The walls of your home already do a lot for you. They keep out the weather, they allow you to live your life privately and they give you space to hang, attach and store all kinds of stuff. Thanks, walls – you rule!
So, if you’ve decided your walls could do more to live up to their fullest potential, we’re here for it! Refreshing your walls with wall decor ideas that make you happy and give your home a pleasant vibe is a great way to improve your quality of life. You might be bringing the air alive with plants, feeling the love with treasured photos of family and friends or even declaring your space a fan zone with wall decals of your favorite teams and characters.
Let’s get to it! We present 10 awesome wall decor ideas for fun and practical walls you’ll love.
Explore All Wall Decals from Fathead1. Add Some Life with an Accented Wall
An accent wall is a single wall with colors and/or patterns that make it highly distinct from the rest of the room. Typically, an accent wall will use its distinctive quality to showcase particular decorative elements that set the space’s tone.
Accent walls are great because they use core principles of decorating, such as contrast and focal points, in a simple but highly effective way. When dreaming up your accent wall, start by identifying the color or pattern that will be unique to this wall. It should offer some contrast with the rest of the room’s palette while using complementary colors that offset without clashing. Then you can start adding additional elements that fit your decor schemes, such as photographs, prints, wall hangings or anything else you fancy.
To make your wall stand out more, it’s usually a good idea to choose more subdued neutral colors for the surrounding walls. If you have an exposed brick wall in your home, or you’re down to take on the project of creating one, exposed brick looks great for accent walls! You can even apply peel and stick wallpaper to one wall to create an accent wall quickly and easily.
Shop All Peel and Stick Wallpaper2. Create a Gallery Wall
Gallery walls position many smaller decorative elements, such as paintings, photographs, postcards and other favorite items on a single wall. They’re great for decorators who find themselves with many different small items. Often, you’ll be surprised at how easily you can bring a theme together from different elements through clever arrangement.
A great way to start assembling your gallery wall is to decide on a theme, such as family photos, art prints, sports teams or nature. Use complementary colors to place pieces together that offset each other in a pleasant way, or go with black and white wall decor for classic monochrome elegance.
When it comes to positioning, most experts recommend two to three inches between each piece. To get a good position for each piece on a gallery wall, create a layout before starting to hang them. Use tape and/or light pencil marks to establish where you want everything to go, and don’t be afraid to reset if something isn’t working. For more tips on crafting a stunning gallery wall, see Fathead’s guide on how to create a gallery wall.
3. Paint or Hang a Mural
A mural is a single large image, often a painting but sometimes a photo, that goes directly onto your wall. The large image provides a grounding point for a room’s decor that looks seriously striking.
There are several different ways to approach a mural. First is painting directly onto the wall. If you’re artistically inclined, this can be an amazing opportunity to express your creativity and give your place the exact vibe you’re seeking. Hiring a local artist to paint a mural on your wall is also a great option if you know someone with a style you like.
However, for many people, painting directly onto the wall isn’t feasible, whether that’s because they rent their home or they don’t want to have to cover it up later. Instead, consider getting a peel and stick mural to give you a large and vivid image that can be easily removed if necessary. Fathead offers peel and stick murals with a huge variety of designs, from popular movies and shows to custom murals of your favorite photographs and designs.
4. Add a Touch of Nature with Wall Plants
There’s just something that hits different about decorating your wall with actual living things, and that’s why plants are so great. Indoor plants can have all kinds of positive effects, from boosting mood to improving indoor air quality.
Certain plants are especially good for wall decor, particularly trailing plants such as the hardy and popular pothos plant. Macrame hangers are a popular choice for hanging plants against a wall, and wall-mounted planters are great for creating an arrangement of multiple plants at once. Committed gardeners can even choose one of the modular plant wall units available, many of which include useful features like self-watering systems.
Of course, as you probably realize, placement is everything when dealing with plants. Make sure that the plants on your wall are suited to the amount of sunlight that the wall gets, and read up on any other special needs specific species may have. Remember also that each plant will need space to grow, so build some room into how you position the plants.
5. Hang a few Mirrors
Mirrors are among the best wall decor ideas for adding a sense of depth and multi-dimensionality to a room. They trick the human eye into subconsciously perceiving the room as larger and roomier than it is, which means that mirrors are also an excellent choice for those working to make a small space seem bigger.
Home decoration with mirrors can go in many different directions. Some people like a single large mirror as a centerpiece that can provide serious spaciousness. Others prefer one smaller mirror incorporated as an element of a gallery wall or other decorative assemblage. Still others like to go all-in with a full gallery wall of mirrors, an especially good option for those who enjoy collecting interesting mirrors.
Try to pair the mirror with its setting. For example, a long, skinny mirror will often look best in a longer rectangular room. Small mirrors are typically best for small walls. If you like using feng shui principles in your home, know that feng shui has a whole additional set of rules about where mirrors should and shouldn’t be placed, including not placing them across from your front door.
6. Make it Functional and Fun!
Sometimes, you need wall decor ideas that go beyond the decorative but still look good. If that’s the case, try adorning your wall with some of our wall-safe, easy-applying functional wall decor.
For those whose life is a constant whirl of deadlines and appointments (we feel you), a dry erase wall calendar decal might be just the thing you need to help tame the tornado of time. Or, if you need a quick workstation for organizing your thoughts and creating to-do lists, try a whiteboard wall sticker. Working toward an ambitious sales goal for the month? Use a goal tracking chart to help you stay committed to the dream.
Browse Our Entire Dry Erase Wall Decal CollectionThese pieces work well as home office wall decor ideas so that you can (for example) get up and jot down an important date on your dry erase wall calendar as soon as you get an email about it. But they can also work in other areas of your home, such as a kitchen, hobby space or any other area where you find yourself needing to keep track of tasks and progress.
7. Make it a Sports Shrine
If you’re the type to wear your team colors on your sleeve, why not put them on the wall, too? Creating a theme wall for your favorite team or sport is an excellent way to add a personal touch to your wall and display your allegiance to the team you love.
A sports wall is a particularly popular choice for decorating a basement, man cave or media room. These make great places to combine your sports wall with a bar, a home theater system or anything else that’s part of the game-day experience. But they can look great elsewhere, too, and Fathead’s sports peel and stick wallpaper with team logos is a great choice for turning any space into a place where fans rule.
As with many other types of wall decor, a centerpiece is a great way to give a sports wall character and weight. Choose something that sets your wall apart, such as a life-sized standouts of your favorite player, a framed jersey or a photo decal of your team’s field. Then, add in surrounding elements that complement it, such as prints, framed newspapers, smaller sports wall decals or other memorabilia.
8. Add some Coat Hooks
Hooks are an incredibly practical addition to your wall. Though they might not strictly qualify as a decor choice, they definitely add a homey dimension to your space. And perhaps more importantly, they help minimize the clutter that can accumulate in other parts of your home when jackets, hats, purses and jewelry pile up in places they don’t belong.
You don’t have to go with the traditional single row of coat hooks, either. Mounting coat hooks in a staggered configuration can produce a uniquely modern look, so long as you remember to place enough room between them. And if you really like the eclectic and bohemian look, try using a selection of different coat hook styles to change things up and introduce some unpredictability.
9. Mount a Wall Television
Mounting your TV directly onto the wall is an extremely popular decorative option that can free up space and create a ready-made centerpiece for your wall. It’s a great setup for sports enthusiasts, video game lovers and anyone who generally uses their TV as a centerpiece of social gatherings or everyday life.
Many people who mount their televisions consider the wall finished, and the sleek black rectangle on the wall can look awesome if minimalism is what you’re going for. But others like to incorporate additional elements to flank the TV and provide contrast. Look through our guide to creating the perfect TV wall for suggestions on selecting the right TV wall decor.
Be aware that mounting your TV can be a tricky task if you’re not a DIY pro, so don’t hesitate to throw a little money to a professional installer for a cleaner and safer mounting job. Remember also that you’ll probably want to figure out a way to hide the cords before mounting the TV, so plan in advance to either put them in the wall or use a cord organizer. Finally, ensure that the mounting brackets you choose are rated for the weight of the TV and that they can be securely screwed into a wall stud.
10. Create some Decorative Bike Storage
If you live the bike life, you’re probably tired of having to find floor space for your bicycle, especially if you have to store it inside your home. So why not use your wall to store your bicycle and display it proudly at the same time? You can get a great wall decoration and conserve space while you’re at it!
The hardware required to hang a bicycle on a wall is fairly simple and usually just consists of a few durable hooks. But this project comes with a similar set of caveats as TV mounting: namely, making sure that your bicycle is firmly attached to wall studs and that you’re using an appropriately rated set of brackets. And since you’ll likely be removing the bike fairly often, pay attention to the ergonomics of how you’ll get it down off the wall without knocking a bunch of things over.
Fathead is the passionate person’s premier spot for hip and functional wall pieces. For more exciting wall decor ideas to get you inspired, see our six favorite multipurpose room ideas and top 10 basement decor ideas. And when it’s time to shop for the wall decor of your dreams, start with Fathead’s full selection of wall decals and more.
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