How To Decorate A TV Wall
Televisions play a significant role in our lives these days. Whether you're watching movies and streaming the newest hit show, or working from home and using your television for presentations, you can do a lot with that not-so-small screen on your wall. Smart TVs let you do a lot with that screen, but they've gotten bigger to take on all those extra tasks. That makes decorating around them a bit of a challenge.
Whether you're mounting a television on your wall or setting it on a shelf or cabinet, you have to consider the TV itself when choosing how to decorate the space around it. You can go big and bold or add a collection of small but carefully curated items. Use all of the room or just a small amount. The possibilities are really only limited by your imagination. If you want to freshen up the area around your TV, Just a Girl and Her Blog recommends removing everything from your shelves and carefully selecting what to put back on to start. Plan your color and content, then add items to fill empty spaces until you create the look you want. Or just use the following ideas to spark your creativity.
Use built-ins
Built-in units are a great place to put that large, flat-screen. You can mount your TV in one or just set it on one of the shelves. The built-in nature of these units gives the wall you're decorating structure that you can build upon. It takes a little of the work out of your hands right from the beginning.
Varying heights and sizes give this type of display depth, but you'll still need to carefully consider the best way to decorate them. If you have things on the shelves already, you should clear them off to prevent tunnel vision while redesigning. But what if you're starting from scratch? Do you need to spend a bunch of money buying accessories to fill these spaces? According to The DIY Playbook, you don't. You can shop your home for items you already have that will complement your built-in TV shelves. You can use books, vases, plants, frames, and anything else you have around the house. Maybe where you have them now is too crowded. Or perhaps you just want them someplace you can see them more often. Play with the height, texture, and style of your selections.
Show your true colors
Make the wall behind your TV an accent wall. While there are a lot of colors you can use, some work better than others. Flat black might be a bit much all on its own. According to Sharper Impressions Painting, dark greens or blues are particularly pleasing and keep your TV from disappearing into the background. Vibrant teals can create a lovely bespoke look if you aren't ready for a nearly black tone. And if that's still too much for you, you could go with neutral tones. Tans and grays are excellent neutral colors for decorating a TV wall, along with olive and beige. These colors blend well with the black and gray tones that your flat-screen TV is most likely to come in. And they work well if you want the TV to stand out against the backdrop rather than blend in.
Of course, if you're not afraid of using bright colors in your space, these can also help create a lovely contrast between your TV and your wall. This can be a fun way to go if you want to create a vibrant space. If you like decorating with more vibrant colors, some fantastic selections include aquas, purples, and yellows.
Build a multipurpose bookshelf
This idea is similar to using a built-in, but it will take a little extra time and effort to build or install the shelves yourself. The benefit to this is you can use the materials, style, and design you like best. Use wood, metal, marble, or a combination of them all. Pick colors that complement those on your wall or ones that stand out and call attention to their presence. One of the great things about building your own bookshelves is that they can be custom designed to suit multiple purposes. Home Design Lover suggests creating a version that's part table, part bookshelf, and part window seat or chair. This is a fantastic way to add extra space to small rooms or apartments.
And your shelves don't have to be filled with books, per se. Few things are lovelier than accenting your digital wall space than with non-digital keepsakes. These sentimental pieces are throwbacks to an earlier time. Or perhaps fill it with novels that inspired your favorite shows and movies or screenplays from your favorite films. You can also fill this space with accessories if you're not a reader. Driven by Décor recommends pairing tall, thin items with smaller accessories or grouping a large object and a decorative box with a small decoration on top. Framed prints and baskets also make lovely additions to these shelves, either in place of books or alongside them.
Let your furniture set the scene
Or steal the scene, as the case may be. Furniture serves multiple purposes in this space. Not only can it help you decorate a TV wall, but it can also help store some of the required extra equipment TVs need nowadays. You can stream without cable, but you'll still need a router for your internet connection. And flat screens don't produce the kind of sound we've grown to know and love. If you aren't mounting your soundbar on the wall, it can make a statement on a cabinet beneath the main event.
According to HGTV, when decorating a new home it's a good idea to not buy everything at once. Using furniture to decorate a TV wall accomplishes this goal, with the added bonus of keeping your room from looking cluttered. This also balances function and fashion, which Modsy recommends when decorating a living room (the space where your TV is likeliest to be). They also suggest choosing furniture that serves multiple purposes since we use our living rooms for many things. With so many people working from home, living rooms do extra duty, making multi-purpose furnishings even more essential.
Use mixed media
Mixing up the type of artwork on your TV wall can really make a difference in how the wall looks to you and all the guests who come into your home. Mixed media is a style of artwork using more than one medium, or base material, with another. You could choose pieces in this style or simply select art, photos, framed pressed flowers, and different frame styles, shapes, and colors. The TV can serve as your centerpiece for this display, a move that Modernize recommends. Choosing complementary colors also works well in this type of display, as does creating a visual balance that draws the eye to specific sections of the TV wall.
When selecting wall art in this style, there are some things to keep in mind. eInteriors Design suggests pairing charcoal sketches with watercolors in vibrant shades to make the wall more visually interesting. Design your room to scale, and be careful not to overdo it by hanging up too many pieces or mixing too many different types of artwork. You can choose to group your artwork by color, texture, style, or subject matter. However, the mediums used to create them should be different for this type of display to be successful.
Blend in with abstract art
Create a custom backdrop for your flat screen. If you use black in your design and position the television in front of it, it will blend right into the background. This allows you to decorate the rest of the wall any way you want to, or not at all. You could also choose just to hang abstract art on your TV wall. One King's Lane has several suggestions for making this style work. They recommend having a focal point, which is where the TV comes in. You can then flank the TV with abstract art, which works well in pairs. Or you could combine modern and traditional art.
On the other hand, King and McGraw recommends decorating with either a single abstract print or an extensive collection of works assembled on the wall around the TV. What type of abstract art you choose can also help set the mood, depending on what room your TV wall is located in. They are traditionally in living rooms but smudged, fluid lines can add a sense of calm if your TV wall is in the bedroom. Ideelart reminds us to consider things like the amount of light in the room with your TV wall if you choose abstract paintings. Raw canvas can fade over time due to exposure to natural light.
One final piece of advice when selecting abstract art is to be unconventional. Don't choose the same things you would if you were buying more traditional options. Step outside your comfort zone.
Accessorize with carefully curated collections
When accessorizing your TV wall, don't be afraid to think outside the box. While frames and trinkets are always beautiful choices when it comes to decorating, greenery can be a less common and perhaps even lovelier way to go. You can use live or artificial plants, as well as dried arrangements. Whether arranged in pots, vases, or other display pieces you've collected over the years, plants will soften the look of the room, according to The Spruce. You could even decorate the area around your TV with a collection of hand-tied bouquets if you're into DIY. Or, you could tie together dried stems like eucalyptus and hang them on the wall beside your TV.
Placing potted palms to either side of a wall-mounted TV also makes a lovely statement. Or you could hang a shelf on your wall and decorate it with small, potted plants. If you don't have a green thumb, artificial plants work just as well, and they look more realistic all the time. And surrounding your black or gray TV with vibrantly colored plants or flowers will bring vitality to your display.
Light up the night with LEDs
Your TV is already high-tech. Why not your walls? Little Piece of Me explains that LED lighting is a global trend on the rise because of the increased efficiency and longer service life than standard bulbs. And it doesn't hurt that specialty LED lighting helps to accentuate focal points and also set the mood. According to Rolling Stone, you've likely already seen some LED art panels if you've spent any time on Twitch or gamer channels on YouTube recently. The panels they recommend come in different shapes, ranging from triangular to hexagonal. You can craft them into all kinds of different designs to suit your décor or mood. They'll even give you some tips on what to look for and where to find them.
If you don't like these panels, you can also make your own. YouTube videos abound that will teach you how to create LED panels that are particularly useful in areas with TVs. If you're already there watching gaming channels, why not search for a video or two on how to make your own? If DIY isn't your thing, you can always have custom models built for you as well. Or, you could choose white or colored panels from Light Panel. And many of these units — homemade or not — change color. This helps with your TV viewing experience and also has the power to influence your mood. Color therapy, anyone?
Choose a screen that fits the scene
If that big black box still isn't something you want to look at, Apartment Therapy has a solution you will love. The Frame TV by Samsung got its name because it literally looks like a frame you would hang up on your wall. And unlike traditional TVs, it sits flush against the wall with a translucent cord that won't show. While the standard frame is black, you can buy bezels that attach magnetically and resemble teak, white, brown, brick red, and beveled white. Samsung lists its available sizes as 32 to 85 inches. Better yet, when you're not watching TV, The Frame displays artwork of your choice from a selection provided by the company. And if you don't like their choices, you can always upload your own photos to show instead. Additionally, it's a smart TV that senses when you are not in the room and automatically turns itself off.
While Samsung is undoubtedly the leader in this television style, Popular Mechanics points out that LG and Sony both make models that double as artwork, though without the customizable frame bezel options.
Go bold
There are a few ways you can pull off this stunning design technique. The first is adding splashes of gold to your living room décor. Since most TVs are gray or black, gold will typically pair nicely with your screen. But bold colors also work wonders when you decorate a TV wall. Fortunately, gold and other bold colors also look lovely when used together in a space, meaning you can go as vibrant or as demure as you choose.
Of course, gold isn't the only metallic that works well for a TV wall. Brass and copper couple beautifully with pinks, while silver serves as a wonderful complement to blues, particularly the darker shades. This could serve the dual purpose of helping your TV blend in with the wall while still calling attention to it with the metallic accents. If you have built-ins that you are using for your display, you could even use gold as a background color to create a two-tone shelf, as seen in The Spruce. This gives even more depth to your built-in shelves. And your TV wall will genuinely make a statement this way.
Build a gallery wall around your TV
While you don't need a TV to create a gallery wall, a TV wall happens to be a fantastic place to build one. This way, you can make your TV a part of the display. This works exceptionally well if you've chosen one of the frame-type flat TVs that mounts on the wall and displays digital art when you're not watching TV. But even if you don't, most TVs are as large as art prints now, and technology has created some TVs with artistic lines that will feel right at home here.
As Better Homes & Gardens points out, your gallery wall needs an anchor. Ideally, this should be the TV. To create cohesion in the rest of your gallery, use prints and photos that have a theme or choose similar frames, mat colors, and sizes. A wide white mat paired with a sleek black frame will complement the TV nicely. Whatever color and styles you choose, sticking to one is the best idea. As A Blissful Nest reminds us, less is more when decorating around a TV. Light or neutral colors will help make the TV stand out. You should plan where you'll hang your pictures and stagger them appropriately around the screen. Just remember, the TV won't always have a black screen, so coordinate your colors accordingly.
Go unadorned
Decide not to decide what goes on your TV wall by leaving the space bare of decorations. You can use big, bold prints and eclectic designs to enliven the walls to either side of your TV wall but let that screen be the star of the show in that particular place. Don't make it share the spotlight.
An easy way to do this is by painting the wall a simple color, like gray or tan. You can also leave the wall white and just hang the TV up. In examples provided by Apartment Therapy, one thing that makes a difference with this minimalist decorating style is whether you have large windows or noteworthy architectural details. In fact, if you have either of these features in your living room or in the same room as your TV wall, leaving the wall bare might be your best bet. Leaving the wall bare allows the eye to be drawn to other items, which in this case is your TV.
Use wood to create an accent wall
Wood walls are having a bit of a moment right now. We're not talking about that old wood paneling you still sometimes find in older houses, although there are great things you can do with that, too. We are referring to reclaimed wood and upscale planks that really make a wall stand out. These are a fantastic choice for lining the wall behind your TV since the contrast between natural wood and digital equipment is striking.
Paneling your TV wall with wood makes the room feel warm and comfortable. Signature Woods suggests using reclaimed wood and wide planks to create an accent wall that draws the eyes to the area where your TV is located. This works particularly well if you have mounted the TV over a fireplace, as the wood serves as a lovely complement to it. Plywood Express recommends using high-end wood planks in the bedroom to elevate the space. You can use them to make the room feel cozier and serve as a backdrop for your TV. Dark-colored wood works best in this type of environment.
Wrap it up
Wallpaper might seem like a dated idea, but have you seen the type of wallpaper that's available these days? You could easily use any one of these options from Hygge & West to create a stunning backdrop for your TV wall. Some of the more creative prints are probably best for pairing with just your TV and not additional artwork as well. With options that replicate works of art worthy of museums all over the world, you're likely to find you don't need anything else on that wall.
Another creative way to use wallpaper is to decorate the space on either side of the TV wall with wallpaper. Woodstock Walls recommends pairing wallpaper with wood flooring. This will work whether you are doing an accent wall or covering the whole room in wallpaper. Light-colored papers typically work best with light-colored wood, but you can opt for brighter shades and patterns if your flooring is darker. Blues and neutrals make lovely choices for the bedroom, but you can choose any color you like. Just plan a color theme and stick to it. As with all things, be careful not to overdecorate. If you have busy flooring, you should use a simple pattern for the wall. If your flooring is simple, you can choose to go bold if this fits with your unique tastes.