import urwid def exit_on_q(key): if key in ('q', 'Q'): raise urwid.ExitMainLoop() palette = [ ('banner', '', '', '', '#ffa', '#60d'), ('streak', '', '', '', 'g50', '#60a'), ('inside', '', '', '', 'g38', '#808'), ('outside', '', '', '', 'g27', '#a06'), ('bg', '', '', '', 'g7', '#d06'),] placeholder = urwid.SolidFill() loop = urwid.MainLoop(placeholder, palette, unhandled_input=exit_on_q) loop.screen.set_terminal_properties(colors=256) loop.widget = urwid.AttrMap(placeholder, 'bg') loop.widget.original_widget = urwid.Filler(urwid.Pile([])) div = urwid.Divider() outside = urwid.AttrMap(div, 'outside') inside = urwid.AttrMap(div, 'inside') txt = urwid.Text(('banner', u" Hello World "), align='center') streak = urwid.AttrMap(txt, 'streak') pile = loop.widget.base_widget # .base_widget skips the decorations for item in [outside, inside, streak, inside, outside]: pile.contents.append((item, pile.options())) loop.run()