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Wall ideas – The wall behind the headboard in your bedroom is an ideal canvas for showcasing your creativity.
Here are 50 inspiring accent wall ideas — gallery walls, boho-style macramé tapestries, neon signs and more. Which one is your favorite?
1. Tropical Style in South Carolina
Woven textures, beach prints and tropical-patterned wallpapers are some of the decorating details Katie Shields used to make her family’s Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, home feel like a boutique hotel.
The master bedroom’s standout feature is an accent wall covered in banana leaf-patterned paper. The pattern is the iconic Martinique, which originated at The Beverly Hills Hotel. Shields’ grandmother had the same wallpaper pattern in her home.
2. Palm Trees in a Suburb of Paris
Gallery owner Catherine Mikolajczak lives in St.-Maur-des-Fossés, southeast of Paris. The interior of the home is inspired by Balinese homes and the traditional houses of Marrakech.
Her master bedroom features a 13-foot-high ceiling and an accent wall covered in a nonwoven wallpaper mural based on a hand-painted original by Ananbô.
The lower half of the wall is painted in custom green. “I felt like having a neutral room dedicated solely to rest,” she says. “The fresco in here is spectacular and so encompassing that you feel like you are in a cocoon.”
3. Pretty in Pink in Los Angeles
The inspiration for the color scheme in Alison and Eric Feinberg’s master bedroom came from the framed wall art above the bed and a rug in a nearby sitting area.
The walls had been white for a long time, and designer Faith Blakeney encouraged the couple to enliven them with a dusty pink to brighten the room and to tie them in with the art above the bed, by Chicago artist Laura Berger.
4. Black and Shimmery Gold in Tennessee
Beverly Griffith’s bedroom in her 1915 East Nashville, Tennessee, home features an elegant metallic wallpaper that the previous homeowner installed. Window trim painted black helps highlight the shimmery wallcovering even more.
The wicker headboard was a $20 find on Facebook, and Griffith loves that it’s comfortable enough to sit up against and relax with her Siamese cat.
5. Dramatic DIY Accent Wall in a Chicago Home
Interior designer Kandy Christensen wanted to add color to her bedroom walls and used three canvases painted in Polished Leather flat paint by Behr. She also used a stencil to overlay a damask pattern using Divine Wine glossy paint by Behr.
Christensen reupholstered her headboard with colorful fabric from Chicago’s Textile Discount Outlet. “I like that my bedroom feels like a separate space,” she says. “It’s super quiet, cool, and cozy. It helps me to flip the switch and decompress at night to go downstairs.”
The small vintage Kurdish pillow was given to Christensen when she worked in Iraq. The hanging light to the left of the bed is from Istanbul, and flanking the bed are vintage side tables and candelabras.
6. Jewel Box Bedroom in Harlem
After Minetta Archer found online the vintage German wallpaper used in her bedroom, her self-proclaimed obsession with wallpaper was born. “The quality is amazing, and the pattern is a subtle metallic with beautiful movement,” the interior decorator says.
Her foam-filled velvet-covered headboard and shibori-dyed sheets were both DIY projects. Archer had trim added around the hand-dyed pillowcases for a tailored look, and the lumbar pillow is re-covered in fabric from the Malcolm Shabazz Harlem Market in Manhattan.
The lampshade on the vintage table lamp was upgraded with gold paint on the outside and silver leaf paint on the inside. Archer also painted the round mirror frame and the ceiling gold. “It does very much feel like a jewel box to me,” she says. Zigzag-patterned curtains, sewn by a seamstress in Chicago, complement the exuberant wallpaper.
7. Wood-Paneled Beauty in the Pacific Northwest
Andy and Kris Dinnison love the attention to detail throughout their 1956 home in Spokane, Washington, built by architect Kenneth Brooks. A white built-in cabinet above the bed contains two boards that pull out on hinges, used as pillow props for bedtime reading.
The homeowners have been particular about the art they put up. “The wood paneling on the walls is almost furniture or art in itself,” Kris says. “We’ve been hard-pressed to find art we like as well as the beautiful wood.”
8. Tropical-Inspired Textiles in a Southern California Room
Interior designer Kelly Mack attributes the colorful decorating approach she took when decorating her family’s Manhattan Beach, California, home to her multicultural international upbringing. In daughter Willa’s bedroom, Mack used a tropical palette of lush greens, oranges, and fuchsia.
The pillows, valance, and curtains are made of quilting fabric, and Mack made matching panels for the walls and applied them with a staple gun. She bought a translucent window film online and added it to the window so that the room can be private but bright with natural light.
9. Tropical Style Meets an Ombre Wall
The guest bedroom in Jenny Kaplan and Chris Corrado’s Brooklyn, New York, apartment doubles as a home office. The ombre wallpaper from Calico was, in Kaplan’s words, “a bit of a splurge,” but it was the starting point for decorating the room.
Space also serves as a showroom and place to experiment for Kaplan’s styling business, An Aesthetic Pursuit, and the couple’s home furniture line, Pieces.
A large fiddleleaf fig adds a dose of green to the soothing space.
10. Art and Vintage Appeal in a Louisiana Bedroom
Kitten and Mark Grote have lived in their countryside home in Covington, Louisiana, for over 30 years. The home was originally built by Kitten’s grandfather in 1962.
The couple — he’s a sculptor and an art professor; she’s a learning specialist — bought the home in the 1980s and added to their master bedroom. The house and their bedroom are decorated with a mix of midcentury furniture, antiques, and collected art, as seen here in their master bedroom.
11. Charming Deconstructed Wood Wall in Colorado
Leslie and Mark Kane were very hands-on in updating their 1980s fixer-upper in Evergreen, Colorado. Mark, a construction manager for development firm Hines, collected leftover pallets during one of his commercial projects to create this wood accent wall in their master bedroom.
“We think it makes a statement in this small but charming bedroom,” Leslie says. The rope lamps are from Hangout Lighting. “We love supporting other artists,” she says.
12. Budget-Friendly Wood Display Warms Up a Utah Wall
Katie Schiffgen wanted to give the master bedroom in her 1980s home in Salt Lake City a little more character on a budget.
She used two decorative wooden Mandal headboards from Ikea (now discontinued), attaching one on top of the other. She filled the shelves with plants and photos to brighten the room.
13. Global-Inspired Luxury in a California Suburban Home
An antique Coromandel Chinese lacquer screen takes the spotlight in Kelly Mack and Eugene Young’s master bedroom in Manhattan Beach, California.
A patchwork of Indian and kimono fabrics in sunny yellows, warm golds, and other spice-inspired colors dress the bed for a luxurious feel. The couple worked with Nora Cabiale of Imagine Walls to transform previously white walls.
Mack used a comb and roller to apply a layer of latex paint in gold to create a wood-grain pattern. “I then used Valspar transparent stain in burnt sienna from Lowe’s to really give the appearance of stained wood,” she says.
14. Infinite Creativity With a Chalkboard Wall in Maryland
A white metal bed with almost all-white linens sits against a black painted wall that doubles as a chalkboard for whenever inspiration strikes the teenage daughter of Dan and Angelique Hoffman in their Myersville, Maryland, home.
15. Abstract Art in an Open Downtown Loft
Since there are no closets in Gabrielle and Zack Aker’s downtown Los Angeles loft, the couple suspended copper rods from the ceiling to hang their clothes.
The woven baskets tucked under the bed store things like workout wear and pajamas out of sight. “The interesting thing about living in a loft is, when people come over, every area has to be cleaned,” Gabrielle says. “We can’t keep a bedroom door closed and not make our bed.” The abstract art above their bed is an original piece by Gabrielle.
16. Travel-Inspired Style in a High-Rise Apartment
Interior designer Allison Crawford drew inspiration from her international travels in decorating her downtown Austin, Texas, apartment. The colorful painting of Che Guevara above the bed is from an artist in Cuba.
“The throw on my bed is from a direct-trade artisan market in Mexico City; the material for one of the throw pillows was sourced while cycling in a remote Burmese village,” Crawford says. “I love how decor holds memories and stories.”
17. Midcentury Modern Cool in Missouri
Matt Bramlette and Rick Leavitt’s 1961 home in North Kansas City, Missouri, is described by Bramlette as a mod cabin.
Dark brown painted walls serve as a backdrop for the two shop owners’ collected vintage finds, including graphic art, lighting, orange “R” and mushroom wall art.
18. Bright Vintage Style in a Boy’s Bedroom
A vintage pull-down map of the United States ties together some of the accent colors seen in this bedroom belonging to Merrilee and Pittman McGehee’s son.
19. Geography as Art in a Seattle Loft Apartment
Architectural designer Mitchell Pride lives in a converted garage in the Queen Anne neighborhood of Seattle. Immediately inside the front door is his sunken bedroom, a few steps down from the entry landing.
Behind the bed is a vintage pull-down map of the U.S. that was once used in a classroom. An original art piece by Pride leans against the wall on top of the headboard.
20. Vintage Stars and Stripes in a Providence, Rhode Island, Bedroom
In Emily M. Danforth and Erica Edsell’s renovated master bedroom, a vintage flag makes for a colorful headboard.
During the renovation, the couple exposed the brick chimney, refinished the wood floors, which had been covered in peel-and-stick tile, and used exposed spiral ducting for the vents. “We just love the light and openness in this space,” Danforth says.
An oar serves as a base for bedside lights, and the couple added a single pendant light. The books appear to float on vertical shelves, and they double as nightstands for phones and eyeglasses.
21. Abstract Art and Stripes in South Carolina
Chris Quinn of James Island, South Carolina, wanted to keep the decor and furnishings minimal and comfortable in her master bedroom. “The platform bed forces you to keep things clean and minimal because you can’t hide anything under there,” she says. A colorful abstract art piece adds color against crisp white walls.
“Layering that clean look with lots of textured blankets and pillows keeps things from being too stark,” Quinn adds.
22. Photo-Inspired Sleep Space in Palm Springs
Dane Kealoha and Christopher Johnson’s bedroom is a summary, midcentury-inspired escape. Kealoha wanted a blue color palette for the master bedroom and started with photographer Slim Aarons’ Boating in Antigua above the bed as the design inspiration.
The couple’s vacation home is located in the historic Racquet Club Estates neighborhood of Palm Springs, California, and serves as a retreat away from their home in Portland, Oregon.
Woven poufs bring warm tones and add texture to the otherwise cool, white space.
23. Reflective Style in a Northwest Bedroom
Homeowner Michelle Qazi, the owner of vintage home decor shop 6th and Detroit, added a scalloped mirror above her wraparound bed frame to create a focal point. Other boho and 1970s-inspired pieces complete the space.
24. Green Sign Lights Up a Cool Manhattan Studio
Molly Torres and Harry Portnof live in a 520-square-foot studio apartment in Midtown Manhattan. With space’s open layout, the bed is the focal point.
Above the olive green headboard is a custom neon “greenway” sign, which is the name of Portnof’s record label, and two electric guitars. “We’re both huge audiophiles, and I wanted to make sure you could literally feel musical energy throughout our place,” Torres says.
Vivid concert prints, Polaroid photos, and colorful vintage guitars add color to the light, bright walls, and can be found elsewhere throughout the studio.
25. Neon Nights in a Cozy Washington, D.C., Bedroom
Hanging above a mirror in Libby Rasmussen’s bedroom is a custom neon sign modeled after her signature. “At night it feels like my own personal nightclub,” the event planner and blogger says.
Three framed Gray Malin Coogee Wave prints add a beachy feel to the room.
26. 1970s Boho Style is on Point in This Tennessee Bedroom
Leah and Brice Hoffman live in a 1948 home in the Inglewood area of East Nashville. Leah is a hairstylist and an embroidery shop owner, and her love for the 1970s style is seen through accents of disco balls, hanging plants, macramé, and rattan throughout their house.
The couple worked with artist and woodworker Christian Fecht of Fecht Design to create their custom bed, based on a photograph from the ’70s. “I’ve never seen anything like it,” Leah says. The headboard is lined with LED lights that feature an array of colors that can be controlled with a remote.
27. Pattern-Happy in East Nashville
Savannah McNeill’s bedroom is a cozy eclectic bohemian retreat with her Southwestern-style bedspread and layered bedding and cushy pillows.
String lights in a triangle shape accent a dyed cloth above McNeill’s bed. A calming pink paint on the walls helps to neutralize all of the patterns.
28. Moody Blues and Macramé in a Brooklyn Master Bedroom
The walls in the master bedroom of Jenny Kaplan and Chris Corrado’s home in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, are painted in an enveloping rich dark blue.
A macramé wall hanging mixes with modern and midcentury elements, including accents of bright yellow for cheery contrast.
29. Perfectly Imperfect Boho Style in Los Angeles
Tori Horowitz and Jonas von Studnitz enjoy a fantastic view of their backyard pool from their master bedroom.
Above their bed is a handmade wall hanging from a piece of driftwood made by Los Angeles ceramicist Heather Levine. The couple’s terrier mix, Marvin, also enjoys taking advantage of the outdoor views.
30. Vintage Style Meets Boho Chic in a Washington Guest Bedroom
Michelle and Karim Qazi recently relocated to Seattle after living in Southern California.
“I tend to always lean toward natural elements, wood textures, and all the plants I can get my hands on,” Michelle says. Their guest bedroom features layered patterned bedding and a vintage wall hanging to soften the space.
31. Eclectic and Bohemian in an East Nashville Live-Work Home
Casey Freeman painted her bedroom walls a deep blue-green. Freeman layered color, texture, and pattern to create an inviting sleeping space.
A thin patterned bedspread doubles as a window covering above a DIY headboard.
32. Vintage Textiles in a Brooklyn Bedroom
Amber Dubois wanted her Brooklyn, New York, bedroom to be a calming retreat. “It feels more feminine than the rest of the apartment,” she says. The bedspread is a vintage American coverlet from Etsy, and the tapestry above the bed is vintage, from Ball and Claw Vintage.
The bedroom also houses much of Dubois’ growing houseplant collection.
33. Textile Pattern Play in a 1940s East Nashville Bedroom
Casey Freeman and Savannah McNeill designed their upstairs guest bedroom, which they rent out, around a classic tropical palm-print duvet cover.
The walls are painted mint green, and a black-and-white patterned textile decorates the slanted ceiling above the bed. A mounted neon light called It Was All a Dream, adds a fun accent to the ceiling.
34. Cozy Macramé Bed Tent in Tennessee
This is a second upstairs guest bedroom for Freeman and McNeill (see the other one above), which they rent out.
The two roommates wanted to carry the same bohemian vibe throughout the second floor so their temporary guests could have the same experience. A macramé curtain over the bed creates a canopy-like feel.
35. Gorgeous Royal African Gown on Display in New Orleans
Above Brett Davis and Justine Holzman’s bed hangs a Cameroon king’s gown, woven from cotton. The pattern of the textile was drawn using beeswax to prevent the dye from penetrating the rest of the garment.
The bed was fashioned from salvaged heart pine rafters from the roof of their home’s original building. Holzman made the ceramic vase on the nightstand.
36. Draped in Blue in a Northern California Apartment
The white wall behind David and Stacie Flinner’s San Francisco bedroom is dressed with a delicate blue textile from India. Stacie, an interior decorator, once used the blue fabric as a bedspread when she did a fellowship in India and repurposed it here to break up the white wall.
The bench is a DIY project Flinner made using a base bought on Overstock, reupholstered with leopard fabric from Scalamandré.
37. Elegant and Earthy in a Dupont Circle Apartment
Interior designer Kerra Michele Huerta believes in spending a little more on at least one special piece in every room. In her Washington, D.C., bedroom, her splurge is this handmade Indonesian bed.
On both sides of the bed are wall sconces, also used to hang Huerta’s colorful necklaces. Behind the rattan bed hangs a textured sheer curtain to add further depth to an otherwise almost plain white wall.
38. Wallpaper Double Take in Southbourne, Dorset County, England
Charlotte Cosby got clever creating a headboard for her master bedroom out of a gray and white damask-patterned wallpaper.
The clever budget piece complements the otherwise neutral space.
39. Minimalist, Modern Florals in a South Boston Apartment
Above the custom rustic-style headboard that she built for Gelinas as a birthday present is an artificial skull from HomeGoods. Wilkes collaborated with a florist friend to create the floral accents. Together they make a perfect statement piece for the small, unusually shaped wall.
40. Fun Ferns in a Tween Boy’s Bedroom
Chris and Aaron Quinn’s 12-year-old son’s bedroom in their James Island, South Carolina, the home was a collaborative design project. “I enjoy pairing older sentimental pieces with a bit of wear and a story with clean, white walls and more modern pieces, like the rolling cubby from Ikea,” Chris says.
The surf and skim boards in the corner are Aaron’s childhood boards, and the bed is vintage, from his parents. Because the vintage bed is so tall, Chris initially struggled to find the perfect thing to hang above it and adequately fill the wall space. She found the solution in this trio of baskets and ferns from local home goods shop Celadon.
41. Black-and-White Simplicity in an Austin, Texas, Bedroom
The design inspiration for Beth and Ryan Vanderkolk’s master bedroom draws from some of their favorite international trips — to Mexico, Barcelona, the Amalfi Coast, Costa Rica, and Istanbul — and even a trip closer to home, to Marfa, Texas. Hanging above their bed is a simple black-and-white photo of horses.
42. Printed Landscape Gallery Wall Backdrop in a Harlem Bedroom
When Laura Handler could not find a headboard she liked, the product designer came up with her own creative solution. “I flirted with a huge gold-leafed Italian antique one for a while but decided against it,” she says.
Handler used to live in Montana before moving to her Harlem apartment, and she printed 30 black-and-white images that she had taken of her previous front yard.
“It is a mountain called Emigrant Peak. I had photographed it in snow, lilac season, hail, bright summer sun, and a double rainbow. It keeps me from getting too homesick,” Handler says. The pictures are printed on computer paper and, in her words, “are just nailed up there. I like how it looks casual.”
43. Meaningful and Monochromatic in a Chic Coastal Cottage Bedroom
Wiley and Melissa Haithcock also took a monochromatic approach to decorate the bedroom wall in their Nashville, Tennessee, home. Wiley painted the two large paintings, inspired by meaningful locations, hanging to the left and right of the bed.
“Although we had been together for several years prior, we fell deeply in love during our first trip to Charleston, South Carolina,” he says.
The painting on the left is of a bridge in Charleston, and the one on the right is an abstract depiction of the Eiffel Tower. “Wiley proposed on the lawn in front of the tower at midnight while the lights were twinkling, and it was such a magical moment that we will always keep with us,” Melissa says.
44. Floral Gallery in a Myersville, Maryland, Girl’s Bedroom
This light pink bedroom in Dan and Angelique Hoffman home is full of sweet touches, including a gallery wall above the bed made up of collected vintage floral oil paintings.
A vintage chandelier and transitional-style furniture complete space.
45. Blue Makes a Big Splash in This Jersey City, New Jersey, Bedroom
Craig Wroe’s and Dan Pelosi’s favorite season is summer. “We wanted this room to feel like the beach,” Wroe says. Bright blue walls painted in Benjamin Moore’s Pool Blue set the tone for a cool ocean-inspired feel.
Above the bed are framed 20th-century illustrations about summer by graphic artist Joseph Christian Leyendecker. “His Saturday Evening Post covers made him a rock star — magazines were really the only form of entertainment,” Wroe says.
Wroe found the chair on the street and repainted and re-covered it.
46. Eclectic Style That’s Just Right in a Creative Apartment
Justine Savage is a crafter, thrifter, and professional floral designer. Every eclectic and collected item in her Mornington Peninsula, Australia, apartment has a story to tell, as does this colorful gallery wall above her bed made up of typographical art, a fabric scrap banner, and other collected items.
47. Freshly Framed in a 1920s Bungalow Bedroom in Bakersfield, California
Bright hues travel mementos, vintage finds, and DIY art decorate the wall above Lonnie and Jeran McConnel’s master bedroom.
Prints from Minted, a vintage map of Papua New Guinea, and a knife from Yemen hang over the couple’s brass bed. The bedside tables are thrift store finds that Jeran painted in contrasting gray and white.
48. Bright and Cheerful Charm in a Couple’s New England Home
April and Peter Nannucci live in an 1890s Colonial Revival in Auburndale, a village in Newton, Massachusetts, that they’ve renovated and decorated to reflect its original charm.
Behind their metal bed is a gallery wall made up of a mix of old and new pieces, including framed line sketches from Ikea and calendar pages of Maine lighthouse art, against a custom creamy beige.
49. Meaningful Maps in a Southport, Connecticut, Master Bedroom
The maps represent a variety of areas important to the family. Charlotte framed them using sheets of acrylic and mounting hardware.
50. Relaxing Neutrals in an East Nashville Home
Allison Holley and Nate Bagby’s master bedroom in their Tennessee home is a soothing neutral space.
Above the couple’s king-size bed is art found at a flea market; the pieces depict pin-up girls painted by Peruvian painter Alberto Vargas. The white dresser beside the bed belonged to Holley’s grandmother.
Source: houzz.com/magazine
