Solving Decorating & Space Problems With Murals

Original custom murals are a way of personalizing your home in a really unique way. No one else will have exactly the same mural or even close to it. A mural expresses more about you and who you are than almost anything you can acquire for your living space. Love the ocean or the mountains? Then have a mural of your favorite vista painted where you can be there everyday. Did you go on a wonderful trip to Tuscany or wish you had? Then have a glorious view of Italy painted from your favorite photo. Colors can be adjusted to perfectly fit in with your home or business.

Murals can solve problems too! If you have a really tiny space like a powder room you can expand the feeling of the room so that you no longer feel like you are in a claustrophobic cramped space. You know the wall is there but you don't feel like the space is tiny. It opens a room up. What if you have a dining room that you wished had French doors and looked out on a garden? Have it painted.

I once solved a problem for a client who had a circular staircase. Beautiful and dramatic but hard to decorate. A two story wall demands that you do something with it. You can't easily hang paintings on it though, and painting a color on it only goes so far. A faux finish certainly helps but it still feels unfinished somehow, so I painted a marble balustrade with evergreen topiaries lining it, with a view of a mountainous region in Italy, going up this staircase for the client. The wall went from being a problem to being a show stopper. (Picture #3 below)

For another client, the problem was that their bathroom had not been updated in a long time. The fixtures in their bathroom were harvest gold, once popular back in the seventies. They didn't want to go to the expense, time, and trouble to remodel, so they called me. Because their home was contemporary I suggested painting very over-sized lilies in purple with gold centers to match the fixtures. The result made the color of the fixtures an asset instead of outdated eyesores. (Picture # 5)

Another client bought a beautiful old craftsman house on Capital Hill in Seattle, looking out over Lake Union to Queen Anne Hill. She loved everything about the house except for the entry. When you walked into the house you were facing a big blank wall that made the space feel small and cramped. This client knew exactly what she wanted. The house was built in 1910 and she had me paint the Queen Anne view as it would have been in 1910, in sepia to look like an old sepia tone photograph. Now she loves her entry way and neighbors are always bringing friends over to see it. And very important to the client was her realtor telling her that she had greatly added to the value of her home. (Picture #4)
Walls that are very tall also present enormous (pardon the joke) decorating challenges. My client had a living room that had a two story ceiling with white walls. The room didn't feel cozy and she didn't like the blank walls and ceiling above. We solved the problem by faux finishing the walls with a Tuscany inspired color wash. I then painted limestone looking columns in each corner. On the walls that didn't have windows, or the opening to the room, or the fireplace, I painted a lattice with ivy between the columns. On the ceiling (also color washed) I painted a design to look like the grillwork you'd find on a fanciful gazebo ceiling. The room took on style, personality and cozy warmth. (Picture # 6) Another example of dealing with tall walls on a staircase are pictures #9 & 10.

Another interesting solution is painting or faux finishing brick or rock fireplaces. They still looked like brick or rock but have an updated look with a different color and/or texture. This is one area I definitely saved clients the time, trouble, and money by avoiding tearing out their old fireplace facades. A new fresh look and no hassle. I'd say that was a good bargain.

So consider a mural for your home or business when you need to solve a space or decorating problem. You'll be amazed and pleased with the results.

To see more murals visit www.fiserartstudio.com