apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Ummm
Those giant posters with mountainscapes and coconut trees on the shore fascinated me as a kid in the 1984 Sears' catalog, but today, for some very odd reason, I don't really regret that my parent's never actually put one up in my room...

I like it. But I'm a sucker for fantastical, kitschy decor.

Photomurals are so 2005...

very Grizzly Adam-ish.

It looks pretty...more power to the sleeping beauty! don't be haters!

A really good use of the photomural.

I like pictures of stuff and I like decor. Generally, I would rather create more of an abstract interpretation of an idea than a literal one. When you walk into a room, and you feel as though you're near the beach or in a tree house or in Paris, it's preferable to achieve this as presented through the thoughtful arrangement and colors, not because it's made to look like you are located in a postcard. Along the same lines is furniture that acts like a prop and not an interesting element. If your four-poster bed is a sculptural representation of trees, you may be a violator. If your bed tries to look like a yacht, you might want to compare that to a castle or racecar bed. If your interior evokes the forest or the open water, on the other hand, I would call it more of a success than the direct, corny corny corny approach.

I suppose you could make a mural that wasn't a place you wish you were, but I think that's difficult to conceive. If hell is your inspiration, you can bring this up in decor without getting a big mural of flames on your wall. If I wanted to have a big mural of a bear fishing in a stream, it could be just a big picture on the wall, with not much relative to the scheme or "theme" of the room.

I guess that's just what it is: theme rooms. The S.S. Waverly from the 2008 Small Cool contest did what I think was a great job of straddling the line. Making use of nautical methods of saving space and a liberal, obvious theme (full speed ahead, no tame under-the-top choices most people make), some people felt it was too strange and boat-like. I thought it was boat-like as well, but in elements that were combined in design, not because they went and got all the boat stuff in the "I like boats" section of the Christmas Tree Store.

love it.

I had a mural of a forest in autumn on my bedroom wall when I was in college - complete with a winding path to infinity. Many a night I wished I was on that path and away from all the studying.

I could do it again.... but with something like this:

http://www.designyourwall.com/store/Mt.-Fujiyama-wall-mural-wallpaper-8-part-1875-pr-749.html

Sorry, this seems cheesy to me.

of course its cheesy. thats why its so fantastic! I'd love a room with a deer in the forest mural.

cheese-tastic!

I was instrumental once in installing a photo mural of the Neuschwanstein castle in an office that was otherwise pretty boring. (That is one of the ones Disney used as a model.) I'd consider something that fanciful in a home, if the space were right... Or one of my favorites, the photo of Earth from space, usually called "Earthrise". I think that would be cool in a dining alcove, for example.