Unique Use for Paint

This weekend I saw a commercial for Home Depot paint.  Usually we blaze through commercials and can barely handle watching them, but this one caught my eye, even made me rewind it twice.  It wasn't the paint they were marketing, but one of the pictures of a finished product that made me look again.  It was a bright red wall with white trim, but the person who painted it (or commercial producer that made the call, whatever the case may be) decided to add a strip of blue tape a few inches in from the outside of the wall creating a beautifully stark contrast with the red paint.  Almost like a simple picture frame around the plain red wall.  This image is the best example I could find since I couldn't get a screencapture of the commercial.  Imagine this, but in a brilliant red and nothing in the center of the frame, although I do like how they've utilized this paint combination to showcase the mirror and bed.  (Image from Decor Pad)

The commercial got me thinking about how to use paint and think outside the box for decorating.  And at the same time, save myself some money!  So often I tell myself that I need to fill up every wall with a piece of art.  I've attempted to do this in our home, but it can get expensive.  (The custom framing alone, uffda!)  To that end, I've considered installing a chair rail in our 3rd bedroom and painting the lower portion of the walls one color, the top, another.  (I actually mean I've considered asking Josh to install one, I don't think I could handle something so...mathematical!)  Something similar to this image (from In Colors) but more vibrant, more contrast. 

I've also considered painting the room one color, then painting a thick band or stripe all the way around the room in a different color.  I think would look particularly sharp, but the more I look around at what interior designers are doing right now, the more I think it really would look cleaner (and more minimal which I'm striving more for in my decor taste) with white as the main color.  Something like this for example (from Colour Me Happy). 

If you look on the left, the tall rectangle of green creates a beautiful frame for the artwork that's hung there as well as highlighting the height of the ceiling!  Two birds, one stone.   Both my previous ideas I think are still worth considering, but this was an even simpler idea requiring only painting with one color, and could be even better looking in the end, who knows?  

Another twist on painting I found was this (from BHG).  An interesting use of multiple colors, using the white border to differentiate them.  Not sure if it would serve to make the space look smaller or larger, but I liked it. 
And here is my favorite, super creative use of paint to create a unique effect in a room!  This image (and tutorial and PDF templates too on their website) are from Martha Stewart home.  Not usually my style but this is amazing, simple but elegant and I love it.  I'm thinking it's from the archives of Blueprint Magazine (I miss that magazine).   

If you click through, it has the tutorial and even a PDF template to how to create this yourself.  Its essentially just an organic edge someone created that repeats in a pattern that you either trace on your wall and hand-paint or create a stencil out of and paint with.  Truly innovative (to use the favored Project Runway term), someday I'd like to give this a shot, I'll let you know if I do and how it turns out.