Great Home Office Wall Decor Ideas to Keep You Inspired

If you work from home, your home office is probably the place where you spend most of your waking hours, but with the right wall decor, your office space can become a sanctuary of inspiration and peace, a place where creative ideas can flow.

When planning your home office wall decor, think about:

• The availability of natural light
• The kind of tone that best fits your field of work
• The colors that best fit your chosen mood
• The textures that you enjoy having in your space
• The quotes or pictures that inspire you most 
• The materials that you need to have close at hand
• Your view and the view of the wall behind you (for Zoom meetings!)

#1: Wall Decor and Natural Light

When planning out your home office wall decor, the most important thing to get right is the availability and direction of natural light.

According to science:

• People who work next to a window during the day sleep better at night [1].
• Workers with optimized natural light experience significantly less eyestrain, blurred vision, and headaches.
• Access to optimized natural daylight increases productivity and reduces drowsiness.
• Working close to a window significantly increases daylight satisfaction [2].

If you have large bay windows in your home office, the windows and the view beyond can become the focal point of your office space, coupled with beautiful wooden furniture and natural greenery.

As an alternative, light from a window positioned to the side of your desk will illuminate your workspace and wall decor with less chance that you'll be distracted by glare from the sun or the goings on outside.

#2: Set the Tone for Your Office Walls

The right tone for your office walls depends on your line of work, the style of architecture in your home, your geographical region, and your personal preference. Once you have a tone and theme in mind, the details—textures, colors, furniture, and wall decor—will come together much more easily.

Clean and Bright

Clean lines and brightly colored, modern furnishings against white or lemon walls are ideal for home-based businesses in the fields of psychology, design, marketing, and early education. For your wall space, consider:

• Your child's drawing made into a sign
• Colorful wall decals
• Origami or 3-D wall art
• Scrabble wall tiles arranged to spell your business name or a word related to your business
• A letterboard with movable letter pieces
• A pinboard or peg board to stay organized
• A chalkboard or whiteboard for brainstorming and teaching
• Honeycomb shelves for displaying potted plants, essential oil diffusers, colored pencils, and pictures in frames

Modern Art

If you work as an artist, photographer, graphic designer, sculptor, or architect, creating a home office that exudes modern sophistication can help you win your clients' trust.

• Keep things simple but striking with minimalist black and white walls.
• Decorate the walls with eye-catching stencil art.
• Create a gallery wall featuring modern art paintings and prints.
• Set up gallery shelves with your original artwork in frames.
• Place a modern sculpture as a focal point on your desk.
• Elevate your wall with a wall sculpture in metals plated with gold, silver, copper, or bronze.
• Illuminate your desk with a modern lamp.
• Display your books on cube-style bookshelves.
• Decorate the facing wall with sleek, modern clocks showing different time zones.

Farmhouse

Crafty types, farmers, and homesteaders who sell their products online can easily incorporate a farmhouse theme into their home office wall decor.

• Give the office walls a textured look with shiplap painted in neutral colors.
• Decorate the walls with dried flower arrangements, wicker wreaths, hanging herbs, nuts, fruits, and homemade stuffed toys.
• On the facing wall, hang artwork featuring the countryside or farm scenes, or a wood-framed farmhouse sign with a meaningful quote like "Begin each day with a grateful heart" or Bible verses about doing your best.

Naturalist or Botanical

Nature lovers who would rather be hiking in the forest or walking on the beach can incorporate their favorite pieces of nature as part of their home office wall decor. If you are a landscape artist, jewelry artist, environmental activist, landscape architect, garden designer, or botanist, try:

• Green walls
• Natural prints
• Nature-patterned wallpaper
• A bamboo wall
• Potted plants
• Hanging plants
• Wicker baskets for storage
• Cork trivets as memo boards
• A chalkboard mural wall
• Sea shells

Bohemian Chic

A Bohemian-chic office space aesthetic can be ideal for a wide range of women who work from home, such as fashion designers, dressmakers, florists, artists, choreographers, event planners, and poets. For an elegant vibe that's in harmony with nature, add beauty to your space with:

• Fresh flower arrangements
• Vintage framed flower art
• Tapestries and textiles
• Wreaths with ribbons
• Strings of lights

Ethnic

Ethnic home office decor communicates your origins (or travels) proudly and lends inspiration to endeavors like cultural event planning, music composition, nonprofit projects, and national art. For your ethnic-inspired home office, add color and life with:

• Bright woven wall hangings
• Cultural artwork and photographs
• Handmade items like painted earthenware and beaded bracelets
• Plants from your chosen culture, if they're available where you live

Antique

An antique office look is a classic style that never goes out of fashion and is especially easy to create if you live in an older apartment or house. Ideal for intellectual endeavors like study, book-writing, music composition, or teaching classes, create this aesthetic with wall decor including:

• Framed book pages
• Framed sheet music
• Wooden bookshelves
• A large world map
• A globe
• A telescope
• A large analog clock

Industrial

Share your love for manufacturing and tools with an industrial-aesthetic office space. This is the perfect look for engineers, manufacturing professionals, and technicians who work in various trades.

• Feature industrial textures in your decor with metal shelves, a metal desk, and a brick or pallet wall.
• Use the tools of your trade as wall decor by hanging them on a wall-mounted board or by placing them decoratively on floating shelves.
• Hang a large artwork or photograph of a piece of your work or construction plans.
• Use accent lighting to draw attention to your focal point—whether it's artwork or a set of tools.

Professional

Real estate agents, lawyers, accountants, insurance brokers, and financial advisors can create very professional-looking home offices with some simple—but effective—wall decor. When planning your space, think about the view of clients who come to your home as well as Zoom clients who you see online.

• Place framed certificates and qualifications on the wall to show your accreditations and build trust.
• For the visible back wall, consider a customized logo business sign to raise awareness of your brand.
• Look and feel official with a monogram of your company's initials.
• Stay organized with an acrylic wall calendar.
• Throw in a bit of humor with a "Work hard and be nice to people" sign

Sports

Coaches, gym teachers, and sports writers can have a lot of fun with their office wall decor. Combine functionality and aesthetics with:

• A colored accent wall adorned with balls and other sports equipment (in mesh bags or wire cages)
• Large framed pictures of your current and past sports teams
• A pinboard with event notices, reminders, and flyers
• Sports jerseys or uniform items from your current or favorite teams
• Clipboards, pens, and a whistle that you can grab as you walk out the door

#3: Select a Color Scheme for Your Home Office

Colors set the mood for your home office and can turn even the most neglected corner of the house into a happy and inviting place. For a calming, soothing ambiance, go for cool colors like purples, greens, and blues. For a cheery and happy vibe, feature accents of yellow, orange, and red.

Depending on the current colors of your office space, you could:

• Paint an accent wall and hang art or white wall signs for contrast.
• Take a blank wall or one that's painted in neutral colors and decorate it with bright artwork to really make the artwork pop.
• Pick two or three colors (one neutral and one-to-two feature colors) for all of your home office wall décor or mix it up for an eclectic look.

#4: Mix and Match Textures

There's a lot you can do when it comes to texture in your home office. Textured accessories like area rugs, textile hangings, bamboo blinds, and wicker baskets add depth and interest to the space.

You can also match the textures in your office space to the kinds of textures that you use in your home decor for a more unified look. This works especially well if you don’t have a dedicated room and your home office occupies a corner of the main living area.

#5: Turn Work Materials into Wall Decor

Do you use tools in your line of work that go beyond the stock-standard laptop or desktop computer? Turn them into unique wall decor items by displaying them decoratively on floating shelves.

Featuring work tools like paintbrushes, compasses, tape measures, reference books, and medical instruments in your home office decor serves another purpose as well: You'll always have the tools you need close at hand!

#6: Include Something that Inspires You

For the finishing touch to your home office wall, be sure to add something you can look to for inspiration. Many people like to have family photos or pictures of their pets on their desks as a reminder of who and what they're working for.

In addition to sentimental items like photos, some people like to place an inspirational quote somewhere they can see or have a flip calendar with inspirational quotes for each day to motivate them to do their best.

#7: View Your Home Office from Different Angles

Finally, consider the way your home office looks from different angles. The view from your desk chair might be drop-dead gorgeous but the opposite wall could be a mess!

While the facing wall might not be the best spot for family photos or your monthly calendar (which you'll need to be able to see), it is a great spot to feature your company logo, a monogram, or a large piece of artwork with simple, clean lines.

Basically, for your facing wall, think about what you'd like your colleagues or prospective clients to see and what would help your face to stand out against the background behind it. Then, check the lighting and add some accent lamps if needed before jumping on Zoom.

With the Right Wall Decor, Your Home Office Space Will Inspire You Day After Day

Your home office provides a blank canvas for expressing yourself and finding the inspiration to produce your best work. And once you begin to think about lighting, colors, furniture, prints, signs, and props, you'll realize that this space presents endless possibilities.

To create a workspace that's a pleasure to use and is aligned with your work or mission in life, look for a space with natural light and—of course—a space where you won't be disturbed. Then, choose an aesthetic that's consistent with your field and personality and use a mixture of colors, textures, furnishings, and props to create your very own home office masterpiece!