So I have this wall behind the TV. Yeah, I know everyone has a wall behind the TV. Mine is a big gapping wall that just gawks at me every time I look at it. It mocks me as I walk by. Sneering at my inability to figure it out. I swear it just needs some love to get rid of its ‘tude problem.

It is pretty darn difficult to decorate the blank wall behind a flatscreen television. Especially when sneers at you and challenges you to even try decorating around a TV.

The wall behind the tv issued a decorating challenge

My wall sort of looks like this. (Please excuse the clutter. A girl’s gotta live more than clean, right?)

Now, while that wall looks puny and diminutive, doesn’t it. Well it isn’t. That console is six feet long. Here is a wide angle view to get a better understanding.

See what I mean? It just acts like a total brat while you are trying to watch your shows.

Oh and in case you were wondering
Yes that was the Heart and Craft Bird Print underneath the clock. Here’s some close up action just for you.

Okay, that’s enough detour time
I’m not sure which direction I should go…a sprawling gallery wall or an organized gallery with shelving. Behold the first option

Decorating around a tv Option #1

Organizing a gallery with shelves
I seriously love the idea of postcard shelves a la Young House Love. It’s worth noting that they’ve installed them up in their home office, and I’m talking about these starring in the living room as an understudy of the TV.

Via Young House Love

For my variation, I would keep the shelves from feeling to heavy by using these acrylic card shelves from ClearDisplays.com that I found on Pinterest. Ranging in price from $6 to $16, these acrylic shelves should be rather lightweight to mount to my older walls. The shelves come in variety of lengths  - 16-, 24, 30-, 36-, 48-inches, so I could do some sort of pattern.

Via Clear Displays

Cool idea and all, but what do you put on these clear plastic shelves. The answer is simple. Postcards. Now I don’t have a massive blog network like Sherry and John to send me postcards. However, over the years, I’ve amassed quite a collection of postcards. They were once one of my favorite things to collect on my travels. Even now I make a point to send some home to my dearest peeps as as mementos of my travels. Besides, it’s always fun to visit their place and see the postcard on their fridge. My postcard collection has subject matter including everything from famous people and priceless works of art to places of interest and crazy tourist finds, it would be easy to switch in and out and relatively inexpensive to update the wall for a brand new look.

I have some reservations though about going through with the gallery via acrylic shelving. There is some concern that it would end up being a wall-o-clutter and bring down the living room’s awesome quotient. For another thing, I’m not sure you could really see them. You couldn’t really get up close to see the postcard since they’d be behind the credenza and the TV.

Just some thoughts. But seriously though this wall just needs to be figured out. It’s bothering me now that the TV is all setup and I actually pay attention to that side of the room.

So what do ya think? Acrylic postcard shelves or no acrylic postcard shelves? You got any other ideas lurking around? If so, let me know. I’d love to hear them! In the meantime, I’ll scope out some gallery walls for inspiration and get option #2 ideas up in this place.

Cheers,

g