Mid century modern wall decor feature designs that combine the clean lines of modern design with the warm materials and personality of the decor items. When a person place the correct pieces on the walls of a room, the room will feature an intentional design with no sense of stiffness in its layout. The mid century modern design elements will not become outdated because of the careful balance that exists between the form and the function of the items in the space.
Because of the balance between the form and function, a persons eyes will feel comfortable in the room rather than constant searching for the next decor item. Many people is still drawn to the looks of mid century modern design elements, even after decades, due to the visual balance of the style. While many decor magazines feature furnishings for those spaces, the walls of a room can define the mood within that space.
Placing the correct decor on the walls will make the entire room look good together. However, if a person selects the incorrect decor for the walls, even the most perfect teak credenza will appear out of place in the room. There are several different approaches to including decor elements on the walls of a room in a way that defines the look of the entire room, whether that room may be a tiny apartment or a large loft living space.
Each of these approaches solve a specific problem within the space, and there are numerous approaches to solving those problems to create a desired look for the room.
Ways To Decorate Your Mid Century Walls
1. Abstract Paintings
Abstract paintings can help a person to pull the entire space together in a way that few other decor items can do. The abstract art that people should utilize for these spaces can include organic shapes in colors like mustard, olive, and charcoal to represent the Eames lounge chair.
These abstract paintings can provide a place for a persons eyes to land when moving about the space, but they do not require a person to examine each painting closely. The painting should be large enough to define the space appropriately, with a minimum size of four feet in width. For the walls to feature true mid century modern abstract art, the colors should be earth tones, as preferred by the artists who created art during that period.
However, those artists also used unexpected colors like coral or teal in their art. These colors will allow the abstract art to appear sunny even on the grayest of days. If a person places such art in a space opposite a window, the changing light will help to change the mood of the space from morning until nightfall.
However, a person must commit to this decor element. Using such abstract art on a rooms wall will require the balance of the entire space to ensure that it does not become visually noisy.
2. Gallery Walls
For those looking to use a gallery wall in their space, the look that is preferred is not the same as the photo galleries that may line the walls of many peoples homes.
A tight grid of botanical and woodblock art prints and small abstract art pieces can provide a balanced look to the room. All of the art prints should use the same slim walnut frames for the artworks. The repeated use of the same walnut material for the frames adds visual interest to the space without it becoming corporate or uninspired.
The gaps between each artwork in the gallery wall should be even, at approximately two to three inches in width. Each frame should also be aligned to an invisible baseline in the space. This may seem fussy and unnecessary for the space, but it will allow a persons eyes to land on a single decor element rather than a collection of art pieces that do not relate to one another.
This decor element works especially well in dining rooms, where the art echoes the lines of the chairs in the room. It is also best to use only eight decor items of this type rather than twenty that may otherwise be collected for the space.
3. Sculptural Decor Items
Sculptural decor items can add texture to a space that flat art decorations cannot provide.
For example, a person can each hang a group of brass rods that curve into sunbursts or three discs of woven rattan of varying depths on the wall. Each of these items will cast different shadows in the space throughout the day. Each of these materials relates to the interest in natural materials and handcrafting in the postwar years.
These decor items work especially well in rooms with many wood tones, as the smooth teak contrast with the woven decor items. Additionally, installing such decor items may require patience, as most dont come with instructions for hanging them. However, with a little patience to measure the space twice before making a hole in the wall, a person can install these items and even embrace the fact that they may not be perfect in their placement.
4. Large Mirrors
Finally, another decor item that can be included on the walls of a space is a large mirror with simple frames. When leaning on a wall, the mirror will reflect elements of the room, like a fiddle leaf fig plant, and help to transform that corner of the room into an indoor courtyard. The most important trick for people looking at framing the artworks for their homes is to pick frames that do not compete with the room.
Thin oak frames, brass frames, or frames made out of walnut wood allow the artwork to become the decoration of the room. Mirrors work well for those with dark hallways in their ranch homes. By placing a mirror at the end of the hallway, the house begins to appear larger to the guests who come to the home.
The mirror will reflect the light from the living room to the back porch of the ranch home. However, people should avoid using mirrors to cover the entire wall in their home. Mirror tiles are another design style altogether, and using mirror tiles on the walls of the home can make the room appear as a dressing room.
5. Ceramic Wall Plaques and Relief Tiles
Ceramic wall plaques and relief tiles were produced in abundance throughout the 1950s and the 1960s. These tiles featured various designs of leaves, birds, and other decorative elements. One option is for people to use the tiles individually or to group them together to make art. These ceramic tiles have a three-dimensional quality to them that ensures they reflect light in unique ways compared to other forms of artwork on the walls.
These ceramic wall tiles are best used in kitchens and bathrooms in the home. These tiles can stand up to exposure to humidity in the kitchen or the bathroom. A person can use one of these ceramic tiles above the cooktop in the kitchen.
The tiles come in various earth tones, such as avocado green and burnt orange, reflecting the dinnerware throughout the room. However, the disadvantage of ceramic is that these tiles are heavy. Because they are made from fired clay, they require anchors to be secured to the wall.
People should not use plastic hooks to hang them on the wall.
6. Wooden Sculptures
Wooden sculptures that are carved from trees like teak or walnut offer warmth to the spaces in which they are located. Many of the sculptures feature different abstract designs in the wood, as well as other decorative elements like birds and fish.
Over time, the wood will darken, adding to the character of the sculptures. These sculptures may look even better after ten years than they looked on the first day that they were purchased. People should position the sculptures on the walls in areas where people naturally touch the walls, such as beside the doorway of the house or above a sideboard.
The sculptures will absorb sound in these locations. For homes with an open-concept layout, sound absorption is important in the placement of wooden sculptures.
7. Vintage Travel Posters
Another idea that people can use on the walls of their homes is to use vintage travel posters or advertisements from the same period.
These artworks require little effort to decorate the walls. Their illustrations of the various parts of travel, such as airplanes and train cars, reflect the desire of the individuals in these eras for a better future. People can also use simple frames to decorate the travel posters on their walls.
These artworks work well in homes if they are used in home offices or reading nooks in the home. The colors used for these advertisements include turquoise, coral, and sunshine yellow. These colors will help to liven up any room in the house that is otherwise neutral in its color scheme.
However, people should seek out the original prints of these advertisements rather than the reprints of these advertisements. The unique texture of the paper and the fading of the advertisement’s ink is one of the main reasons to seek them out.
8. Textile Hangings
Textile hangings, such as macrame or batik textiles, provide softness to the homes in which they are located.
A large textile hanging that incorporates negative space into its design can act as a sculpture as well as a textile in the room. These textiles will absorb sound in the space, as will the shadows that they cast onto the walls in the room. Additionally, many of the textiles use natural fibers in their manufacturing, which allow them to match other natural fibers in the home, such as area rugs or throw pillows.
Textile hangings work well behind beds in the bedroom of the home. Natural fibers in the textiles will add warmth to any bedroom whose walls are made of concrete or numerous windows. Additionally, the textiles can be vacuumed to keep the area clean.
However, if people have cats that climb on the beds in the bedroom, these textiles should be kept away from these areas of the bedroom. By looking at each of these different ideas for decorating the walls of the home, people will see how each of these choices will transform the walls from background to feature in the room. The walls will guide people’s eyes, keep the acoustics of the spaces quiet, and reflect the light from the lamps in the home.
These features of the walls will remind people of the intention of this home decorating style. An idea that people should use when decorating the walls of the home is to pick one idea and focus on that idea for the entire room. If people focus on one idea for the room, the rest of the room will take shape around that idea.
People will ultimately create homes that do not look as if they were decorated but inevitable choices for the furnitures and the walls in the room. By choosing decor for the room appropriately, people will create this sense of quiet confidence in their homes.
