The wall above the sofa is the largest empty surface in an average living room, and the most common solution for it is the same in every flat: one picture, centred, usually too small for the wall it hangs on. If that picture is up there only because somebody told you something has to go above a sofa - there are twelve other things that do the same job better.

A mirror instead of a picture

A mirror multiplies natural light and visually widens the room, and in terms of character it does not lag behind a work of art. Large formats with a thin frame work best, above a simple sofa. The trick most people miss is the height: it goes up almost touching the backrest, so it reads as one unit with the sofa rather than a second object floating above it.

Sculpture and relief

A wall sculpture in wood, ceramic or metal breaks the horizontal monotony and brings in a texture canvas cannot give you. There is one rule: a single object, with enough empty space around it. Three small sculptures lined up next to each other do not give three times the effect, they divide it by three.

A shelf, but not a full one

Narrow floating shelves above the backrest carry books, plants and objects without taking floor space from the room. The same rule applies here as with sculpture - part of the shelf has to stay empty. A shelf filled to the last centimetre is not decoration, it is storage in plain view.

The sconces change everything else

Two wall sconces with warm light on either side of a picture create depth and break the flat symmetry. It is one of the rare interventions where you add lighting and get a look that reads as more expensive than it costs.

Mouldings and relief

Architectural mouldings create geometry, texture and relief on a wall that is otherwise completely flat. They can be painted the same colour as the wall or in contrast; satin finishes bring out the relief when natural light falls across it. This is an intervention that lasts and that looks like architecture rather than decoration.

Just paint

Sometimes the solution is not an object but a tone. A single wall in a saturated colour - mustard yellow, cobalt blue - gives character with no additions at all. The only rule is to test the sample at different hours of the day. A colour that looks perfect at ten in the morning can look completely different at six in the evening, and that is a discovery you do not want to make after painting the whole wall.

Wallpaper that does not compete

Striped wallpaper brings movement without clashing with the rest of the room's furnishings. It goes up fast and comes off fast, which means the risk is low. In smaller rooms small motifs work better than large graphic patterns, which in a narrow room only narrow it further.

Made-to-measure furniture and a bookcase to the ceiling

The most expensive solutions are also the most durable. Custom-built furniture joins the television, closed storage and open shelving into one, and choosing a wood tone that agrees with the sofa upholstery unifies the whole look. A floor-to-ceiling bookcase, meanwhile, solves storage and decoration at once and completely changes the sense of the room's size - provided, again, that some of the shelves are deliberately left unfilled.

The cheapest solution

One wooden shelf at the right height. Nothing more. On it you rotate frames, books and seasonal objects, with no renovation and no tradesman. It is the only option on the whole list you can change ten times a year without paying anything beyond the first time.

Plates and textiles

Ceramic plates arranged into a composition reproduce the effect of a museum wall using personal and cheap objects - mixed sizes and tones give the impression they were collected over years, which is welcome in rustic and eclectic spaces. A textile tapestry, on the other hand, brings in colour, texture and warmth a picture cannot give, and absorbs sound in the room at the same time.

What all twelve have in common is not a style but one and the same point: the wall above the sofa does not need an object, it needs a decision. The biggest mistake is not a wrong choice - the mistake is hanging something because a space is not allowed to stay empty. Sometimes an empty wall is a decision too, just not the one being sold to you.