Beware the downfall of mankind-the horizontal surface.

Tomatoe tomato. How do you decorate the rest of your home? Do what makes you happy.

Emily' s ideas are excellent, cozy, overall in perfect harmony. Alternatively if less stuff needed, I would place the plant into wide basket placed to the picture and put an overhanging plant in the very right of the bookshelf.

A big YES to Emily's suggestion. Especially love the addition of plants. That adds some much needed color and texture to your bookshelf.

Personal preference. Try it both ways (with and without decor on top) and take photos to help decide which way you like it best.

Without seeing the rest of the room, my personal preference is probably nothing on top of the bookcase (and removing the ”home” sign over the TV) as it is likely the largest darkest piece in the room. Putting stuff on top just makes it bigger and may make it loom over the rest of the room’s furnishings. Consider restyling the shelves a bit to add creamier/lighter pieces. Decorate the other room walls to scale to balance the bookcase.

Thanks for your suggestion i am loving the idea

Love Emily's suggestion of the plants. Can't wait to see what you end up deciding to do.

A set of framed pieces would be nice. Maybe 5 or 6 in matching frames. Botanical or wildlife, or family photos.

We hang a pretty tapestry over our tv when not in use. It’s easy to remove and breaks up the black expanse of the tv.

Plants are always a great idea. Extra suggestion;

paint that part of the wall above the shelves the same black as the shelves themselves as to create one wall-unit , the plants will aslo pop out then.

Hi jkumar0, wow, that's a nice wall statement piece! It takes up a lot of real estate, and since it doesn't go all the way to the ceiling, the empty space above does tend to look bland. I can't tell if your ceiling is angled or flat, but have you considered building the unit all the way to the ceiling? If you are handy at putting a simple cabinet box together, you can "fake" building the cabinet to the ceiling. This can only work right if your ceiling is flat--if it's angled, you'd have a large gap at the front of the cabinet.

How much do you really like climbing up to dust and clean the top of that unit? Or watering the plants all the time? If you are able to build to the ceiling and install glass-front doors and some rope light, you won't have to dust and clean but twice a year. Don't forget to put a beadboard or vertical shiplap panel on the back of the cabinet--same as what is on the bookshelf sections. Put some colorful (or white contrasting) pottery pieces behind the glass--something you only use once or twice a year. Then, when you take it out to use it, you can dust (if necessary) before you put it away again ;-)

If you can't build to the ceiling, you can still "fill in" that drastic gap between the top of the unit and the ceiling. I think it is the drastic color difference between the unit and the wall color that make you feel like you have to fill in that gap. Do you have any panoramic photos of your favorite place? Have it printed in black & white and framed with a thick black frame or a wide black mat and average sized frame. You want to go the full length of the unit and take it as close to the ceiling as possible. If you can't do it in one piece, do it in 3 or 5 pieces and connect them together. You don't want any of that white wall to show through. Oh, and put a back panel on the middle section where your television is...you can easily drill or cut a small hole in the bottom to run the tv & cable cords through.

Think of the unit as an accent wall. Floor to ceiling, end to end.

Good luck and let us know what you decide to do!

Plants look great in the rendering. However you need to consider if they will get enough light to thrive. Also watering could be a challenge. Personally I’d keep that space empty.

Don't rule out black furniture, paint or decor based on what experts/influencers say the trends are. Trends come and go, some times within days it seems. I love touches of black throughout a house and I think it looks great when done well.

What if you put the books on top. One end with warm colours then decrescendo from dark to palest. Same with with other side. On the shelves choose neutral (or one colour scheme) items with personal significance and keep it very minimalist. This way the books won’t be a visual distraction from the tv and the decor on the shelves being monochrome or neutral blending in to the shelf colour won’t fight for visual attention either.

My opinion is that your bookcase wall is super heavy looking/dark so thats what makes that white empty space above look so - empty. I would put a bunch more books - tall enough to get close to the ceiling - maybe add a faux plant just fill it up. Then on your lower shelves put sonething light in color like b&w photo that has a lot of white - white vase or silver - a very light color wicker basket

Books up that high on top of a cabinet would be a dusting nightmare for me. YMMV