accent walls: yea or nay?

I need some opinions here. I really want to paint a few rooms in our apartment, the only problem is that it says in our lease agreement that we may only paint one accent wall per room, or we get charged a pretty hefty repainting fee for each room. My question for you is: What do you think about accent walls? Are they outdated? Does it look like you are just too lazy/afraid to paint the whole room?
Any thoughts or suggestions are appreciated!