You can’t claim to have a well designed living room if the wall behind your sofa is left blank!
Wall decor plays a key role in the process of styling a sofa and it offers an opportunity to personalize your living space and make it feel more homey, so all the more reason to decorate that prime spot.
If you’re in a creative slump, take heed of these 13 amazing above-sofa wall decor ideas that anyone can try out.
Mirror
There’s so much design potential in that space above the sofa that you can be forgiven for feeling overwhelmed. If your living room isn’t as large as you would like it to be, it becomes a whole lot easier to determine the right wall decor.
Consider that mirrors are known to work wonders for the proportions of a space as they reflect light and really open it up, thereby making a small living room feel bigger.
Go with an oversized mirror and you will truly feel the space-increasing benefits while giving the wall behind the sofa the focal point it deserves.
Wall planters
Decorating with plants is one of the best things you can do for the wall behind your sofa and the living room as a whole. The positive impact that plants have on our health and wellbeing has long been documented, so they fully deserve that prime spot.
Drape your plants from a shelf or suspend them from the ceiling to achieve a somewhat unruly presentation that never fails to catch the eye, or maximize the level of greenery by using the space above the sofa for indoor wall planters.
Artwork
The great thing about art is that its literal purpose is to be eye-catching, so it’s hard to think of a better conversation-starter and focal point for that big blank space over the sofa than a single piece of artwork.
Just make sure that your choice of artwork over the couch is vibrant in color and large in size for maximum impact – a bold piece that practically jumps off the wall.
Textiles
Sometimes the area above the couch is so vast that it can be quite pricey finding a suitably sized wall decor to fill it. That’s where textiles come into play – they are a budget-friendly way to get your hands on something large-scale.
Whether you go with a quilt, woven tapestry or croquet blanket, the fact remains that textile wall art provides high levels of character at low cost.
Wood paneling
If you really want to ‘wake up’ the wall behind the sofa and put your living room aesthetic in a class of its own, look no further than wall paneling.
Wood slat walls in particular are taking the interior design world by storm for leaving rooms with a beautifully textured accent wall.
They’re also useful for introducing a variety of tones if you don’t paint them, so it’s safe to say that wood paneling will bring all the drama.
Gallery wall
Sometimes one piece of artwork isn’t enough to wash away those above-couch decorating woes, and that’s okay because it opens up an opportunity to go all out with a gallery wall.
This entails displaying an entire collection of photographs and paintings and grouping them together tightly on the wall, and it’s a popular tactic for decorating above the bed.
Remember that diversity is key for a winning gallery wall, so play around with size and make use of different picture frames.
Rope
If you seriously doubt that a bit of rope has what it takes to transform that dull wall behind the sofa, you’re about to be proven very wrong.
The trick is to allow your rope to become a tangled mess on the wall, as this has a whimsical effect that will immediately catch people’s attention.
Be sure to focus on the material too – a thick fibre rope will stand out much better than something skinny and lightweight such as twine.
Wall clock
While it may be true that wall clocks aren’t as necessary as they once were, they still make great statement pieces.
And since we live in a day and age where every accessory has a time function, there’s no need to worry about having to perform an awkward head-tilt to check the time when sat on the sofa!
Wall clocks are sold in a limitless number of designs, from modern to minimalist and everything in between, so you are bound to find something that speaks to your vision.
Baskets
Not everyone wants to style the space above the sofa in a manner that’s too dominating and risks throwing the living room aesthetic off-balance.
That’s why it’s a good idea to consider lighter forms of wall decor, and it doesn’t get much more lightweight than a woven basket.
You’ll be surprised at how naturally this overlooked accessory takes to the walls, especially when you group several of them together, and there’s no question it makes the space instantly more homey.
Empty frames
Some picture frames ooze so much style and class that they don’t require any artwork, and this explains why decorating with empty frames around the home is a hot trend right now.
Just like with gallery walls, you don’t need to puzzle over matching too much – embrace a bit of chaos with a mixture of frame sizes and styles and you’ll find that you can’t go wrong achieving a look that has that wow factor.
Wall sconces
If you’re having second thoughts about pushing your sofa up against the wall because of poor lighting, you may have stumbled upon the perfect above-sofa wall decor.
A pair of wall sconces will do the job of bringing your sofa into the light to create that warm and inviting atmosphere we all crave, as well as provide the space behind it with a decorative accent.
Bicycle
Proving that nothing is off-limits when it comes to decorating your living room walls, even a bicycle is able to elevate the aesthetics, regardless of whether you describe yourself as a cycling enthusiast or not.
To be more precise, a vintage bicycle that’s been partly dismantled and displayed within a frame is going to take a bare wall from drab to fab in a flash.
Shelving
Maybe your living room is lacking in space for displaying your favorite trinkets and treasures, in which case you can look to the wall behind the sofa as a means for storage expansion.
Framed geometric shelves are the best way to go about this because their angular appearance is a sight to behold in itself.
As long as you fill the shelves with display-worthy items, the end result is an above-sofa aesthetic that’s stylish and practical in equal measure.