The walls were originally a dark faux walnut paneling. We washed the walls, primed and painted them with Behr paint in a light blue. We then did a technique I call "smooshed" - the easiest paint technique I have seen and I really like the effect.
To smoosh a wall, use flat or eggshell paint for the first layer. Then mix a glaze - we used one gallon of Behr glaze to one pint of color. Our glaze color was a blue a few shades darker than the light blue base color.
Paint the wall with the glaze - be sure to get all the edges at the top and bottom, but do not do wider than you need at once. Take a large sheet of thin plastic - we used disposable plastic table cloths that come on large rolls. They are 8x4 feet, so perfect for our 7'4" tall walls.
Get a tall person to hold the top two corners of the plastic and a short person to hold the bottom corners behind the tall person. The tall person slaps the plastic against the wall, and both smoosh the plastic into teh glaze. Then peel the plastic off, wad it up with the wet sides together and throw it away.
It took us about 3 hours to smoosh a large room about 28x16 feet, irregular shaped with extra alcoves. When we washed the walls in the smaller dining room, it took us 8 hours and we were worn out.
With a tone on tone, smooshing is very subtle. Ours looks sort of marbled effect. I experimented with different colors and the combination - light on dark, dark on light, contrasting colors - make a huge difference in the final effect.
