Name: J.D.
Location: Urbana, Illinois
Type: 2 bedroom rental
Why I use color: Color can help to personalize anonymous spaces (such as blah-white rental apartments!) I can’t paint, but I can hang things on the walls, so I use fabric-covered wall panels to add color and comply with my lease. (The panels also help with the noisy neighbors.) Brown can be boring, but it can also be warm, rich and comforting which is the effect I wanted (and think I achieved) here. The color inspiration for my bedroom comes from the print above the bed which has a lot of personal significance for me.
The paintings on the wall by the window add a punch of vibrant color, which helps get me going on gray fall mornings. The green glow-in-the-dark Hoberman spheres are fun to look at and work as nightlights.
2 good color tips:
1. If you’re afraid of color/change/commitment but not computers, try out SketchUp (free version available from Google for personal use – www.sketchup.com). You can test your ideas in this relatively easy to learn/use 3D program before committing.
2. Lighting can dramatically change the way your color looks and color can dramatically change the way your lighting looks. Think about this in advance! Provide for different lighting options/combinations to add versatility to your spaces.
2 good color resources:
1.Travel—both exotic and ordinary—is tremendously inspiring. Routine trips are often overlooked as a source of inspiration, but the trip to work, product packing at the store, and all the “ordinary” places of everyday life can provide very interesting color ideas.
2. Film and television are great sources for color and design ideas. Currently on TV, CSI Miami and Las Vegas use color in fantastic and interesting ways. Foreign and independent films are usually good bets, but big-budget Hollywood pictures put a lot of money into set design, location fees, and filming so they can also provide inspiration.
LOVE the brown wall panels. What kind of fabric did you use?
Details on the fabulous wall panels please :D
How are they attached?
What kind of fabric?
What kind of panel?
Time?
Cost?
Very nice!
The panels have such a nice suede-y look to them, like I just want to touch them.
what a wonderful way to add texture as well as color. the sound blocking is an added bonus. I love it!
Wall panels are great. Beautifully done.
My landlord would shoot me in the face if I hung that much stuff on the walls. I like it though.
Very creative and sophisticated. I like the lime against the warm brown tones, and the play on grids that runs through the space.
tr— Ouch! If you had enough artistic sense to create and hang these panels YOU could fill the nail holes when you were ready to move and LL would never be the wiser. AND you would still be able to breathe through your nose.
JD— Great idea and great execution! I'm staying tuned to see answers DJ's questions.
About the upholstered panels:
The fabric is upholstery fabric that was on clearance/remnants at my local Hancock fabric store. I had to buy it – it’s the same fabric as the upholstery on my sofa, but in different colors (Room & Board calls the fabric “Douglas”). It’s a fantastic fabric! I spend about $65 on the fabric, and I still have more.
The panels are frames built out of 1 x 2s that were left over from a project at work and free to me. I first wrapped the frames in quilt batting (about $20), then in the fabric. I used a staple gun to assemble the frames and attach the fabric/batting. The panels are quite light. I used small “L”-shaped metal brackets to attach the panels to the wall. Because they’re padded, the panels wedge into the space between the brackets above and below and stay put.
Overall, I probably spent about $100. Cutting the wood for the frames probably took about 2 hours. Assembling the panels took about 2 weekend afternoon/evenings while also working on other things and watching TV. I put them up in about 2 hours.
I’ve also gained several hours of sleep – no more waking up to the neighbor’s blaring NPR Morning Edition.
Would love to fall asleep in such a soothing, earthy room...
This isn't my style but I admire your effort in a rental. And woo hoo, an Illinois entry.
Love the look and really love the sound proofing. Any ideas for loud neighbors downstairs?
Your room is very nice. The only thing that doesn't tie in, for me, is the green swag curtain. That shade of green and style of curtain does not seem to fit in your otherwise modern room.
For other wall panel ideas, google Jonathan Fong style or Fong Shui. His website has instructions for the most awesome aluminum panel wall.
love the cobalt touches and the very very ingenious and good looking solution to a.)landlord and b.)neighbornoise. go you.
i love that wall. it even ties in the typical (and uber-boring) beige rental carpet. i'm looking at my own now and wish i'd been as clever at integrating it as you have been.
i agree that the only thing that detracts from the room is the swag curtain. get somethin' good up on that window, and you're set.
also, hooray for another champaign-urbana AT reader!
I really want to like this.... but for some reason I don't.
I have noticed that SOOOOOOOOOOOOO many people in this contest go crazy with colour on ONE wall and the rest are left white. What the hell? It's unbalanced and just because you don't want to paint all your walls canary yellow, doesn't mean the rest has to be WHITE. It looks unfinished and confused.
Same goes for this room. The fabric panels are awesome and I love the luxurious looking fabrics. But the artwork is too small and not the right colour. The other walls are all WHITE. Why white people, why? You could paint them a complementary colour or pick a colour out of the squares and use it on the other walls so it doesn't look so barren.
To Cassandra:
He is in a RENTAL that does not allow painting. Do you just look at the pictures and not read what the apartment owner's say:
"Color can help to personalize anonymous spaces (such as blah-white rental apartments!) I canÂ’t paint, but I can hang things on the walls, so I use fabric-covered wall panels to add color and comply with my lease."
As a renter myself with a specific clause in my lease that forbids painting the walls, it is frustrating.
To JD, excellent apartment! Very creative idea. I've been thinking about something similar for my bedroom, and now that I've seen how it could work, I'm back to the drawing board. Thanks for the entry and the idea!
Love the second photo, not so crazy about the first -- it's that swag curtain, it just doesn't go. I'd suggest completely covering that whole window wall with really simple floor-to-ceiling drapes (pick one of the browns from your panels). That would also get rid of another white wall and balance the room more.
Great use of fabric. I agree about the curtain and I would swap out the art. What are those amazing sculpture like items? Cool lamps.