Wall Murals, Part Deux

As promised, here are a bunch of very cool and very different takes on the wall mural. They can be abstract or figurative, brightly colored or more muted, and you can transform just about any space with one. Below you will see murals on accent walls, on walls with mouldings, in stairwells, even crawling onto the floor. There are no rules so keep you eyes open for inspiring ideas and go for it!

These first images are all from a very cool boutique hotel in San Francisco called the Hotel des Artes (I LOVE how the chair is incorpoated into the mural in the first one):

The hotel commissioned emerging artists from around the world to create their “Painted Rooms”. Each room provided the opportunity for the artist to completely express him or herself, using the walls as a giant canvas. The results are pretty incredible. My favorites are the room by Brad Alder (top) and Kelly Ording (bottom).

I love seeing murals used in unexpected spaces and what is more unexpected than a stairwell?

From top: the interior of the Soho location of the Rug Company store (image courtsey of Habitually Chic); a very funky zigzag playing off of the shape of the stairs themselves; and a very cool installation painted by Ruben Toledo for a Nordstrom’s ad campaign.

That’s not to say that I don’t love an image planted right smack on the wall as a piece of art:

From top: Paul Smith’s showroom and office; a jungly take on a nursery wall; the Taschen book store in NYC with amazing murals by Beatriz Milhazes; a gorgeous Asian tree crawling across a glossy turquoise background by Kendall Wilkinson; and a groovy 70′s mural in the MacArthur BART station in Oakland (found on flickr). Enjoy the eye candy and if you move ahead with a mural of your own, please send me some pics. I’d love to see what you come up with. Enjoy!