I am continually knocked out by the clever design ideas interior designer Susanne Shaker comes up with, like this hand-painted De Gournay wallpaper that instills the serene feeling of Nature in a bedroom. It is one of many inspiring ideas found in 1st Dibs‘ recent photo essay about Suzanne. We worked together for many years when she was a stylist for editorial and advertising shoots. I learned volumes by seeing her apply her impeccable eye and sensibility, and continue to. I hadn’t know about De Gourneay and found many wonderful ideas for wall coverings on their site.
Suzanne’s lovely bedroom got me wondering if there was a way to have one of the many wall mural companies around custom-make a wall covering from an open-source digital archive image. I found this 13-century ink Chinese painting at the Metropolitan Museum’s digital collection, which downloads to 3.2 megabytes, big enough for a wall mural.
…and wondered about possibilities for shifting it a bit in Photoshop…
Look at this wonderful Misty Landscape from 19th century Japan…
While browsing through the Met’s wondrous digital archive, I found Being Open and Empty by artist Wang Dongling. Unfortunately, copyright prevents its use. Powerful!
Want more inspiration? You’ll find a trove of images of Suzanne Shaker’s work at 1st Dibs and Remodelista.
Check out spoonflower.com. They custom print wallpaper or fabric using your own designs. I’m not sure if they can do mural size but maybe you could break up your design into panels that they can print. Then you could assemble the mural on your wall.
Hmmm. Curious timing. Just a few hours ago and one day AFTER we published this article, Remodelista posted Rooms with Flora and Fauna Wallpaper, including our Suzanne Shaker image. Great minds think alike OR could we have been the inspiration?
Whichever the case, you’ll find some good ideas there.