I’m no expert here. But to me, sometimes a room with deep colored accent walls (red, navy, etc) look a bit dated. I saw one the other day I liked that was a light sage accent wall with other walls off white.
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I like accent walls. Easy to change. Easy to play with. Adds a focus to rooms that have no other focal points ( i.e.views, special furniture, fireplace, etc.).
@BunsenBurner : “Cheap Flipper” to me also = grey and more grey, painted kitchen cabinets (grey of course), glass tile backsplash (in busy patterns of grey, white, black), Pedestal sink in a large bathroom (with no other storage space).
Apologies to those who have any of the above! 
If done well, all can be quite nice. I’ve just seen so many homes using the same vocabulary, that it is refreshing to find other options.
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Thats the thing with decorating. No matter how you decorate, there will be someone who doesn’t like it, thinks its dated, overused, etc. As long as you like it (and you are not looking to sell in the very near term), who cares?
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You should do it however you’d like. Especially if it’s just paint. You can always repaint it. When I bought my house, there was an accent wall (a full mural) painted in the master bedroom. I hated it. I felt so horrible for hating it, because at closing the former owner’s wife told me she hand painted it. It was literally the first thing I changed when I moved in.
That being said, I do have 2 accent walls that I painted in other rooms. Both are a dark blue. I know someone above thought dark colors look dated, but I think mine look pretty snazzy. I picked that color with a purpose in mind. The other walls in the room are white, and the trim is tan. On the one in my office, I have a huge 3.5ft x 5 ft sepia print of a beach photo hanging on it. There is a silver frame. Looks amazing with the whites and tan and blue, and there’s a gray couch right under it which plays right into the silver frame.
The other one is in my game room, and in front of it is a tv, speakers, bookshelves. Above the TV we have a landscape photo hanging from Niagara Falls, which shows them all lit up with blue lights. The colors of the falls look amazing against the blue accent wall. Both rooms have hardwood floors, and off white/ivory colored area rugs.
It took me going to about 50 different stores, but eventually I found curtains in the same exact color blue. We have them hanging in those rooms to help tie the blue in with its surroundings.
Those same blue walls would look horrible at, say, my parents house.
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H and I hit that point a while ago. 
It’s even harder now to consider replacing something that’s still functional and in good repair when I see delivery times of six months or longer on most of the furniture that interests me. Also, I often think of how that money could be put to better use.
As for accent walls, I still see them in a lot of new construction houses. We did them in several homes because it I knew it would be easier to persuade H to help paint if he knew when it was time to sell he’d only have to repaint one wall. In much of the new house, I’m going crazy with color on all of the walls. It likely won’t appeal to many others, but we have no intention of selling.
I haven’t read about shiny frames or mats being out. I still see quite a few metallic (mostly gold/brass tone) frames in various home magazines, but admit I haven’t noticed whether or not there are mats. I often use mats because I previously purchased large framed prints on clearance just to get the frame, then replaced the print and mat.
You know the fashion comment, if you wore the trend the last time it was popular, you might be too old for it the second time? I wonder if that applies to wallpaper?
Laurel Bern says accent walls better have a good reason, like a dark wall behind a TV or a boring bed wall in a boxy bedroom.
I added a simple horizontal white stripe to two adjacent walls in one of our bedrooms for interest and brightening. The opposite walls remain the original solid beige:
This project only took a day and some ceiling paint we already had, but it made a huge difference in the room. Paint gives the biggest bang for the buck and is easy to change as time and your tastes change. I agree that you should decorate for YOU, not to please anyone else.
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That looks super @ChoatieMom !
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I have never been a fan of the painted accent wall, particularly when it’s done in a shiny dark color and the rest of the walls are white. I’m also not a fan of wallpaper (although I’ve liked some styles that have one large design which was spaced out, so it looked more like the design was painted on a wall, versus a dizzying wallpaper print).
The beauty of interior design is that we can do it to our own tastes - it doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks, until we go to sell it. I have looked at homes to purchase that were wallpapered from top to bottom and have said “pass”. Too much work to remove.
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