8 Ways You Can Add Style Into Your Home With Tapestries

Wall hanging tapestries are the older brother of the bedroom poster and are so simplistically elegant you can do almost anything with them to spruce up your home. After all, tapestry has been a part of art décor culture for near two thousand years. With so many different designs, mottoes, artworks, and symbols there is literally something for everyone. 

And yes, we could easily frame them or hang it up with command strips and call it a day, but where’s the pizzazz? Here, I will run through 8 ways to add unique style to what will surely be your newfound tapestry obsession.

1. Create a Centrepiece

If you are like me, most of your shelves and cupboards are overcrowded with family photos, candles, and terracotta figurines and trinkets.

Break up the messiness of all the “stuff” with a colourful mandala patterned tapestry, loosely rolled up and snaked around your most beloved possessions creating a natural flow. Alternatively, place the tapestry around a vase of flowers, or a fruit bowl for a centrepiece that stands out.

2. Hung From the Windows or Doors

Curtains are a purely functional invention, but they didn’t have to be! Hang your tapestry from the curtain rod to create a little more colour and ambiance in your room. They block out light (but not too much) and create privacy in your home, as well as creating a whole new style. 

Many tapestries have little pouches sewn into the corners to make them easier to hang. If you have housemates, hang one across your bedroom door for a free-flowing entrance that looks cool, but still provides some privacy.

3. Fly a Banner

Traditionally tapestries have been an even square or rectangle shape but they have evolved to have a huge variety of sizes, one of the most distinctive being the banner. Whether it be a simple patterned design or some beautiful artwork (of which there is a huge amount of original art available only on tapestry). 

Banners specifically relate to the tall, thin, roof-to-floor type of tapestry that oozes style and individuality, and they do a whole lot more with what is usually wasted wall space. Alternate designs running along a feature wall, or hang the tapestry longways for a panoramic patterned masterpiece.

4. Make it Art

If you are wanting to keep things simple but original around your home you cannot really go past attaching your tapestry to an artist’s canvas. Blank canvases are cheap, they come in a whole variety of sizes and shapes and are for sale at most dollar shops. Just stretch your tapestry over the canvas and either staple or tie, into place.

Remember there will be a fair amount of overlay at the back, so be sure to get a tapestry a decent size larger than the canvas. You can have one large feature canvas that brings the room together, or if you are committed, you can cut up your tapestry and fit them to smaller canvases and have a running motif or “story” throughout your home.

5. Create a Canopy

The most obvious answer if you have a four poster bed is to attach your tapestry to the posters to create an intimate and colourful canopy. In saying that, I would indulge anyone bold enough to take it a step further and hang a tapestry in a similar manner on the ceiling.

It can be hung along a hallway to create an intimate flow, or above the main room as a unique and interesting talking point. Take care to not cover any lights, fans, smoke alarms or anything that would create a hazard. 

6. Spruce Up Your Furniture

The most tried and true method of hanging a tapestry is over furniture like sofas, couches or tabletops. They serve as a great addition to the colour palette of the room and are conversation starters, but they have a greatly desired functionality of covering less than appealing furniture. Cover the second-hand writing desk etched with scribbles or the shabby old couch with coffee stains. Or even, simply a preventative measure for unwanted pet hair.

I started putting tapestries on my couch to cover its unsightliness, but now I have a new couch and they’re still draped all over. Additionally, washing tapestries is soo much easier than washing an entire lounge suite.

7. Create a Sun Shade

My friend had a house with a balcony where he loved to sit and just watch the backyard, but the sun always, always beamed aggressively across the balcony. He had the clever idea to buy a large tapestry and anchor it to the railing and roof, creating a shady spot to sit and relax. 

Now as we discovered, I would not recommend buying one large one because it ends up becoming something of a ship sail; instead buy a few thinner, lengthier tapestries and line them up how you want them before anchoring. Don’t go doing this to super-expensive tapestries, they will fade eventually and they will get dirty, but nothing that a gentle, cold machine wash couldn’t handle.

8. Wear them!

While not strictly a 'home design’ tip, tapestries make excellent clothing items. Though fashion designers do specifically make fitted clothes with woven tapestries, these are usually overpriced in a bloated market. I think it’s so much more of a unique and effervescent fashion statement to instead just take a piece of your home style tapestry out and about with you. 

Create a light and stunning shawl on a cool autumn day, to an easy colourful makeshift skirt for a day at the beach and everything in between. Think breezy bandana tops, zesty scarfs, a loose and lively throw, or something just to tie up to keep the hair out of your face, the possibilities stretch only as far as your imagination.

Tapestry styles and varieties span so widely and affordably, there’s surely already the perfect design out there for you, you just have to find it! If you stay colourful and vivacious, there’s barely a combination that could go wrong. And remember it’s all about your style and taste, so be bold in your choices and your beautiful tapestry will do all the smooth talking for you.