Accent on Modern Walls

Sometimes it's the accent that carries the whole presentation.

For instance, on Eichler exteriors, earthy brown and gray paint tones are often turned from sleep inducing to stimulating by the contrast of a colorful front door.

Similarly, inside the home an accent wall can bring a sense of liveliness and warmth to a room's décor, especially for interiors in which the original wall paneling has been whitewashed, ruined, or removed.

So says CA-Modern magazine home improvement editor Tanja Kern in her latest feature, 'Walls That Sing,' in the new Fall '18 CA-Modern.

"A pop of texture, color, or new wood paneling, added to a single wall in a room, can bring a white interior back to life and restore some of the home's lost original look and feel," she says.

For her peppy, informative story, Kern interviewed numerous experts, and reviewed a host of interior paneling products before offering profiles of ten that pass her modern muster. She concedes that such materials may be the only paths if your home's original walls have been painted over or have not received adequate care through the years.

"The ideal choice is to be able to restore the [mahogany paneling] originals, but that's not always an option," Kern says. Though the story highlights a few types of panels as particularly cost effective or environmentally sustainable, she admits that it's hard to improve on the original.

"If the [original] paneling is salvageable, then cleaning, sanding, and a light coat of urethane is probably the cheapest option," she said of unpainted wood panels found in many Eichlers. Likewise, she said with a laugh, "I kind of think restoration is the greenest option too!"

Kern said her biggest surprise in researching the story was the unavailability of the lauan panels originally used in Eichlers, also known as Philippine mahogany because it's dark hue resembles that wood.