Spice-up Your Bland Walls With These Wall Decor Ideas

We are nearing the onset of the festive season in India, starting with Raksha Bandhan, followed by Ganesh Chaturthi, then Navratri & Durga Puja, then Diwali and Bhai Dooj, Christmas and finally New Year. We all look forward to festivals because these are the times when we adorn ourselves with festive couture, give our homes a  make-over, indulge in culinary delicacies, celebrate with our families and loved ones and surprise them with gifts. This year though, it looks different. A major part of this year has been spent staying indoors, protecting ourselves against the Covid-19 virus. Through all the sombreness, every one of us is looking forward to bringing about change and newness, which the festivals bring. Though today we might be restrained, we still would not let anything hinder us from celebrating the upcoming festivals with the usual fervour. Let us use this time to muse on how we can refresh our homes, bring some happiness, and kindle the festive spirit. 

Let’s start from the elements which demarcate our place – “The Walls”. Most of us have spent the last few months staring at the walls of our homes, many of them adorned with loving memories. How about rewarding them for their hard work with a  dose of TLC to instantly bring festive cheer. The best part is that you can refresh your wall decor almost instantly with these ideas, and you won’t need an army of designers or labourers to bring these ideas to life. And these pieces will keep making your home look appealing, even when the festivals have passed.

When we decorate our homes, most of the time we overlook the importance of wall decor. But ask any interior design professional, and they will tell you that it is one of the most important elements in home decor. Let’s see why wall decor should get the attention it deserves:

Wall Decor Can Provide a Focal Point to a Room

One of the most important principles in interior design is that every room should have a focal point. When correctly placed, wall art can draw the attention of every visitor that walks into the room and thus be a focal point. Besides filling up empty walls, wall art can add texture and depth to the overall theme of a room. You don’t have to spend a fortune in order to have an impressive home. Lovely decor, brimming with sophistication, sure to grab glances, can be achieved even on a budget, you just need to put some thought into it.

Wall Decor Evokes the Desired Emotion

The purpose of art is not only to beautify a place but also to evoke a certain emotion in the viewer. It is important to consider the style that suits your personality and your design aesthetics and convey it through your wall art pieces. You can choose to reflect joy, calmness, exuberance, bohemia, nostalgia and many more emotions through your wall art installations.  So, the process of selection should be done thoughtfully and purposefully, keeping in mind the emotion you want to highlight.

Wall Decor Completes the look of the Room

Bare and bland walls don’t lend much to the look of your room. Carefully selected and strategically placed wall decor pieces can not only counter the feeling of monotony but also lend a feeling of completeness to the decor of a space. Through wall art, you can achieve harmony, contrast, balance, symmetry, or any other principle of composition, that you may want to achieve.

Guidelines For Selection & Placement of Wall Art

There are a few guidelines or thumb-rules for selecting the size of wall art pieces and for their ideal placement so that they don’t end up being either overpowering or too insignificant:

• When placed over furniture pieces(e.g sofa or console), the wall art piece should cover roughly 75% of the width of the furniture piece. Space should be left between the top of the furniture piece and bottom of the wall art. If placed over a sofa, care should be taken that there should be enough space for the head to rest.
• When placed over standalone walls, as a thumb rule, wall art should cover a maximum of 4/7th part of the wall.
• The centre of the wall art should be at about 60″ from the ground. You could change it as per your needs if the height of your wall is too large or smaller than standard.
• You can place a single piece of art or a grouping of many small pieces to cover the desired area. When placing many pieces together, care should be taken to leave space between them. If there are many pieces then space left around each of them should be the same.
• While selecting wall art, be conscious of the wall colour and texture. For walls that have bright colours or heavy textures, the art pieces should be minimalistic and/or of neutral colours and the overall tone of the piece should be muted so that it doesn’t clash with the wall colour or texture. For plain walls in light or neutral colours, you could go bold in terms of colour, detailing, and decoration.

These are guidelines to make your task easier, however, don’t feel bound by these and feel free to experiment and improvise as per your requirements.

When we think of wall decor, many things come to mind because empty walls are filled with possibilities. Whether you are an art or curio collector, a nature lover, an avid traveller, or a DIY specialist, wall decor in your home can be customized in a way that you can proudly display your possessions and be surrounded by them.

Let’s discover some ideas to personalize your walls:   

Decorate With Mirrors

Mirrors have been a part of home decor since times immemorial. They may also be one of the most under-rated items in home decor. They can be surprisingly budget-friendly decoration components that you can lay your hands on. Mirrors bring brightness to space and create visual interest with the interplay of light, reflection, shade, and shadows. In terms of style, mirrors are versatile because you will find designs mirror designs to go with any style of decor whether it’s minimalistic, traditional, or contemporary. Mirrors can be placed all by themselves, can be a part of larger design composition, or can also be placed above console or entryway tables. 

Install Metal Sculptures 

Metallic wall art is in a very innovative phase. Metal can be cast, twisted, moulded, bent, folded, anodized, powder-coated, textured, polished, laser-cut and a variety of textures and finishes can be achieved. This is what makes metals a versatile and evergreen choice for use in home decor. Metallic sculpture never goes out of fashion, so you don’t have to worry about them becoming outdated after a while. 3-d metallic wall decor pieces can add depth to the decor of a space. A metal globe or a metal world map will surely grab eye-balls because it is not something that you see very often as wall decor. If you opt for a larger cluster composition,  that single piece could be the focal point of the room and change the look of the entire room.  Metal wall art sculptures can seamlessly blend into most colour schemes make for great accent pieces alongside almost any style of decor, from traditional to eclectic. You can select some stylish sculptures here and here.

Create Gallery Walls

There’s no better way to personalize the walls than with sweet, nostalgic memories of your loved ones.  Frames of different sizes, interspersed with some other objects like wall plaques or signs or maybe some DIY macramé wall hangings or a mirror will make up a great gallery wall. There are no rules for gallery walls, you can let your imagination rule the layout, and let the gallery wall grow over time. Some gallery wall frames are available here and here. 

Make Shelves a Decor Statement

We have all used wall shelves for utility purposes in our homes at one time or another, but who could have thought that such straight forward utility items can be used to dress up the walls if chosen and styled correctly. There are shelves, ledges, wall brackets available in different shapes, sizes and colours today. A little bit of imagination and careful selection and placement of these can create wall art masterpieces. You can carefully select and display curios, artefacts, plants, books and things you love on these shelves, and this arrangement will add so much character to the wall they adorn. Pictures below show some innovative ways of getting stunning results from fairly simple types of shelves. 

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Decorate With Baskets

Decorating walls with wicker, cane, bamboo, or rattan baskets is a trending wall decor idea. Baskets of different shapes and sizes can be installed on the wall to make an interesting composition. You may browse & buy bamboo baskets here. 

Add Greenery to Walls

An array of stylish wall planters are available these days, that not only serve their purpose but also enhance the look of the wall. Shelves can also be used to artistically place planters. If you feel that it won’t be easy to maintain plants in wall planters, you could use air plants or faux plants for the purpose of convenience. Air plants grow in air and don’t need soil, they just need to be dipped in water once a week. For more stylish ideas to decorate with plants, read this article. If you are looking for some unique, stunning plants for your indoors, read this article.

Dress Your Walls With Macrame

Craving for a wall hanging but not the usual stuff? A macrame wall hanging can be a refreshing alternative. A wall hanging in a neutral hue placed on a richly coloured wall will enhance the look of the wall and create a modern look. To discover more decorating ideas with macrame articles, read this post and be surprised about how versatile this humble craft is, and what it can do to enhance your home decor. 

Decorate With Clocks

In today’s time, we see wall clocks with elaborate designs, in innovative shapes and designs and colours. They not only serve as timepieces but also as great display pieces. Whether your room has a rustic, sophisticated, or bohemian vibe, you will find a clock matching with the décor style of your room. You can browse some stylish wall clock designs here.

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Decorate With Wall Plates

Wall-plates are a great way of dressing up your walls and adding a riot of colour to them. They are very versatile and will easily blend into any decor style, and can be selected to complement any colour scheme. Whether you are looking to showcase your interest for blue pottery, or your love for bohemian, colourful decor, you will find wall plates to meet your requirements. 

Create Interest With Wall Hoops

Wall hoops are another very easy & versatile idea to dress up your walls. You may DIY these hoops yourself by inserting fabrics or embroidery patches of your choice in different sizes of embroidery hoops. This is a very budget friendly idea and the best part is that you can keep changing the fabrics of the hoops as and when you like and create a completely different look each time. 

That was all about refreshing your walls. This post does not cover wall paintings, which probably are the greatest source of wall decor. Wall paintings are a matter of personal taste and preferences and there are a lot of nuances that go into selecting paintings and art prints. That subject requires individual attention and cannot be clubbed with instant home decor ideas, because of the simple reason that selecting and buying a painting is not an instant process.

If you are buying your wall decor pieces online then read the product specifications and descriptions carefully before buying the product. Most of the time, the products look larger In the picture, than they actually are, because the photography focuses on the product itself and not on its spatial relationship with surroundings. Often, real pictures posted in the reviews by people who have bought the product give us a fair idea of the look and the size of it. One good thing is that size is almost always mentioned in the product description but many people miss it. You should keep a scale or a measuring tape with you, and roughly draw out the size mentioned, either on paper or on the floor with chalk. This will give you an exact idea of how much space the product will cover. 

Wall art is just one of the many ways to renew and refresh the look of your home. Stay tuned for the next post to explore other aspects of bringing newness to your home decor. 

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