Modern Day Murals

I spied this tropical wallpaper mural by Swedish company Mr. Perswall on 79 Ideas recently and I've been captivated ever since. Maybe it's because it's juxtaposed against more modern furnishings that don't play into a tropical theme. Maybe it's the use of an unexpected deep color palette in the scene itself. In any case, what I see in this room defies any former perceptions I might have had about wall murals.

I'm prone to using larger scale art and photography for big impact anyway. But honestly, I've always relegated murals to panoramic battle scenes or bucolic, colonial era countryside vignettes in stuffy mansion estates. Today's interpretations have me reconsidering though and scheming about how we might incorporate something that was originally conceived long before cameras were ever invented, into our contemporary home.

I like the idea of pairing old and new. A nursery is what comes to mind first (not now Mom, but someday). Something like this, albeit on a much smaller scale and with less ornate, streamlined furnishings.

Designer Ilse Crawford, Dinder House in Somerset, England

I also like the color they can infuse, particularly against white walls. I saw this custom watercolor mural by Black Crow Studios and those pesky little gears in my brain started turning, trying to figure out how I could replicate it (yeah right). While the swirled, coral hues alone make it beautiful, I like it even more hung up against the white coffered ceilings and all that molding, something we don't have in our mid-century home.

Robert Passal Interiors, Hampton Showhouse 2012

I also like this interpretation, created by Jenny of LGN for an art-historian client. This is a scan people of an antique Zuber mural, printed on adhesive backed paper. Genius.

I guess what it boils down to for me is that I'm drawn to modern-day murals for the unexpected quality they can infuse in a room.

The tropical image at top set against rustic chopped wood and Bertoia chairs or the image just above, pairing a European historical scene with black upholstered bed, dressed in Americana and neon piped pillows.

It's layered and unpredictable, qualities I not only admire in designed spaces, but people too.