can have a faux leather look and feel in your office or library or a suede textured look in your master suite by adding sand to your paint. You could add a denim textured look to your kid’s play area or attach decorative items to your paint to create depth. As a designer for example, I have one bathroom, where I designed a star type motif and painted it randomly on the wall in a different color than the base coat. Then, I attached richly colored faux gemstones to each motif to create a rich three- dimensional effect in the room that was lighthearted and fun. Dining rooms and bathrooms are great places to have more unusual walls like the star motif that are dramatic, because you won’t be spending the majority of your time in these rooms.

Just remember, walls wrapped in luxurious color and pattern set the stage for a beautiful design! And with faux finishing, walls have become an art form. Walls can take on the appearance of old stone simply by applying torn paper or specialty paint techniques. To achieve the appearance of huge stacked stones in your room with paper, you can draw out a grid for your stone placement and then tear paper in the shape of huge rectangles and place them on the wall using your grid. This stone wall effect looks fabulous in a Tuscan style home, especially in a hall, stairwell, great room or master bath.

Faux marbled walls are another great look at a fraction of the cost of real marble. To create marbled walls with just paint techniques, you can start with a base coat of eggshell and then paint over it with a translucent glaze tinted with a paler shade of your color. Once you’ve glazed an area, dab the glaze with a lint free cloth and completely rub away glaze in some areas to reveal the eggshell base paint. After the glaze has set awhile, then very lightly brush the wall with a specialty brush to create a cloudy effect. Once you’ve established your base marble color, then you can begin to create the veins of the marble in a different color tinted glaze. Using a feather or sable brush, begin to draw the vein, meandering in a diagonal direction. Twist as you move, stopping to adding branching veins to give life to the marble. When you’ve finished a vein, dab the vein with a cloth, then brush with a specialty brush to soften and blend the vein into the background. A fabulous place to add a marbled look would be on a hallway, stairwell, pillar or bathroom.

You can also achieve a beautiful silky smooth textured wall that appears to be a solid stone by applying plaster with marble chips and polishing the wall smooth, creating a more realistic solid feel with a beautiful sheen. Faux travertine stone finishes can also be created with a texture that feels and looks similar to travertine.

One of my favorite faux finishes, though, is the finish we used in the room I designed at the Symphony Designer’s Showhouse. I wanted to create the aged look of an old Tuscan villa on the walls, so we plastered the walls and added layers of tinted glaze over the plaster. To create this beautiful aged look, we started with wet plaster and troweled it on the walls and ceiling with a spatula. The base color coat for this plaster can be added to the wet plaster or painted on after the plaster dries. In the designer showhouse, we sanded down the plaster to achieve the textured we desired once it was dry. Then, we tinted the glaze a darker shade of the same base color and used a lint free cloth to apply the glaze. Next, we repeated the process with a different tint of glaze, continuing until we achieved the look desired. The room went from sparse and cold to warm and inviting... The newly finished walls now envelope the room in a rich warm color that adds depth and character to the space, providing a beautiful Tuscan backdrop for the room’s design elements and accessories.

Another fun way to create depth on your walls is by whitewashing. To whitewash your walls, paint a bold hue of a bright color on the walls and let it dry. Then paint a coat of white paint over the bold hue and brush off with a short bristled stiff brush before white paint dries. The background color will start pushing through the white and give a wonderful sense of depth. You can also create depth under a bold hue by starting with a couple of coats of black first, then adding the bold hue on top. The black color underneath, if not overly coated with the bold hue, will give you a sense of depth under your bold hue.

Designer’s Eye column was written by Karen Mills of Interiors by Design, Inc. and host, Living Large.