Spotted at French by Design a weeks ago: simple geometry shapes in related hues make for a pleasing optical illusion (our favorite). You get a feeling of light falling on the wall. We recommend Benjamin Moores flat matte Aura paint. It hides the flaws in imperfect walls and gives a deep, slightly chalky feel that…
Read Morethe charm of freestyle painted walls
There is something really charming about the patches of “freesyle” painting on the entranceway walls of this Los Angeles home. It “breaks” the expected symmetry in a lovely way. (And we have a thing for breaking with the expected…) From Freestyle: New Architecture and Interior Design from Los Angeles, 1986 via An Ambitious Project Collapsing Related…
Read Moregeometrically painted walls and doors
Last week Mondoblogo posted two photos taken at Art Basel of wonderful geometrically-painted walls with doors (they are part of the blog’s illuminating challenge to identify what is actual “art” and what is not). The top is “Final Cut” by artist Ernst Caramelle. The second “a random door”… We’re putting them in our file of…
Read Moreernst caramelle’s fab painted walls
Somewhere along the way we came across artist Ernst Caramelle‘s wonderful painted walls. They were actually installations in various art galleries: walls as artworks. We want to take them home, or the idea at least…paint some of our space in his fabulous fashion. We notice, that his color blocks can dramatically change the proportions of…
Read MoreVintage Painted Brick Walls Etched with Swirls and Runes
At Chai Wali restaurant in Harlem, we saw a wonderful treatment for the old painted brick walls of the brownstone that that houses the restaurant. It was much more interesting than a plain stripped brick wall, and would be a fine technique to apply in a living or work space.
Read MoreSurprising Painted Patterns on Floors, Walls, Ceilings
Why buy rugs to roll out on your floors, when you can paint them? Why collect art when you can decorate walls, floors and ceiling, with found materials? I’m smitten by these two wildly different, improvisational ways that artists have used paint to mimic and displace art in such disparate places as a house on the…
Read MoreWalls Painted with Volumes in Subtle Hues
Type “painted walls” into Improvised Life’s SEARCH box and you’ll find a trove of images of cleverly, unusually, oddly painted walls. Many have beautiful geometries that make them seem like a canvas. We stumbled on this beauty designer Rick Gillete created in 1976 at the great aqqindex. The volumes painted on the wall in subtle hues give unexpected dimension to the room.
Read Morerough, hand-painted stripes on walls
Spotted in a long post on Desire to Inspire showing work of interiors photographer Paul Raeside: walls with roughly painted stripes. Right up our alley: graphical, imperfect, charming, do-able…though perhaps not as easy as it looks (we’d practice first on some scraps sheets of plywood or walls we plan to paint over, or even heavy…
Read Morerough painted brick walls
We’re always amazed at the way we can start thinking about something and then, like magic, we find more examples, or pictures or casual mentions of the idea. It’s a kind of radar (or perhaps just a shift in our vision); we don’t know how it works or how to control it but it is…
Read MoreOtto Zitko Makes Me Want to Paint on the Walls
Even though I will never have the mastery of Otto Zitko’s wondrous scribble-scrabble, I wanted some of the experience of it, so I figured out how and when…
Read MoreMetallic Checkerboard Floors + a Trick for Visualizing Pattern Painted Floors
When we couldn’t find examples of the metallic checkerboard floors we’re smitten with, we devised a way to envision what they —and other jazzy patterns— would look like as a floor.
Read MorePegboard Walls for Polka Dot Practicality (Martino Gamper)
Although pegboard is commonly used in kitchens and workspaces (think Julia Child), we realized we have rarely seen it to clad ENTIRE walls, as a design element unto itself.
Read MoreDIY Beautifully Chalky Limewashed Walls
When friends renovated their NYC brownstone, they made wonderfully varied walls — high-gloss painted walls next to beautiful flat, chalky ones achieved by careful plastering — that made the rooms incredibly beautiful.
I copied their high-gloss walls in my Harlem space, but wondered how I could achieve the chalky effect of plaster myself. The answer recently presented itself in a great DIY by Justine Hand for Remodelista.
Read MorePainted Canvas Headboard…(+ pillow + chairs)…
Though it’s not exactly a headBOARD, we love this painted canvas hung on the wall at the head of a low bed. And we are inspired by the canvas Cy Twombly tacked right onto the walls of his Rome villa, ready for painting. 63-inch by 6-yards rolls of primed artist’s canvas can be found on Amazon…
Read MoreEverything Painted One Color, Moldings and All
We came across another good idea from the portfolio of journalist and photographer Amandine & Jules that seems to be something of a trend: NOT painting moldings and doors a separate color but rather the same color as the walls, to make a uniform, less busy and, depending on the color, more contemporary look.
Read MoreGouged and Sculpted Door Handle (Holes in Walls)
On the heels with our holes in walls post, Holton Rower sent this fab door with a Brancusi-ish quality. It looks like an artwork and functions like a door: Our design ideal. (We also love the curious that additional, somewhat mysterious graphic elements: a painted dot and painted bricks.)
Read MoreReady-Made Magnetic Walls for Displaying Pictures
The image-clad steel door in photographer Emily Johnston’s apartment sharpened our eyes for the magnetic surfaces that already exist in many homes, from medicine cabinet to fridge doors. Rather than tacking the usual small photos, mementos and lists to it, we’re contemplating having a poster made that would cover its entire surface, mural-like.
Read More70’s Free-Style Painting on Walls
At An Ambitious Project Collapsing, we found this beauty of a photo, part of the New York Public Library’s HUGE free digital archive. It is just one of Dinanda H Nooney’s images from 1970’s Brooklyn homes: Fran Orans. 4715 Surf Ave., Coney Island, Brooklyn, August 5, 1978.
Read MoreThe Geometry of Partial, Architectural Sheetrock Walls
Partial sheetrock walls in unexpected graphic shapes and proportions, without moldings or adornments, can add a modern architectural element to a room.
Read Morehow to to store extra chairs + stools, on walls + shelves
Stumbling on this wonderful image of sculptural black-painted chairs on a wall of the La Gran Francia Hotel in Granada, Nicaragua got us thinking about ways to store un-folding chairs. This assemblage is a more playful, freeform take on the Shaker-esque practice of hanging uniform chairs on hooks (below). Then, moving too fast as we scanned…
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