Wall design in the living room: beautiful ideas for decor and wall decoration, 130 photos

Walls are too promising a springboard for testing interesting design ideas for their decorative potential to be so easily neglected. Especially when it comes to the living room - a room with a large functional load and a considerable amount of usable space. Many people, in an attempt to give their interior maximum expressiveness, turn to the most extravagant and extraordinary methods - and forget about the obvious things. We propose to eliminate this injustice and look at how you can achieve a radical change in the atmosphere of the room for the better through simple manipulations with the wall surface. Our focus today is wall decor in the living room in a modern style. We are interested in simple but surprisingly cute ideas that perfectly correspond to the fundamental design principles of today.

Analysis of general design;
Use of art objects;
Use of finishing materials;
Even more photos with better ideas;
Conclusion.

Choosing a color for the walls

In a spacious room you can give free rein to your imagination. This living room can be decorated with any colors – from soft to bright and contrasting. Light shades are relevant, the decoration can be complemented with various patterns.

You can visually increase the area of the room using light colors. In addition, they are used to decorate rooms with a lack of sunlight.

Light shades make the space more airy and light, lift your mood and improve lighting. This is a universal solution for decorating any living room.

Natural wood on the walls

The advantage of using wood is that it will always be an element of wealth, prosperity and success. In addition, the plant has good thermal insulation qualities, practicality, and is able to breathe. The natural texture of wood is unique for each individual board, which determines the unique interior of the room, equipped with natural materials. Wall decoration with wood can be done using various raw materials: lining, timber, saw cuts, laminate.

Lining. Applicable to most interior styles (high-tech, eco, Scandinavian). The material can be treated with stains or painted.
Laminate. Wooden finishing of partitions is sometimes created using floor coverings. Depending on the required pattern, the background of the board is selected. Slats and wooden sheathing are used as fasteners.
Beam. Using your imagination, you can create a special composition in a rustic style from scraps of the end of a beam. Moreover, they can and should differ in length, protruding chaotically on the surface.
Spils. They give the room a sense of primitiveness. To produce raw materials, a tree trunk is sawed at the end. Then it is composed by the surface.

All wood must be treated with protective agents against various pests.

Selection of finishing materials

The building materials market presents a lot of options suitable for wall decoration.

Wallpaper. An excellent option for traditional renovations. With wallpaper you can create a beautiful design using contrasts and original patterns. This is a proven option that is suitable even for walls with minor defects. Thick fabrics are resistant to mechanical damage, they can be cleaned and even wiped with a damp cloth.
Liquid wallpaper. They are applied to imperfect wall surfaces and allow you to obtain an original textured pattern. Sold as ready-mixes for finishing.
Decorative plaster. Another great option that easily masks minor repair flaws. Experts consider this material to be durable; the wall design can be updated annually by painting it in new colors. Decorative plaster does not fade in the sun and does not change its color.
Coloring. It is better to use special wallpaper for painting. It is convenient to apply paint mixtures with a regular roller: the coating is uniform, without streaks or smudges. This is the simplest and most affordable way to decorate walls, which provides excellent results if you follow the manufacturer’s recommendations.
Wall panels. They can have different textures and original colors. Suitable for any type of wall, improves sound and heat insulation. However, the panels do not tolerate temperature fluctuations well and may be subject to mechanical damage. They are often used to create a spectacular accent in the interior, decorating one of the walls.
Textile fabrics. A natural, environmentally friendly material that has found its admirers among lovers of the classics. The cost is more than compensated by the unique atmosphere that they create in a classic interior. This design looks stylish and expensive.

When choosing a suitable design, you first need to take into account the dimensions of the room. If the living room is of modest size, you need to choose smaller prints and a calm texture.

Combining materials in one room

If you want to make your interior more unique, original and unusual, you don’t have to use rare types of finishing materials, you can simply combine them.

What materials should I combine? Absolutely any. It all depends on your imagination, courage and openness to experimentation! At the beginning of the article we talked about wall design options. These basic types will go well together.

Plaster and brickwork, photo wallpaper and decorative panels, painting and plain wallpaper, textiles and stone. Here are some successful, in our opinion, examples of combinations.

Decorating an empty wall

To beautifully decorate the walls in the living room, you need to have a sense of proportion and taste: you absolutely cannot go overboard with the decor. This is especially true for rooms in a minimalist style.

The walls are usually decorated with photo wallpapers, paintings, paintings, and various panels. Less commonly used are stucco, natural wood or leather.

How to design a niche in the wall of the hall

Usually it plays two roles at once: it decorates and helps in organizing space, things, and wires in the living room. You can build it yourself. The easiest way is to make recesses and partitions from plasterboard: they can occupy the entire wall or only part of it. Decor, books, flowers, TV and other equipment, and cabinets are usually placed inside. Sofas and armchairs and artificial fireplaces look beautiful in high recesses.

Tips for designing niches

Be sure to use additional lighting with sconces or LEDs. It creates the necessary accents and comfort.
Suitable materials for finishing: mosaic, ceramic tiles, moldings, mirror inserts.
To improve a room, make horizontal recesses to expand the area and vertical recesses to increase the height of the ceiling.
Niches can be contrasting or match the tone of the rest of the room.

Photo: Instagram @artstudio515443

Photo: Instagram @komplementi

Paintings

Bright landscapes and portraits on canvas are still a popular way to decorate walls. This is a great option that suits any living room in a modern or classic style. As a rule, the picture is placed on the wall above the sofa or fireplace. Ideally, it should be visible immediately upon entering the room.

The painting can also be located between windows, above a table, between columns or stairs. Designers very much welcome decorating walls with paintings of different sizes, made in the same theme, as well as bright canvases with unusual patterns and abstractions.

Wall decor above the sofa

Living room - room for relaxation. And in order to enjoy it, you need a convenient, comfortable and pleasant place where you can sit down and plunge into comfort. And of course, this place is nothing more than a sofa.

In a large room, the sofa can be placed anywhere; it looks very beautiful against the background of windows with delicate textiles.

But in most apartments the sofa is located near one of the walls. To prevent your home resort from being boring, you can decorate the space above the sofa. Here are some cool ideas.

A collage or small ensemble of posters and photographs.
One large painting, panel or tapestry.
Photo wallpaper, stickers or stencil designs.
Travel map.
Mirror or plants.
Wall shelves with different decor.
Lamps and garlands.
Decorative plates or molded rosettes.
Thematic decor for the interior.
And all kinds of mix of different living room decor.

Panel

A wonderful sculptural decorative element that is suitable for interior decoration in classic, rustic and modern styles. It is very important that the panel frames and the canvas itself match the colors and stylistic design of the room. Bright floral panels look great in spacious living rooms with a calm finish.

The panel can be made from wallpaper with an interesting pattern.
For such decor, various parts are selected and combined into a single composition.
You can use large pieces of wallpaper with a voluminous texture.

Paper panels and foamiran look no less original.

Floral designs fit organically into any interior and are ideal for decorating a small living room. Large panels are used to decorate walls in spacious rooms.

Decorative plates

A plate can not only serve as a kitchen utensil, but also become a piece of room decoration. This option will transform the house and add exclusivity to the interior. Hand-painted plates will remove all questions about how to decorate the wall and help refresh the atmosphere.

You can decorate plates in various ways. For example, artistic painting allows for different scenarios in the image, provided they are compatible with the overall interior appearance of the room. Landscapes, fairy-tale motifs, and the underwater world look good. Quilling is a technique that uses paper. The product is obtained by gluing paper strips to dishes. The stained glass style involves placing acrylic paints on a glass plate. In addition, you can also use types such as decoupage (photos, napkins, fabric are used) and satin ribbons.

Stucco molding

Quite a popular option. Experienced artists select the material and design perfectly. For this type of decor, the choice of color is very important. For example, when decorating a room in beige tones, you need to give preference to a coffee, milk and cream palette.

In spacious rooms, elegant stucco with a pattern in the form of monograms or floral patterns is usually used.
It is partially covered with gold. In addition, the walls can be decorated with specially made engraving.
Volumetric details in beige and orange shades look luxurious. Often stucco molding in the living room is combined with spectacular photo wallpaper.

In a spacious room with high ceilings, you can decorate the entire wall. If the interior has columns, they are also decorated with stucco.

Combining colors in one room

To harmoniously combine different colors in the living room, it is better to use special color tables.

The shades that are opposite each other in the circle go well together. It is not recommended to use more than 5 colors in a space, otherwise the interior will become overloaded.

White, black and their intermediate gradations are considered universal colors and go well with all other shades.

In the interior, walls are most often decorated in the following ways:

dividing walls into horizontal and vertical blocks of different shapes;
accent wall - usually painted in a brighter color;
stripes - can be either one or a whole striped print.

painting

Decorating walls with paintings is the work of professional artists. They can select high-quality paint without harmful toxic impurities.

The painting can occupy all the walls or be located on only one.
This decor can be combined with stucco. Panoramic images look very impressive.
As a rule, calm shades that are pleasant to the eye are selected.

But a modern interior may also feature bright painting: It all depends on the current direction.

Nowadays painting with floral and plant patterns is in fashion. Often a similar color scheme is used in one design. Lush flowers look great in spacious, bright living rooms.

Decorative shelves and shelves

Modern style has brought its own changes to design solutions for wall decoration. Now the shelf serves not only to place objects, it is a decorative element of the overall interior.

Types of shelves	Description
Wall-mounted	Attaches directly to the wall
Built-in	Fits into a common vertical panel
Corner	Installed at the junction of walls, corner placement method
Floor	The floor serves as a basis for placement; can be raised above it
Hanging	Secured to the surface using ropes, buckles, ropes
Modular	The structure consists of several shelves
Folding	They fold up if necessary
Shelving	Has many cells, not necessarily the same size

The shelves are divided according to their design. They can have side partitions or be open, located in vertical and horizontal positions, external corners are produced in sharp and rounded shapes.

Photos of new wall designs in the living room

Mini garden on the walls

A bouquet of lilacs or a flower in a vase is always pleasing to the eye. Living plants in the house help relieve stress, lift your spirits, and release oxygen, which is why many people want to have a flowerbed in their own hearth. The lack of space in the apartment made me think about creating a mini-garden on the wall. Not only can a partition serve as a support on which a natural green carpet is placed, but a column can also be greatly transformed.

The ideal place is considered to be a place that is not blown through and has good illumination necessary for the functioning of the garden. Before placing the wall floral appliqué, you should make waterproofing and cover the surface. Having met these conditions, you can place pots with different plants on a vertical surface.

Decorating the living room with wallpaper

Decorating the walls in a guest room with wallpaper is more difficult, but the end result will please both owners and guests. It is important to remember that you can wallpaper any surface in the house, but it is advisable to do this in dry, well-ventilated areas.

Types of material:

Vinyl - perfect for the living room. They create a beautiful three-dimensional relief due to beautiful embossing and will last for many years, maintaining the brightness of the colors.
Paper ones are more difficult to paste over. For this wallpaper, you need to perfectly level the surfaces, because even minor imperfections will show through. The coating will not withstand either wet cleaning or bright light from the window.

The main advantages are a variety of colors and 100% environmental friendliness. If you have settled on this option, we recommend reading the articles - How to choose a pattern for wallpaper: a review of popular patterns, as well as the Main types of wallpaper for walls.

Paper craft decoration

Paper is a multifunctional material that allows you to create an unlimited number of crafts. Children especially love to tinker with such raw materials. They make garlands, lanterns, flags, and hearts. There are many characteristic wall products - a flower, a butterfly, a pompom, a ring, a snowflake and others. A particularly beautiful thing is obtained if corrugated paper is used to create it.

To work with the material, you will need a minimum of tools, mainly threads, scissors, glue, and needles. Crafts can be combined with fabrics and, if necessary, painted in different colors, be it yellow, red, brown, or turquoise. It is even possible to create a panel from finished products.

Decorating the wall with wallpaper

An ideal option for decorating an empty wall for those who, for example, have old wallpaper on the wall or need to cover or disguise something.

We buy a roll of wallpaper in a contrasting color or take scraps of old wallpaper.
We lay out the collage on the floor first so that we can understand what will happen in the end.
And glue it to the top of the old wallpaper with wallpaper glue.

10 rules for combining wallpaper

Wallpaper accent wall

ATTENTION: You can glue over old ones only if they stick well!

Laminate is not just for floors

Increasingly, designers are using laminate in wall decoration.

Advantages of this material:

ease of installation (you can install it yourself, without additional help);
variety of colors and textures;
surface hygiene.

The disadvantages of this type of cladding are:

if mounted directly on a wall, it should be leveled;
There is no need to completely cover the space of the room; use it only as a decorative element;
High humidity can warp the coating.

It is important that manufacturers took into account the wishes of customers and produced a specialized wall laminate that has a fastening system.

Decorating the living room with decorative stone

A chic, expensive, but incredibly durable option for wall cladding is decorative stone. It will become a faithful companion for many years, as it is practically not exposed to the external environment.

Advantages of choice:

artificial pebble is very light;
installation is accessible even to a novice master;
the cost of the material is much less than the price of natural stones;
The manufacturer offers a variety of blank shapes.

Combine stone motifs with other design formats, as monolithic stone interiors are akin to medieval motifs.

Every room has its own approach

Photos and paintings are a great option for the living room. Appliqué, framed fabrics and carpets, greenery and decorative panels will add completeness to the living room interior.

It would be appropriate to decorate an office or nursery with vinyl stickers, letters and inscriptions. The best decoration for a nursery is drawings drawn by a child. A slate board will be good as a stimulator of creativity. Drawings on the wall, voluminous appliqués that you can involve your child in making - all this will make the nursery a favorite corner for games.

Fabric paintings and a framed carpet will add coziness to the bedroom. Pompoms and yarn items will keep her warm. Gypsum tiles with wood imitation will bring back sweet dreams of rural life.

Mosaics and decorative plates on the walls are a wonderful decoration for the kitchen or dining room. Vinyl stickers and appliques are a completely universal decor, suitable for any room.

What does style dictate?

Wall decor, of course, is inseparable from the overall style of the interior. Therefore, further we will talk about what is appropriate to use and where:

Classic. The framed paintings are, of course, from here. A carpet on the floor or on the wall, framed fabrics with fancy prints, geometric appliqué, and finally a mirror - everything is here. A classic interior will easily tolerate black color, if there is not too much of it - hang graphics on the wall, add black to the upholstery, your gain is elegance.
Provence - here it could not be more useful - greenery, and in this case there is never too much of it, paper applications in the form of flowers and butterflies, romantic trinkets made of yarn, pom-poms, wooden shutters and many different textiles. The walls are decorated in soft pastel colors; this style does not like sharp contrasts. And yes, pieces of fabric in frames, paintings with rural landscapes will also go here. Wickerwork, crafts using the patchwork technique, and so on will be good.
Are you a fan of Scandinavian style? Its cold monotony is enlivened by decorative details. Decorate the walls with wooden frames - simple ones, without paintings or photographs - you will be surprised how original they will sound in this restrained interior. A touch of brickwork or slatted wood panels will also add warmth and variety to the interior.
Minimalism! This is where there seems to be no place for any decor. And yet creative ideas find their application here too. Greenery, wood and textiles will add comfort and individuality to minimalism. The main thing is to skillfully apply all this, because the unit of minimalism is simplicity and space. Inscriptions and letters will fit well here; geometric applications are acceptable. Minimalism loves a lot of white; a bright accent on the wall in the form of a painting by a contemporary artist will enliven the atmosphere. You can also decorate it with a wall clock.
High tech. This style also loves clarity and simplicity. The main thing is functionality. Which, however, does not mean that the interior should be boring. Metal jewelry is here. At the same time, there is nothing superfluous, each item carries a functional load. Therefore, we will decorate the walls with metal lamps or shelves. This style does not like natural materials - it is a hymn to progress. If you really want to decorate the walls somehow, use glass or a mirror. Style loves plastic and concrete. No accessories for the sake of decoration. However, an abstract painting in the colors of the main interior will fit well and will not destroy the atmosphere.
Loft. Urban style and accessories love appropriate ones. Here it will be good to paint walls directly on brickwork, posters with city landscapes, inscriptions, and all kinds of panels. Creative lamps, clocks. The main thing is not to be afraid of experiments: eclecticism, a combination of incongruous things is a distinctive feature of this style. Therefore, elements of antiquity and deliberate roughness of decoration with specially aged walls coexist with modern technology and avant-garde lamps - this is a style for bold people who are not afraid of experiments.
Modern style also respects eclecticism. In general, there are no restrictions for wall decor in a modern style. Here you will find painting on plaster, three-dimensional appliqués, all kinds of panels, a slate wall, and paintings with photographs. Vinyl stickers, inscriptions, plywood panels, leather mosaics - everything is here, as far as your imagination allows. And here’s another amazingly simple idea - decorate the walls with colored tape - you’ll be surprised how interesting it can be. And very modern.
Modern. Unsurpassed style in the art of decor. The walls are decorated with expensive wallpaper, luxurious framed paintings and even stucco. Textiles are a must. Luxurious draperies, curtains on the windows - you can’t do without it. In addition, mosaics, stained glass panels, decorative plates, bronze items, watches, mirrors in luxurious frames. If you have good taste and a sense of proportion, then your Art Nouveau apartment will become a real work of art.
Avant-garde is for the bravest. Everything is acceptable here: a contrasting combination of colors, and the use of the most unexpected materials in decoration - metal wallpaper, laminate on the wall, glass wallpaper. Each decorative element can live its own life and perform a solo part. This style does not like simplicity, sheer sophistication and creativity. And yet all objects are perceived as a single ensemble. The beauty of the avant-garde is the harmony of dissonance.