I would not add anything to that wall area. The eyes need a place to rest, and the empty wall above the TV gives that.

There is plenty enough going on there; I would not add more.

I WOULD, however, paint and hide wires.

I agree, there is enough going on and yes to painting and hiding wires.

Your pretty decorative pieces on the bookcase pick up the blue in the rug so nicely. Something else on that wall may overwhelm that look. I wouldn't worry about the wires personally. Sometimes we see things in pictures that we don't notice in real life.

It looks nice the way it is. You seem to be doing a good job with settling into you smaller senior apartment. Hope you are finding peace and contentment there. Everything looks nice and fresh - bookshelf looks good with your blue pieces. If you have someone to help you, you might drop the cord on the left side behind the bookshelf and there will not be so much of the cord exposed.

It looks lovely Dody. Your rug is so pretty and is perfect with the blue decorative pieces on your bookcase. If you can easily hide the wires I would but if it is difficult I wouldn't worry with it.

Happy New Year Dody!

Do not add anything. Start to take away items. Not sure that's the right location for the air filter. Maybe a less prominent area would be better. Slide the bookcase over to meet the TV stand. Eliminate the small chest in front and the pedestal with the small child perched on top.

It looks a little cluttered to me, with everything squeezed along the wall. I love the pedestal, but I wonder if it is lost here. Perhaps it would be prettier centered in front of the window. I also believe the coffee table pushed up to the TV stand was a mistake?

The problem with the old TVs we had 20 years ago was that they took up so much room, depth-wise, and so, folks were hiding them in a wardrobe cabinet. The problem with the flat screens today is that they take up so much room width wise and look like a monolith dug out of the sand on mars in a science fiction movie. Placing them against a white will only emphasize that.

I am not a fan of feature wall painting, but in this instance I would do it. Here I used a medium, dark grey-blue. You will see on the side wall I used a deep pastel blue -I suggest this for the rest of the room. The TV seems to blend into this wall color better which I also believe is a good color for the wood furniture which looks a bit cheap against the white, If I do say so myself.

I am also not a fan of mixed molding colors, and painted the door trim in my mock up to mach the mopboards.

I moved the TV council over to the right and placed the air purifier next to it. When appliances are grouped together they tend to not look so jarring in an decor. The Air-purifier is what it is, and shoving it into a space like a naughty boy, may draw more attention to it than giving it it's own darn space to be. Though I didn't do it in the mock up, I might also center the bookcase in it's space, so there is equal distance to the left and right of it.

In an apartment, The ceilings are usually low. Placing items on top of a bookcase will make the room look even shorter.

leaving some space around furniture like this makes a room look less stuffy and crowded. As you can see now, there is quite a bit of bare wall space over the TV and to the sides. I would recommend that you find plate hangers for your blue & white plates, and make a wall arrangement to decorate those spaces. (sorry I neglected to put plates in my mock up but I think you can get the idea.

As far as the cords go, I do try to hid them as much as I can, but it seems way to fussy to actually paint them. I have used white extension cords though, and wound up and tied with twist ties the brown cords to hide them out of the way.

I edited this to add a note on styling bookcases. Generally, I try to put the heavier items on the bottom shelves, in this case the books. And lighter items on the top shelf, in this case the more whiter plates. This is visual weight, not actual weight.

This post was edited by Lilylore on Tue, Dec 30, 14 at 14:26

I would remove the chest and maybe put the cabinet across the corner, instead of against the flat wall.

And if I could afford it I would have an electrician put an outlet or two on the wall behind the TV. Also leave the speaker on the other side next to the dark cabinet, it doesn't show up as much there. I like the white wall better. My sister paints her walls with dark colors and they look awful, making the room look much smaller and every rough spot on the wall shows up.

This post was edited by EmmaR on Tue, Dec 30, 14 at 14:34

Emma, it's a bit of a fallacy that white walls make a room bigger. It is a long held falsehood. Darker colors actually recede and light colors seem to move forward. Done right, darker walls can make a room look noticeably bigger.

Stark white will show poorly rendered walls just as easily as dark colors. In fact, like a white couch shadows and divots can stand out in sharper contrast; I actually find that dark colors tend to hide unevenness more readily,

What brings out the imperfections in a wall is mostly shiny paint, so semi-gloss white will pick out every imperfection, while a dark flat paint will be like velvet and make them seem to disappear. Another common mistake is to fill in nail holes or divots with spackle and then just paint right over with your wall paint w/out using a base coat or sealer. Though that newly spackled area is perfectly flat, it will show up because the paint never takes to it the same as the rest of the wall.

We are living in an age where walls need not be institutional white nor saccharine, dinner-mint pastels.

This post was edited by Lilylore on Tue, Dec 30, 14 at 14:59

Very nice mockup Lily.

Dody - Good job on settling in to the new place. It's looking great. Do you think management would let you paint one wall like Lilly suggests? It does give the room a nice feature.

No, I can't paint, and I wish I could. Someone did a real sloppy job of meeting up with the trim. I wish there was some way that I could clean it up.

I will try and see If I have room to kitty-korner the bookcase. I never thought of that. I will also try to find another spot for the blanket chest. I have had it for 55 years and it is one thing I hated to give up. I need it for storage, but will think on a place to put it.
If I put plates on the wall, how should it be done, I guess first I should try moving the bookcase, and then decide. Thanks so much for your many ideas. I have now been here 3 months and it is feeling very much like home to me.

I really like the blue on that wall! We have a similar dark tv/light wall going on in our LR and I hope to paint the wall a darker color. I think it looks really good in the mock-up!

My sister's home did look smaller with the bright dark paint on it. Maybe they don't all look that way but her's did.

I think your whole set up looks fine the way it was when you posted it. It seems to suit your style and lets you use the things you love. Since you can't paint in your apartment (against the rules, I assume), I think you've done a good job of making the tv wall look good.

Thank you all for your advice. I have no other place to put the cedar chest and I have my Christmas decorations stored in it. It is also used as a game table for the great grandkids, of which I have four that are usually all here at the same time and seating when the family is here.
I am thinking that the answer to my original question, is I do not need anything on the wall.
Knowing that I have a lot of 'stuff' squeezed into my tiny apartment always has me looking for solutions, but this seems to be the best that I can do.
The wires for the cable are quite an eye sore to me also. But when the cable company came to hook up my TV, I asked them to run the wires down thru the basement, but they said they were not allowed to. The other wire is to my fan, and it is not always in that position.
Again, I thank you all for the encouragement and the advice.
dody

I think you are doing a good job trying to fit your furniture into a smaller place, Dody. One thing you might want to do---- use museum putty on the bottom of the figure on the pedestal to help it stay in place. The putty will not harm either piece.

Just another perspective. Saw this display @ Ikea. I liked the TV was NOT the center of attention. Was somewhat hidden by everything else on the wall.

Looks very nice & cozy, Dody - well done! An idea for hiding the cable & other wires is linked below. A flexible plastic tube that's slit all along the side so you can lay your cables inside, including the tool that holds it open while you do so. Keeps the cords out of the way & from collecting dust. Can be cut with scissors into smaller lengths if you have cords running in different directions from where they plug in. The white cover lays along the floor by the baseboard. More expensive kits include flat link-ups that run around corners.

Here is a link that might be useful: Cord cover

You can have someone hide the wires. We just paid for a handyman to do it on our wall mounted TV.

I like the idea of TVs hidden by art around them in theory, in real life I worried it will look cluttered! I'm referring to the store photo above....

You can have someone hide the wires. We just paid for a handyman to do it on our wall mounted TV.

I like the idea of TVs hidden by art around them in theory, in real life I worried it will look cluttered! I'm referring to the store photo above....