How to Decorate Around a Flat Screen TV
How to decorate around a flat screen tv with a gallery wall filled with nature inspired images.
I have a confession to make…
I’ve had a design dilemma for more than 2 years (since we moved into this house) and it’s been driving me crazy. Phew, I feel so much better confessing that. It’s not that tragic, but it’s been a tough one for me to figure out.
The problem is the wall where our TV sits, and it’s been one of the hardest areas for me to decorate. When we moved in, there was a faux fireplace on this wall. We don’t have a real fireplace in this house so I was ok with it, at first. We had all kinds of grand plans to give it a cool makeover.
Once we moved in though, I quickly realized that it wasn’t that great of a piece and that I desperately needed storage, for the cable box, the DVR and all of our movies. So out with the fireplace and in with a dresser that I turned into a media cabinet. The first few pictures are from when we first moved in and they’re not the best, but I’m sure you get the idea.
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Now that I had the media cabinet all squared away, it was time to focus on the decor. Since I already had a gallery wall on the long wall, I decided to go for something simple over the TV. I used woven chargers to do a quick DIY and hung them up. Hmmm, I didn’t love them, and neither did the mister (who never has an opinion BTW), but I left them as I searched for new ideas.
To try to improve the area, I went ahead and painted the media cabinet in BM Hale Navy and lightened up the wall color with BM Gray Owl (at 50% strength).
It was better, but I still wanted to do something else with the wall decor. I began searching blogs and Pinterest to see if anything caught my eye. I was always drawn to TV gallery walls, but I thought that having two in one space was just too much so I kept searching.
A few weeks ago, I couldn’t look at the chargers anymore, so I took them down and lived with the blank wall.
I started tossing around the idea of a gallery wall again and decided that I would just go for it. If I felt like it was too much, after it was up, I would move on to Plan B. But first I had to come up with Plan B.
I found some prints from Minted that I loved, added a few favorite pictures that I had taken, and framed them in some Pottery Barn frames that I already had.
I ended up with a nature inspired gallery wall.
And, guess what? I really love it, and the mister gives it 2 thumbs up! I didn’t need a Plan B after all!
My fear was that it would be too much for this room.
It doesn’t though. I think it makes the room look finished.
I may add more art at some point, but, for right now, I’m happy with this. Now I wish I’d done it sooner.
Let’s take a look at what this wall looked like before we moved in.
Big difference, don’t you think? And there’s a big difference in my photography skills too. Much improved I hope. 😉
After I finished my gallery wall I decided to change the look of the media cabinet/dresser. Painting it white really changed the look of this side of the room. Love it!
Do you have any design dilemmas that have you stumped?
Looks great. Curious to know what size TV this is and what sized frames and matting were used.
Thanks,
Todd
Thanks Todd! The tv is 45×30 and the frames are 8×10 (2), 5×7 (2) and 10×10 (2). All of the frames are from Pottery Barn. Hope that helps.
Looks great. Loving the gallery wall.
Thanks so much Susan!
That looks super! Visiting from WOW, and your wall certainly caught my eye. Thumbs up!
Rita
Thanks Rita, I appreciate the visit and your sweet comment. 🙂
The whole room is wonderful! It’s so light and bright. I like your furniture choices and definitely the chest for the tv and storage instead of the fireplace. Love the gallery wall!
Thanks Stacey for the sweet comment. There’s a lot going on in this space so finding a balance between decorated enough and decorated too much has been difficult, but I think I finally found a good balance. So glad you like my wall!
It looks great, Kristi! Love the prints 🙂
xo,
rue
Thanks Rue! So glad you’re back! 🙂
Kristi,
I love your tv wall as I call it at our lake house. I have been struggling with the same dilemma.I have electric wall heater behind my tv. This causes it to stand out farther in the room. Your gallery wall behind the sofa compliments your nature-inspired space. I have a wall of windows in that location and a huge fireplace on the other wall. I am thinking of building shelving which will give the wall a small amount of depth behind the television taking away its star quality for parties. Thank you for sharing you wonderful talents.
Happy Creating,
Karen Marie
Thanks so much Karen! I love the results, just wish I’d done it sooner. Built in shelves sounds like a great idea for your tv wall. Who knew that decorating around a TV would be so hard? 😉 It seems like there’s a lot of us out there. Thanks for visiting!
Great job, as always! Classic, elegant and very pretty!
Thanks so much Kim! And it only took me 2 1/2 years! 😉
I’ve visiting from Brenda’s. I love your wall! I’ve got the same dilemma with the tv on top of an entertainment center much the same size as yours and I’ve wracked my brain trying to figure how what to do with the wall behind it. Nothing I’ve done so far really does it for me, so I’m so happy to see what you did with your wall. I’m gonna be a copycat! Thanks for sharing this and have a nice day!
Hi Cheryl and welcome! So glad that you stopped in. I know what you mean about decorating around the TV, it’s not been a fun process for me either. I’m so glad that you liked my wall enough to copy and I’d love to see how yours turns out. 🙂
Thanks so much Tamara!
I love it, it looks great! Just what the wall needed, now help me with my only one wall to work with, since one wall is a window wall, the other has a storage unit that almost goes to the ceiling and cover the whole width of the wall. It holds all my hubby’s books. It has doors and we love the look, but it doesn’t give me much wall space to decorate. I would love to take out the window and go smaller so I would have more wall surface, however that’s for another day.
Thanks MJ! I’m really liking the change. I have a few rooms that have limited wall space too so I know what you mean. Send me some photos and we’ll figure something out, that doesn’t require you to remove the window. 🙂
Have a great week!
It looks great. I think the reason it works so well, despite the fact that you have another gallery wall in the room, is because this one has so much white in it. So much white to create a very peaceful feeling. Thanks for taking the time to share this project with us, I for one feel inspired to tackle my own living room.
Awww, thanks so much for the sweet comment Mary! I’m so glad that I was able to inspire you to tackle your living room. I’d love to hear about what you do.
It looks great for a “problematic” area!
Thank you Vel! 🙂
I like it very much, Kristi. It looks great. I especially like that you chose to create a “theme”. Very nice.
Thanks so much Nancy! I want to add to it at some point but I’m liking the change. Have a great week my friend!
It frames your t.v. area well. Isn’t it fun to look back to see how far we’ve come with our skills? fondly ~lynne~
Thanks Lynne, I like the change. I’m not sure if it’s fun or scary to see my old fuzzy pictures. LOL I’m glad that I’ve improved though.
I like the dresser painted blue and I love the gallery wall. I usually do not like gallery walls because they are chaotic to me but the way you framed the TV and used simple frames makes it look orderly. Have to ask what the heck are those green balls? They look like popcorn balls that I got on Halloween as a child. LOL Debbie
Thanks Debbie! Ha, those green balls are Osage Oranges, or as my husband calls them, green brains. LOL I got them from a tree in a dog park in Missouri last week. I’ve tried to find them by me but I’ve only seen them laying on the side of a busy highway by my house. Not worth the risk for some temporary decor. 😉
It’s a lovely “frame” around the TV that I don’t think most people would go for – which makes no sense, because it is brilliant! Love the pictures you’ve chosen, as well as the accents you added to the media center, it ties the whole space together and it looks fantastic.
Awww, thanks so much for the sweet comment Jessica! I’m thrilled with the way it turned out. 🙂
Hope you have a great week!