The information in this article applies to:
QUESTION
I want to change the color of a single wall in my room to create an accent wall. How can I change the color of just a single wall?

ANSWER
An individual wall's material can be adjusted using either the Wall Specification dialog or the Material Painter tool.
To change the material of a single wall using the Wall Specification dialog
- Select the wall you'd like to change the material of, and then select the Open Object
edit button.
- In the Wall Specification dialog that appears, select the Materials panel.

- Click on either the Interior or Exterior Wall Surface component, and click on the Select Material button.
- In the Select Material dialog, choose your desired material and then click OK.
- Click OK once again to close out of the Wall Specification dialog and to confirm the change.
- Take a camera view to see the results. For example: 3D> Create Perspective View> Perspective Floor Overview
.
To change the material of a single wall using the Material Painter
- Select View> Library Browser
to display the Library Browser.
-
Select 3D> Create Perspective View> Perspective Floor Overview
so that you can see the wall you wish to apply a material to.
- Select 3D> Material Painter> Material Painter Component Mode
to make sure the material painter is currently using the component mode.
There are five Material Painter Modes. Each mode specifies how broadly or narrowly the selected material will be applied to surfaces in your plan. In addition to the Material Painter Modes, the Blend Colors With Materials option allows you to apply a solid color to a surface displaying a pattern or texture and blend the two. Please see the Related Articles section below for more information on these tools.
- In the Library Browser, search for the color or material you wish to apply to a single wall, select it, and then bring your cursor into the 3D view to see it has changed to the material painter
.
- Click on a wall to apply the selected color or material to that wall.
In some cases, such as when an exterior wall runs the length of several rooms, you may not want to change the material of the spanning wall, or you may want to apply different colors to several different sections of the same wall to create a striped effect. You can use Wall Breaks to accomplish both of these tasks.

If you are in a 3D camera view, return to your 2D floor plan view for the following steps.
To change the material of a section of wall vertically
To apply a different color or material to a section of a given wall, wall breaks will need to be placed on either side of the section that we want to change.
- To break the wall into segments select the wall you want to modify and then select the Break
tool in the edit toolbar.
In X11 and prior program versions, use the Break Wall
tool to place break points along a wall.
-
After you have placed the break points on the wall for separate wall sections, use the instructions above to change the material on just that section of the wall.

Another solution would be to draw a Wall Material Region in the area that you want to display differently, though this adds more than just a color to the pre-existing wall surface, and is better suited for facade walls. See the Related Articles section below for information on Material Regions.