4 Ways to Fill Your Walls

Want to make your house feel like home?  Fill your walls with pretty things to look at. It can be a struggle to figure out what to hang on your walls. Trust me, I know the intimidation of figuring out what to use, where to put it, and “yikes, I don’t want to put nails in the wall”. But this layer is so important. It’s where you get to inject your personality and design tastes into your home. But how do you represent your style in a way that feels intentional? Personally, I like my walls more sparse. However, I know the importance of this design layer for finishing a space and making it feel welcoming. 

Ideas for Wall Décor

Need help getting started? Here is a list of ideas that I have used in our homes for intentionally filling our walls to create the clean and cozy aesthetic we love. Hopefully, they will be the inspiration you need to tackle this element of your decorating.

Family Photos

This is a very popular way to fill a wall, and for great reason. I would bet it’s one of the most pinned topics on pinterest. There is no point in having beautiful photos if you aren’t sharing them with others. Whether it is a single framed photo or a gallery wall, sharing your photos is a great way to add interest to your walls. I do think a gallery wall can be overdone and feel cluttered, so I prefer an arrangement with matching frames and a grid layout. This keeps it less busy and allows the focus to be on the prints. If you are sticking to a single photo or small collection, keep the scale of the photos reasonable. Life-sized portraits feel daunting in an average home. Candid photos, rather than ones where everyone is staring into the camera, make the photos feel less formal. Keep it timeless by using photos that are black and white or in the same color scheme.

This wall was created through Framebridge, and I could not be happier with the quality of the photos and frames. I selected photos from places we have traveled that all had similar colors to create a cohesive feel to the overall collection.

Hanging Collection

A collection of unexpected items adds a textural and dimensional element to a room. Don’t let your home feel like an Applebee’s: limit the number of items and keep them in a similar category. I did this with hanging plates, but other ideas would be a collection of baskets or beautiful hats.

The details on how I hung this plate wall are here.

Art Ledge

Adding an art ledge allows you to build a collection in a low commitment way. You can change out the art, mix and match with pictures, or even add books.

My husband built these ledges, but if you aren’t wanting to break out the tools you can use these from Ikea or these beautiful custom ones from Etsy.

Artwork

This is a must for creating a home that feels cozy to your guests. Art is a wonderful way to express what things inspire and are meaningful to you. Don’t know where to begin? You don’t have to be an art snob to have artwork in your home. Find paintings of places that you have vacationed, lived, or were special to you. If you are looking to invest in an original work, Instagram is a great way to find artists who you resonate with. For art prints I love using Minted and Juniper Print shop for their curated collections.

If you are creative, you can always make your own art. I have done this many times when I need something specific and am having trouble finding it from another artist. These watercolors were something I created for specific spots in our first home. I couldn’t find what I was looking for and rather that wait for it, I made it myself. 

Curating walls for a Cohesive Look

• Mix up the type of wall styling you have in each space. Don’t fill a room with just gallery walls full of photos. If you have one type of wall décor, make sure the other vantage points in the room look to a different variety.
• Start with a blank canvas. Take everything off your walls and let the room breathe before you start hanging things. This helps you to be more intentional and choose the right scale and type of décor for each wall. Be gradual and intentional in adding to your walls, you can always layer in more. You also can always move things, nothing is ever final. A little spackle and paint can hide the evidence.
• Less is more. This is my personal taste, but I prefer a few empty walls over a space that has every bare wall filled. Walls with a window can be left intentionally empty as the curtains fill them in as a form of textural décor.
• If you have a favorite art piece or a photo collage that you want to highlight, start with this first. Pick a location that is an appropriate size to handle the décor and also highly visible. Then select the remaining wall art around this, being mindful not to fill two adjacent walls with the same type of décor, particularly if they involve photos.

Get your drill and hammer ready and fill those walls with personality!