I'm thinking stripes.

I have been torn thinking about all the million different paint color choices we could have in our new home, and especially torn about which color to choose for our kitchen/dining room.  Our house has a very open layout, so I'm struggling with how to paint different colors without breaking up the rooms.  One solution I came up with is to paint stripes on ONE accent wall in the dining room.  Then we would carry one of the colors from the stripes into the kitchen, above the cabinets. 

One idea with the stripes is to do vertical stripes, such as this:

(Picture courtesy of Eastcoastbride from TheNest)
She used two different colors of paint, just a couple shades lighter/darker.  She did stripes throughout the entire room, which I won't do, but I love the look of these stripes and I think it would look awesome on the accent wall.

Another idea is to do horizontal stripes, with different colors.


(Photos courtesy of Mamabear7 from TheNest)
So, I really like how she took one of those colors from the stripes and painted the rest of the room that way.  However, since the wall that I'm doing is so long, I'm wondering if vertical stripes would be better than horizontal.

The last thought I had was to do "sheen" stripes, which means that it's the same paint color on the stripes, however you would use 2 different types of paint, such as a flat paint for half the stripes, then a glossy paint type for the others, while still using the same color.  Confusing, right?  But it gives it the look that it is 2 different colors, even though it's not.  Here's a pic of that:


(Sorry about the crappy picture, it's all I could find.)

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Any suggestions on a paint color?  I have red/black countertop appliances (ie: kitchenaid mixer, knife set, canister set, toaster, etc) - and the appliances that are in the home are white, such as the fridge, oven/stove, and microwave.

Your thoughts?