The wall space behind your couch can be tricky to decorate, especially if you have tall ceilings. We’ve considered building a book shelf on this wall or opening it up into the kitchen in the future, but for now I hung a floating shelf above the couch. It was difficult for me to decorate this shelf but I figured out some helpful tips to share with you! This post is all about how to style a shelf above a couch.
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Building the shelf was easy! We purchased a 1x10x10 board from Lowes, sanded it, and stained it in the color “English chestnut”. I bought these brackets and attached them to the bottom of the shelf and the wall in an “L” shape. I like attaching the brackets this way because you can place your decor items in front of the brackets to make it look like a true floating shelf.
My husband and I went back and forth deciding on the height to hang the shelf above our couch. Since we have room to walk behind our couch, we wanted to make sure it was high enough that people wouldn’t bump into it without being too much higher than the back of the couch. We ended up hanging it at 5 feet, which was just above my husbands shoulder and just above the top of my ear (lol). I think the ideal height to hand a shelf is at an average eye level. That way you don’t have to lift or tilt your head to look at the decor displayed on the shelf.
I decorated the shelf using picture frames of various sizes, plants, and ceramic vases in different colors and sizes. If you have tall ceilings, large picture frames will help fill the space and lift the eyes up above the couch. To prevent the picture frames from sliding off the shelf, cut a strip of a sticky rug pad and place it underneath the picture frame. You could also stick a command strip to the back of the top of the frame where it rests against the wall. Our refrigerator is right behind this shelf and we had an incident where a frame slid off and glass shattered everywhere. I replaced the glass with acrylic but since I added the rug pad and command strips we haven’t had any issues with the frames falling off the shelf!
One of my favorite places to buy art is from Society 6. This site is an awesome way to support artists since part of the profits go back to the artist that uploaded their design. This is a really affordable way to find unique art that is professionally printed on quality paper.
When decorating the long shelf above our couch, I tried to arrange the items in clusters of triangles. For example, I would start with a tall decor piece such as a picture frame or tall vase then put shorter items on the sides next to the tallest item. If you follow this method, make sure to vary the number of items in each of your clusters so this doesn’t look too uniform. For example, one cluster might have 3 items and the next might have 4 items. Mixing objects of different heights, shapes, and colors helps add dimension to your shelf decor.
Shelf styling is one of the most difficult home decorating skills, in my opinion. I have decorated this shelf several times and never felt truly happy with how it looked. I finally decided to make a design board on Canva before purchasing any additional items to place on the shelf above our couch. This helped me visualize how pieces would look together before actually buying them.
It’s helpful to choose a color palette when decorating your shelf to make everything to look cohesive. I chose neutral items that were black, white, cream, beige, and gold. To mix in some color, I also added in plants and a small colorful art print. I tried to tie in elements that are in other areas of my house, such as the candles and ceramic vases, to make the shelf decor flow with the rest of the decor in my house. Some of my favorite plants to decorate with in low light areas are snake plants and zz plants! They don’t need watered very often either.
I hope this post was helpful if you were looking for tips or ideas on how to decorate the shelf above your couch! Thank you for visiting my blog today! I write lots of posts on home decorating, DIY projects, wellness, and seasonal inspiration! If you like what you see, I would love for you to come say hi on Instagram!
Xo, Ciara
