Dining Room Accent Wall {Paint}

Remember in my last dining room blog post I asked for opinions on what to do with this wall?

Well, I then started looking at sample paint colors on Sherwin Williams’ website, and they have this neat feature where you can upload one of your photos, and “paint” the wall a color so you can get an idea of what it would look like in YOUR space. So I uploaded the above picture and I must have tried 20+ colors in shades of blue, gray, beige, taupe and nothing was really wowing me. That is until Black Fox. Here’s what it looked like when I put Black Fox on the wall:

Lush. Crisp. Dark. And no I am not talking about the werewolf from Twilight…

Though I guess lush, crisp and dark works for him, too.

Yeah, definitely.

But anyway. Back to the paint. Black Fox looked good (hypothetically) to me. It made my cabinets pop. Really pop. Which I like. Plus it adds a sense of balance to a otherwise very white/beige room. I googled the paint color, and I found this gorgeous dining room painted entirely in Black Fox.

Credit: Bovagoods

And I was even MORE convinced that it was the perfect shade of dark gray/brown for the room. So, DH and I went to Sherwin Williams on Sunday and picked up a gallon of urbane bronze paint.

I know. What happened to Black Fox? Well, DH liked urbane bronze better and since they were so close to being the same color, I went with it.

I cut in the walls and borders of the cabinets, and I kind of liked the color. Then I did one coat, and it was streaky. Then I did another until finally I had a solid urbane bronze colored wall:

I still hadn’t done the 2nd coat yet, so ignore the streaks at the top.

How the room looks at night.

I like it. I think. I knew with the Rustoleum cabinet kit that I hated the paint and stopped. With this wall, I kept going because I am thinking it’ll look good once I finish the whole room. I think.

Maybe?

It’s dark. Really dark. I’d describe it as chocolate brown mixed with dark grey. I don’t think I had good light when I took those photos, so I’m sure you’re looking at my pics saying, “That is BLACK.” I promise it’s not.

How do you know when/if you love a paint color? Is it instant or do you live with it for awhile and decide? It’s growing on me day-by-day, but I’ll make the final determination when the whole room is put together, hopefully by the end of summer.

But, I still need your help because I am indecisive. Should I leave the wall as is (urbane bronze colored) OR leave it as is and add a lovely damask pattern (in metallic) over it for a nice, chic wallpaper look?

Credit: Royal Design Stencils

Credit: Cutting Edge Stencils

Also, now that I have a dark wall, what color curtains should I get for the opposing wall:

I was thinking these very affordable, very luxe white grommet curtains from Curtainworks (I’d get them in the 95-inch length):

I love these from Ballard Designs, but at $180 a panel (yes, really)…um, no.

There is, however, a sorta similar cheap knockoff at Wal-Mart that I’d like in the vanilla color (sadly, they only come in 84-inch length):

Well, what do you think? Which curtains should I get? Are there any other you’ve seen that would be affordable and great for my space? Does the length matter?