Express Your Team Spirit with a Sophisticated Sports Memorabilia Wall

By Kelly O’Roark

 

Sports enthusiasts will be happy to know there’s room for them in the interior design world, as sports memorabilia walls designs, when done correctly, can look classy and sophisticated. But if you’re going to be displaying your sports stuff, it’s important to find pieces of memorabilia that enhance the interior design of style of the space, not detract from it. (Sorry, but lining up empty “collector’s item” beer cans on a shelf doesn’t cut it.)

 

 

Whether it’s an exercise room, study, or entertainment room, your team spirit can be displayed in a way that appeals to your grown-up sense of style without looking like a teenager’s bedroom. There are several components to make it look professional, and these tips will show you how.

 

1. Choose Things that are Easy to Mount

Even though you treasure your beloved autographed baseball mitt, it’s not going to work well as home decor if it's mounted to a wall.

 

 

Choosing memorabilia pieces that are flush to the wall is the only way to seamlessly integrate your favorite team into a wall design. Not exactly sure what where to start? Here’s a list of sports-related items that work well for a wall design:

 

• Posters

• Paintings

• Flat athletic gear (like baseball bats, hockey sticks, or golf clubs)

• Autographed photos, pennants, and souvenirs

• Signed jerseys inside of a shadow box

 

 

2. Add Visual Interest with Different Shapes

It’s best to have a mixture of three or more of the items above to keep things visually and aesthetically appealing. Having a wall with six posters doesn’t draw the eye as much as a wall with real athletic gear, pennants, photos, and a poster. Each piece provides a different shape. The painting and posters provide a rectangular shape, the pennants provide an isosceles triangle shape (yes, I remembered something from my 10th grade geometry class), and the hockey stick makes for a long clean line and graceful curves.

 

 

Your sports memorabilia wall design will stand out in the best way possible when there’s a variety of eye-catching silhouettes paired with bold lines and colors.

 

3. Stick to One Color Scheme

Speaking of colors, to achieve a cohesive look, it’s best to have colors in each decorative item that not only complement one another, but also complement the rest of the room. Since this room has a lot of earth tones, the colors in the painting and the rest of the memorabilia – black, yellow, brown, white, and pops of red – are a perfect pairing for the wall.

 

 

Even though there are technically three Pittsburgh sports teams being represented on this wall, they all thankfully have the same team colors, so it works out well!

 

 

4. Symmetry is Overrated

Just because you have different shaped items doesn’t mean that the overall design has to be a perfect square. In fact, because you have a variety of shapes, it would be tough to create a design that forms a perfectly symmetrical geometric shape.

 

 

For those of you who are obsessive compulsive like me, it isn’t as bad as it sounds (I promise). It’s possible to have balance without symmetry, and as long as the memorabilia pieces are arranged in such a way that allows each piece to shine through while working together cohesively with the others, it’s sure to be a home run (pun totally intended).

 

Using these guidelines to create a sports memorabilia wall design is the perfect way to display your love for your favorite team (or teams) without sacrificing the aesthetics of your interior design style. Are ready to take on the task? You’ve got your game plan, so you’re well on your way. Ready? Break!

 

Images used with permission, courtesy of Kelly O'Roark