WALL ART

As an interior design. I’d like to talk about the walls inside your home. Before my IKEA days I worked for a sofa company and their showrooms had very bland walls, so I used my artistic gift ( ha ha ) to change that.

This of course is taking murals to the next level. or ‘muriels’ as Hilda used to say on Coronation Street, for those of you who remember and for others not in the UK it is a long running soap that I always watch, so full of characters.

But murals are good to brighten up a children’s bedroom wall. But if your painting skills are not up to that, you can of course just use a bold colour, as I often did in room sets for IKEA, this can really make the furniture in your room ‘pop’ . Or good old wallpaper of course is popular on a wall these days.

A gallery wall is very popular these days. This is a collection – a display of photographs, posters or prints, creatively arranged on a wall, providing an easy way to transform bland spaces to produce a focal point in your home.

Instead of using paint or wallpaper for a feature wall, you can make a gallery wall, and it can be placed anywhere in your home, for instance in the hallway, up the staircase or any room in your home

Creating a gallery wall doesn’t need to be complex or take hours on end. It’s all about bringing together your favourite pieces. You can experiment with different styles and types of wall art – this could be a mixture of bold block colour prints, bright quirky patterns, typography images or your favourite family photos.

Start making a collection of things you love, from original art, to handmade prints to photographs. It’s usually a good idea to stick to a theme, such as same size frames, similar colours but if you are confident you can work in a mixture of different sizes and themes. For art or prints, select colours that go with your room decor or suit the tone of the room you want to display them in. Or, just ones that make you happy!

Decide if odd or even numbers work best. Sometimes even numbers work well in regimented groups of the same size, but more random arrangements or collections work better with odd numbers.Measure your wall space and lay your collection on the floor. Stand back and look at them all together (allow a bit of space between them for the frames). Does anything jump out as wrong? If yes, take it out. Or is there room for you to add more? Take a photo of your possible combinations. At this point you can decide on frames. Do you need to change them ?

Another thing to consider is you need to decide whether you want them to blend in or contrast with the wall, or to stand out in their own right. Decide if you want them all exactly the same, or if you want lots of different colours. A white or neutral frame is perfect for Scandi-style interiors, while black picture frames are more suited to contemporary or industrial themed interiors.

Maybe even think about collecting different styles of frames in the same colour; this too can add interest. Are they going to be different sizes? If you’re buying artwork it might be easier to buy pieces framed or ready to hang on box canvases.

Do you want neat rows or an organic arrangement? Look at your original photos – do the framed pieces still fit your plan? Do you need to swap anything? When you are happy take another picture.

If you’re still not sure, make paper templates, which will help if you’re a first timer!

You’ll also need a pencil and rubber, a ruler and a spirit level is always handy if you have one. Draw lightly on the walls where the top corners of the frames will be. Measure and mark how much lower down the picture frame you want your nail holes.

Stand back, every so often, just to make sure things are straight and you’re still happy where they are placed.

And of course it does not have to be picture frames, just a bold wall colour and a collection of objects.