My living room wall stayed blank for almost two years after I moved into my flat in Munich. Not because I liked it that way — I walked past that big white expanse every single day and it bothered me — but because every idea I found online seemed to need either a huge budget or a level of skill I did not have. Then one rainy Saturday I finally started with a single framed photo and a nail, and something clicked. Over the past few years I have tried nearly every wall project in this list myself, in this very flat, and I have learned what actually holds up, what falls off the wall at 3 a.m., and what is worth the money. Here are my ten favourites, with the practical details I wish someone had told me before I started.
1. Gallery Wall
I started my gallery wall above the sofa with nine frames I had collected from flea markets around Munich, and it is still the piece of my flat I get asked about most. What worked for me was laying everything out on the living room floor first and living with the arrangement for a day before I touched a hammer, because what looks balanced on paper can feel lopsided once it is actually on the wall. I kept about five centimetres between frames and anchored the whole thing around one large black-and-white photo in the middle, then filled in with smaller prints and postcards. The mistake I made was using cheap adhesive strips on two heavier frames; one came down in the night and left a small chip in the skirting board, so now anything over a kilo gets a proper nail and a wall plug. My frames cost me roughly 40 euros in total, and swapping one or two prints every few months keeps the whole wall feeling fresh without starting over.
2. Floating Shelves with Décor
The two floating shelves in my hallway were the first time I drilled into a wall on my own, and I will admit I measured three times and still drilled the first hole two centimetres too high. What saved the project was a cheap spirit level and a cardboard template I taped to the wall, marking every hole before the drill came out. I used solid pine boards, 80 centimetres long and 20 deep, sanded them smooth and finished them with a clear matte oil so the grain still shows, and each shelf cost me under 25 euros including brackets. On them I keep a small trailing pothos, three paperback books stacked flat, and a ceramic vase I picked up at a pottery market. The thing I would do differently now is leave more breathing room between objects, because the first version looked like a crowded shop shelf until I took half of it off. Less really is more here, and the empty space is part of the design.
3. Macramé Wall Hangings
I learned macramé on a grey November weekend when I wanted something soft and textured for the bedroom wall, and I chose it precisely because it needs almost no tools — just cotton cord, a wooden dowel, and patience. My first piece was about 60 centimetres wide, made from 3-millimetre cotton rope that cost me around 12 euros, and it took me two evenings in front of a film to finish, mostly square knots and a bit of fringe at the bottom. The dowel I used is a piece of driftwood I found on a walk along the Isar, which gives it a shape no shop-bought dowel could match. What I did not expect was how much dust a hanging like this collects, so now I shake it outside once a month and run a lint roller over it. It hangs above my bed and softens the whole room in a way a framed print never did, and whenever friends ask where I bought it, I love telling them I knotted it myself.
4. DIY Canvas Paintings
I am not a painter, and my first canvas proved it — a muddy abstract that I quietly painted over a week later — but my second attempt is still hanging in my hallway, and I am genuinely proud of it. The difference was giving myself permission to be simple: I picked three colours that already lived in my flat, a warm terracotta, a deep green and a cream, and painted big soft arches on a 60 by 80 centimetre canvas from the craft store, which cost about 10 euros. I used acrylic paint because it dries fast, roughly an hour between layers, and a wide flat brush so the edges stayed clean. The paint itself cost me under 15 euros, and a second coat the next morning fixed the patchy spots from the first pass. My tip is to stand the canvas on the floor and step back from it often while you work, because up close every brushstroke looks like a disaster and from two metres away it suddenly looks intentional.
5. Wall Mirrors
The mirror in my hallway was a practical decision before it was a decorative one, because that corner of my flat gets almost no daylight and always felt like a cave. I found a tall arched mirror second-hand for 35 euros, cleaned it up, and hung it opposite the front door, and the change was immediate — the whole entryway feels brighter and noticeably bigger, because the mirror catches the light from the kitchen window and throws it back down the hall. What I learned the hard way is that mirrors show every fingerprint and dust speck, so I keep a microfibre cloth in the drawer right underneath and give it a quick wipe once a week. If you are grouping smaller mirrors, hang them at eye level and keep the spacing even, and check with a level after every single one, because a tilted mirror is far more obvious than a tilted frame. I would also skip adhesive hooks for anything heavy; my mirror is on two proper screws into a wall plug, and it has not moved in two years.
6. Wall Planters
My kitchen wall used to be the dullest spot in the flat, just white tiles and a clock, until I mounted three small planters there and suddenly it felt alive. I started with pothos and a trailing spider plant because they forgive a lot, and I chose ceramic pots with drainage holes after losing one plant to a pot with no drainage that stayed soggy for weeks. The planters hang at different heights — roughly 150, 165 and 180 centimetres — which keeps the arrangement from looking like a row of soldiers, and the whole set-up cost me about 30 euros including the brackets. Watering is the part nobody warns you about: I take each pot down to the sink once a week instead of watering it on the wall, because the first time I watered in place, drips ran down the tiles and left marks. Now the plants are thriving, the kitchen smells faintly green after watering day, and guests always ask about them before anything else in the room.
7. String or Wire Wall Art
String art was the project I almost did not try, because it looked fiddly and I assumed I would need a steady hand I do not have, but it turned out to be one of the most forgiving things I have made. I used a pine board about 50 by 70 centimetres, hammered in small nails following a simple geometric pattern I sketched in pencil first, and then wound black cotton string between them until the shape filled in. The whole thing cost me under 20 euros, and the only real skill involved is patience, because the string work itself is just going back and forth in a pattern you choose. My one mistake was hammering the nails in too deep at first, which made it hard to loop the string around them, so now I leave about a centimetre of each nail standing proud. It hangs in my home office above my desk, and I still catch myself looking at it during long work calls, which is a better review than any compliment a visitor has given it.
8. Wall Decals and Stickers
As a renter, wall decals were the first decoration I tried in this flat, because my landlord was very clear about holes in the walls and I was not about to test that boundary. I put a set of large botanical decals on the bedroom wall above the bed, and they cost me about 18 euros for a pack that covered roughly a metre square. The application took twenty minutes: I wiped the wall down first, laid the pieces out on the bed to plan the arrangement, and smoothed each one from the centre outwards with an old credit card to push out air bubbles. The trickiest part was peeling the backing slowly, because rushing it folds the decal onto itself and there is no un-sticking it gracefully. They have been up for over a year now and still look fresh, and when I move, they peel off cleanly without taking paint with them, which is exactly the promise I needed as a renter. For anyone in a rental, this is the lowest-risk way to make a wall yours.
9. Cork or Pegboard Wall
The pegboard above my desk is the most useful thing on any wall in my flat, and it started as a plain 60 by 90 centimetre board I painted a soft sage green to match the room. I mounted it with four screws and wall plugs, then added hooks, small baskets and a couple of clips, and now it holds my scissors, washi tape, a small calendar, photos from last summer, and the earrings I always lose. The total cost was around 25 euros, and the painting took one evening plus overnight drying before I could hang anything on it. What I love most is that it changes with me: when a project finishes, the board gets rearranged in five minutes, and nothing about it is permanent. My advice is to buy a few more hooks than you think you need, because you will find uses for them within a week, and to keep the heaviest items low on the board so the whole thing stays balanced and does not pull away from the wall.
10. DIY 3D Wall Art
My first 3D wall piece came from a pile of leftover materials I almost threw away: wooden offcuts, a few paper shapes, and a scrap of linen from an old cushion cover. I glued layered wooden discs onto a painted plywood panel, about 70 by 50 centimetres, building up the texture in clusters rather than a flat grid, and finished it with a coat of matte white paint so the shadows do the talking instead of the colours. The glue needed a full 24 hours to cure properly, and I learned to be patient after one disc slid off overnight because I had hung the panel too soon. The whole piece cost me almost nothing, since most of it was already in my craft cupboard, and it hangs in the living room where the afternoon light rakes across it and the shadows shift through the day. It is the one piece visitors always touch first, which I take as the highest compliment a wall decoration can get.
Conclusion
Looking back at all ten of these projects, the ones I still love years later are not the most impressive ones — they are the ones that fit my flat, my budget and my actual life. The gallery wall and the pegboard get used every day, the macramé and the mirror make the rooms feel softer and brighter, and even the decals I bought as a renter’s compromise have earned their place. If you take one thing from my experience, let it be this: start with the wall that bothers you most, pick the project that feels most like you, and give yourself a weekend to make it. You do not need a big budget or professional tools, just a free afternoon, a few euros, and the willingness to drill one hole and see what happens next.