mid century mural
"Make a moment out of it”
Almost every design problem can be solved with art.
Let me tell you a story of a wall that had no purpose. Sure, the TV had a home, but that was it. All this black space, baby. Here’s the most tragic part of this story: I forgot to take a “before photo.” I know, I know… I should be punished for the ultimate home-design-content crime. So I’ve edited my final photo, in the most professional way - with a few strokes of my finger on my iPhone, to show you this blank wall that needed something.
Let me explain the room a bit more… Out of frame, to the left, is the front door.
So, we need open space for the door to swing into the room and for a walking path. The TV has to go on this wall because the opposite wall has french doors, the wall to our left is all windows, and a TV on the wall to the right would leave wasted space along the whole wall that the TV is now because - remember, we have a door right where you’d probably want to put a couch. Are you following?? No? Honestly, me either. Here’s a visual of the other side of the room:
Photo by Leslie Brown Photography
Photo by Leslie Brown Photography
Do you see my dilemma?! TV must go on that wall, but there’s too much blank space, baby! Dilemma number 2: I want another seating option here (see below) but it is too far from the coffee table and a side table will make the room/walkway feel crowded.
Alright so we’ve got blank wall space that needs filling and a small room that needs funcitonal seating. Sure, shelves or art work fixes a wall problem but with that empty space to the left of the TV stand (to allow for the open door), anything placed above the TV would feel unbalanced; and how the hell am I supposed to put artwork or shelves above that linear console and a square tv?! What would I center my items on? The wall center? The TV center? Too many issues. Thankfully, this wall spoke to me so loudly. Out of nowhere the vision slammed into my eyeballs (or whatever part of the brain that processes visions)…
Photo by Leslie Brown Photography
“We’re gonna do mid-century retro waves in a muted color. It will start from the bottom on the left so that blank space we have to have will hold purpose as ‘the beginning’ of this dope-ass wall feature. They will arch over because we need some curves up in here. Then, it will continue on to the next wall BUT, one line will disappear into the ceiling and the other will come down and pop out of the wall in a 3D way as a floating side table for the chair. Oo let’s also take the floating picture shelves we have in the garage and paint them the color of the lines so they look like a 3D extension of the line, too!”
I’m so lucky the clients said, “go for it!”
Wanna see how I traced, taped, & painted? Check out my next post :)
-Bailey
