How Do You Decorate a Wall Niche?

Do you have a recessed wall niche in your home?  How did you decorate it? 
This was the dilemma we had when we purchased our tract home ten years ago.   
Here is how I decorated our two niches.

The first one is over my fireplace. I painted this urn with hydrangeas many years ago. I have plans to redo it because I love change and I'm getting tired of it.

It took me about three weeks to paint this because at the time my girls were one and a half and four years old.  I had very limited painting time back then.

Here is the other niche we have in the rotunda between our great room and our master bedroom. 

It's been decorated this way for a few years.

I painted the rotunda black and left the border wall of the niche and the ceiling white.  I added upholstery tacks to the edge of the niche and around the recessed area on the ceiling.  It cost me about $25 for a box of 1000 tacks.  I use them everywhere like my powder room and still have leftovers from the original box.

To see more upholstery tack ideas go here. 

For this niche I added a mirror and hung a sconce on it.  I love how the candle light reflects in the mirror.  I found the mirror at Marshall's and re painted it a silver gold.

After hanging the mirror,  I used a glass and tile bit to drill a hole through the center of the mirror (WEAR EYE PROTECTION and GLOVES).  I carefully placed a nail through the drilled hole and hammered it into the wall behind the mirror.  You might need to add a molly to secure the nail into the wall if it's not hammered into the wall stud.   There is a chance you can shatter the mirror when you drill it or hammer the nail through the mirror.  Be careful and wear gloves and eye protection.  I used to make table top fountains and frequently drilled glass and ceramic containers.  Sometimes the hot drill bit will shatter your project.  This was a inexpensive mirror from Marshall's, so I was willing to take the chance of it breaking. 

 I used some earthquake tack stuff (not sure of the real name) to secure and cushion the back of the sconce on the mirror. It looks like chewing gum and I think I bought it Home Depot?  This keeps the sconce from scratching the mirror and from sliding around.

The sconce was brown and I painted it the same silver gold color as the mirror. 

I think I bought at Marshall's for under $10?

I added some of my magnetic crystal drops to the sconce for a little more bling.  To see how to make them go here.

The candle gives off beautiful light at night.

The upholstery tacks catch the shimmer and look like mini pin points of light.

Here are some other pictures of interesting ways to decorate niches. 

There are so many creative ideas out there!

Paint a meaningful quote.

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Personalize with family photographs.

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Paint an interesting pattern.

I love this!

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Frame out the niche and paint the recessed area a different color.

I'll take one of everything.

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Add shutters.

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Add shelves.

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Add drama with lighting.

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Add art.

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Tile it.

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Do you have a niche? 

I'd love to see how you decorated it!

Thanks for checking it out.