11 Clever Bedroom Wall Decor Ideas to Max Out That Blank Space

This sweeping sheer linen canopy in Lorraine and Patrick Frey’s home in Provence is a lesson in less is more. (As for the quality, they used only Pierre Frey fabrics, so more is definitely more.)

Whether you opt for a bold pattern or a quiet floral, wallpaper adds a remarkable elegance to any bedroom. Case in point: the guest bedroom of a home outside New York City designed by Miles Redd and David Kaihoi, which features custom Iksel wallpaper that is as impressive as the artwork on the walls.

Find a new use for an otherwise unwanted item, such as these repurposed carved Moroccan doors that serve as a wooden backdrop in the bedroom of this Brooklyn brownstone by Ishka Designs.

Extend your headboard the full distance of the wall, as design firm Ashe Leandro did in this Upper East Side home. Insider tip: Make sure to use a darker color pulled from elsewhere in the room for a seamless integration that also makes a bold pop.

Create texture in the bedroom with rich, floor-to-ceiling fabric for added dimension and visual interest. Gabriel Hendifar, artistic director and CEO of the design studio Apparatus, covered the walls of his Manhattan bedroom with rich, velvet-like fabric that contrasts with the plush bedcover and bolster by Zak+Fox.

Go bold with pattern, as designer Jean-Louis Deniot did in the primary bedroom of his vacation home off the Atlantic coast of France. Deniot draped a macramé canopy over baby-blue patterned wallpaper for a playful assemblage.

While lacquered walls aren’t for the faint of heart, their glossy finish really packs a punch. In this primary bedroom in Milan, Paolo Castellarin and Didier Bonnin took on the labor-intensive project, creating a duotone brown-and-yellow color scheme that leaves absolutely nothing to be desired.

Design Rule No. 155: The four walls are just a blank canvas. Take, for instance, this boy’s room on Menorca, where designer Lorenzo Castillo used a folding screen upholstered in royal blue velvet as wall decor. The blue continues on the bed and even in the wooden beams overhead, offering a cohesive look that stands out against the stark white walls.

We’re all about multitasking, and a bedroom in this Palo Alto, California, house is a prime two-birds-with-one-stone situation. Designer Jessica Davis used a shelf to display her client’s artwork, keeping it low for added wallpaper drama that doesn’t detract from the busy nightstand area. Bonus: A shelf is much more conducive to the occasional artwork rearrangement, based on seasonal whims.

Let the headboard and bed have their moment, with just a few simple pieces of artwork in various sizes. In the bedroom of Mara Brock Akil and Salim Akil’s Los Angeles home, a set of Kara Walker originals hang behind the floating bed upholstered in a blue velvet.