painted walls

Practical Optical Illusions: Doors Hidden in Plain Sight

It isn’t necessary to be an artist to disguise a door; there are all sorts of ways to achieve the affect.

Cy Twombly’s Fab Deconstructed Villa in Rome (1966)

At the compellingly odd blog Under the Sun, we stumbled on an gorgious interior with messily painted, canvas like walls in what appeared to be an Italian Villa. We follwed the trail to discover it was from an article Vogue magazine ran in 1966, about artist Cy Twombly’s villa in Rome. The photographs were by…

A Butterfly-Painted Shed

While we were browsing through photographer Prue Ruscoe‘s work, we came across this image of a what appears to be a garden shed or trailer painted (or stenciled) with huge butterflies. A lovely visual breath of air…

The Beauty of Unfinished…and Asking for Help

This image of musician Amanda Palmer in Brain Pickings reminded us how beautiful walls intentionally painted in a rough “unfinished” line can be. But the real gift was this little video of Amanda Palmer talking about why it is so difficult—and can be so healing — to ask for help, which is the subject of…

A Spiky Red Block Wall

French artist Didier Faustino created this spiky red wall reminiscent of a cartoon explosion as an art installation on the grounds of a 1950’s villa designed by architect and sculptor André Bloc . We love it for the ideas it gives us about doorways and walls: a wall painted that fab red/orange would make a wondrous “welcome” OR…

Jagged or Unfinished as a Design Element

We’ve long been fans of “broken geometries”, the purposeful leaving of design elements unfinished, uneven, or even broken, to create a visual surprise. Recently Remodelista did a roundup of some fine examples.

Walls 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.

Asymmetrical Paintings, Chair Mashup + Improvised Table

There are a number of great ideas in this image of antique dealer Lars Kristensen’s Copenhagen home. We’ve blogged the essential ideas before but think Kristensen’s unique take worth checking out.

70’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.

Painted Geometry (Triangle) Transforms a Flight of Stairs

On the heels of the yellow tape beam-of-light illusion, a simple yellow triangle painted on a flight of stairs transforms it from utterly ordinary to quietly surprising and wonderful. What is it about a simple yellow triangle?

what a pink outdoor wall can do

Spotted at Still + Company’s website: a fab pink wall outdoors. Wonder where it is? We’re told it’s Luis Barrigan’s. We didn’t recognize it, though we’ve written about him, smitten, in the past. Check out Our Lesson in Pink.

the 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…

gurunsi earth tattooed houses of burkina faso

cool designs to paint on buildings, walls, more

In the small country of Burkina Faso near the border to Ghana, it is common for dwellings to be painted with intricate patterns using colored mud and chalk. The patterns tells stories of the community’s culture. We are amazed at how modern these rustic wall paintings are, and imagine how beautiful they would be adorning…

Paolo Soleri Chalky Walls Artists Handmade Houses

soleri’s cool chalky walls from “artists’ handmade houses” (+ our giveaway winner!!!)

In honor of the conclusion of our Artists’ Handmade Houses giveaway contest, here’s one final photo from the book: some lovely chalky walls at Paolo Soleri’s Cosanti . Six small sleeping areas, located along the east side of Cat Cast (so named because the earth pile on which the concrete was cast was mounded with a Caterpillar…