4 Ways to get the Look of Hand Painted Wallpaper
December 9, 2010 in Asian (Chinoiserie), Beige, Floral, Glamorous, Gray, Luxurious, TIPS & TRICKS!, Wallpaper / Tiles / Murals
The pattern on wallpaper is usually repeated throughout. This is what separates printed wallpaper from the hand painted variety. Only drawback? The hand painted variety is obviously super expensive. Like $500 per square meter expensive. Since I love the look of hand pained wall papers, and chances are that you do too, I thought I’d round up a few ways to achieve this look without breaking the bank. But first, let’s take a look at the real thing:
Hand painted wallpaper makes it possible to achieve beautiful non-repeated scenery which isn’t possible with standard wallpaper. Beautiful, isn’t it?
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Here’s four ideas on how to achieve the hand painted wallpaper look:
1. Printed Murals:
There are actually printed mural wallpapers available, like this one by York Wallcoverings. A good alternative for a feature wall.
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2. Hire a painter.
WINDSOR SMITH / SCOTT WATERMAN
This wall is painted by LA based artist Scott Waterman.
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Allison Cosmos is a professional mural painter. At $75 an hour this isn’t an option for everyone though. This girl is insanely talented, click the link to see more of her work!
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3. Paint a mural yourself!
If you are a good painter, you can free hand a mural yourself. If you don’t consider yourself a good painter, pick a beautiful scene and trace around it on a transparent sheet. Use an overhead projector or mount the sheet in front of a bright lamp. Move the projector further away from the wall you are working on to make the scene larger. Then trace around the shadows on your wall, and fill in with paint. To achieve more depth, paint on wallpaper!
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4. Invest in stencils.
The Stencile Library has a large collection of multi-layered stencils. This requires little artistic abilities, and the result is simply stunning! Here is an example of the result you can get with these stencils. This particular wall is created using this stencil.
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Here’s a closeup of the stenciled wallpaper. To top it all of, Helen, the proud owner of this bedroom wall, placed crystals in the birds eyes and on the flowers. I LOVE this!
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Here you can see that this mural consists of 4 panels. Many of their stencils constitute three or four layers (sheets) for each stencil design, which means you can use many different colors on one stencil, and achieve a nice depth. The girls at the Stencil Library shows lots of examples on their blog ;)
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Have a great day everyone!
