apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

yes! i need help too. i've just moved into a bigger apartment and don't have enough art.

I suggest you talk to your landlord and tell him you want to paint the wall, and that you'll repaint them white when you move out. Rules aren't always set in stone.

Paint. Any color you like.

Just be prepared to repaint them back to white when you move out.

Or you can invest in large artwork. I'm personally a fan of Eric Waugh - his modern abstract pieces are colorful and very large.

Buy a lightweight Persian or Turkish rug and hang it as a tapestry. Turkish rugs from the Taspinar area are a bit spendy but some of the most gorgeous wall-worthy rugs you'll ever find. I have two in my condo I've been thinking of getting up off of the floor and onto a wall...

Toss in some modern wall lamps - you can get plug-in lamps that hang from a will with only a couple of small holes.
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Get some Mobileos! I love mine. Chiasso used to carry them but now I think you have to order them direct from Wingard.

http://www.wingardinc.com/mobileos.html

Then there's wall mounted candle sconces.

These from Wrapables aren't your mama's candle sconces. ;->


http://www.wrapables.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=C54130&cate3=010601


Just remember to patch the holes and repaint everything back to white and your landlord will love you.

wear tinted sunglasses when you're in the apt.

How about fabric? If you're on a tight budget, you can watch the sales at a box-store like Joann's. I recently bought about 4 yards of good Waverley 54-in wide fabric for about $10. With that amount you could cover a short wall, e.g. in a hall, or make a striking floor-to-ceiling swatch of color.

Or if you're not limited, watch apartment-therapy for Marimekko etc links.

what if you created art walls- you could frame canvas painted in solid, really intense colors- that way you could mitigate some of the white wall space, and even anchor some of your furniture. it could be a nice way to anchor a bed, sofa, sideboard etc in a room... it would be really nice either on stretched canvases (no frames) or with matching frames (like black, even plain wood ones)... as long as you are allowed to hang stuff you would be ok.... you could also stretch fabric, and frame it like "art"- and really make a feature of it!

omg Keith those sconses from wrapables are gorgeous!! I think I may get some!!

uh, don't paint it. that is a big no no. i've been in places where if you paint regardless of what the lease says they will charge $300 per room EVEN if you repaint it. plus, you won't get your deposit back.

i use very large pieces of art. i've also bought some really ornate fabric from india to hang. i'm not sure what your style is, so i can't suggest everything, but try buying a fun fabric & stapling it to a frame. my friend did this w/ a knock off pucci print in her live in basement & it looks really nice. try a REALLY HUGE frame & just lean it against the wall behind a chair or sofa. try getting a plank of wood & putting an interesting wall paper on it. lean it against the wall. you could do that w/ a really cheap room divider as well. a tall plant here & there are always great for color & life.

these are some of my tricks.

Perhaps changing your lighting scheme would help, too. Can't definitively tell from your photo what kind of lighting you've got...
but several smaller lamps (as opposed to one or two sources of indirect light) would warm the place up.

And, if it was possible to move the furniture away from the walls, then perhaps everything (and everyone who sat on your sofa) wouldn't look like it had a white background.

Good luck!

Marimekko by mail :

http://www.txtlart.com/

mg has a point, but I'm with jojo. Ask your landlord. We're getting ready to move now from a place we lived for nearly ten years. We painted a couple of rooms nice, rich colors with the understanding that we would return them to landlord-friendly colors when we moved. Our landlord was totally cool with that.

I have to say, though, having just repainted the living room an off-white, we're enjoying the freshness of it so much we're already planning to use that color in our new place.

AN OLD *AT* FAVORITE!

...i tried it and it looks great! especially if you invest in some (not too expensive) frames for each page.

[posted on Monday Jan, 8 2007]

The name is catchy and the premise is simple: for free - no money, nada, no shwingo - you upload your photograph to The Rasterbator and they send it back to you as a series of PDF documents that, when pieced together, are a huge version of your image.

This is what the link looks like: http://homokaasu.org/rasterbator/

With expertise and good printing quality, The Rasterbator allows you to cover entire walls with photographs or images of anything you can get your hands on. There is even a new color version on the site. All of this as an alternative to wallpaper. (Thanks, Marie & Matt!)

Cheap fabric (think wholesale outlets) and a bottle of fabric starch. The fabric "glues" to the wall but strips right off when you want to leave. Then you just rinse the walls clean.

What everyone else said, but gosh--put ANYTHING on your walls! Even on white walls, eyes will be drawn to art and photographs and focus on that. Looking at that picture, I can't appreciate all the colors of your couch and pillows because all I see is the white too.

I had the same problem of the white walls (and my problem with the painting/painting back was laziness). I just started getting stuff on the walls--photos, shelves, a sweet 3 piece Marimekko wall hanging--and it makes such a difference. I am also going to try softer lighting like someone else suggested.

Just get stuff on the walls! Anything!

Another way to get color into that white-walls-by-fiat space would be to use wall washers. Just move any furniture 6" or more off the periphery of the room and plug in some uplights with either colored bulbs, or colored gels (or lenses).

This would "paint" the walls with the color, changing the feel of the space without changing the wall paint.

Naturally, the *best* thing to do is to just ask your landlord ... one never knows, he may agree to let you paint if you indicate that you will return it to white when you leave (also, try to get the approval in writing).

Let us know what happens!

I love your pillows. :) I'd also go for fabric on the walls. I've painted my apt. but put fabric over a color I don't like and it looks amazing. People always comment on how striking the look is. And it's soo fast and easy - much more so than painting. I just staple gunned it to the wall near the ceiling.

I agree with JenPDX. Rearrange the room so that the focus isn't on the wall. You could also then put trees or tall plants or bamboo in front of all that white, with uplights.

Also, does the lease say anything about decals or tapes? Probably not. Museum style lettering would look great, as would overlapping letters of various script fonts.

Ask your landlord. No painting was in my lease too--but I asked him, and he said sure. (Haven't actually DONE it yet, but that's another issue!) I'm sure if you've been there 2 years, and your landlord realizes you're not irresponsible, he/she will agree. Esp. if you say you'll repaint/prime for the new tenant. He/she would probably have to paint again when you move anyway. Perhaps share the colors you're thinking of if the landlord's nervous.

Definitely--art if nothing else!

Color provokes emotion, how do you want your place to feel? Red is exciting, blue green relaxing etc. Also, the light in your apartment is key. Color changes with light. Purchase samples of the colors you like, put on the wall and you will be amazed how it changes according to the time of day. Good Luck!

I'd be wary of painting without your landlord's permission [or some understanding in writing regarding your deposit and repainting responsibilities]. You don't want to get burned if you can find ways around the rules, such as the suggestions about lighting, art, fabric, etc.

I don't want to push my aesthetic on you, but here's a simple wall project, done with paper and doublestick tape:

http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/ny/post-your-baby/readers-art-mayas-paper-quilt-017180#comments

We actually could paint but decided against it [for now]. There are plenty of other ways to color walls. Good luck!

get some funky fabric and hang in areas where you would normally paint a focal wall color-either hang like a banner or stretch onto a wooden frame-think big scale pieces that will mostly cover a wall( ie the space above your sofa, almost the full width of the sofa and almost to the ceiling- with a pattern that picks up the colors in your room ie the sfa and toss cushions!! This can easily be changed and even moved around within your space; try a similar idea behind your bed or one wall in the dining area!! You'd be surprised how much impact it can have in a smaller space- anther idea is to use canvas and paint it the colors that you would have chosen to paint the walls!!

Why not hang or install sheets of perforated steel? You can find lots of patterns at Mcnichols. It will act as an architectural element and you can hang things from it (like plants) with S hooks, and use uplights to create some drama.

http://www.mcnichols.com/perforated-steel.htm

However, I agree with most everyone else that you can probably get away with painting. Why not paint just the one wall in a bold color? Then you don't have to repaint the entire room.

well, there's white, and then there's white. landlords often use cheap chalky white, or worse, a white with jaundiced undertones. why not paint one room with fabulous white paint? farrow & ball has a great selection of whites, and so does good old benjamin moore if you don't want to cough up for F&B. i've used "calm" in our bedroom, it's amazing. your landlord won't ever notice. and you'll be surrounded by a white you never knew existed. so silken, so comforting, so exquisitely peaceful. you might decide to take all your art down.

If you really really can't repaint your walls, then either get new art for your walls (do a mix of large plus some smaller ones, like in a triptych), put a tall bamboo plant in the corner, to off-set the white but also add a distracting feature, or consider decals that you can stick on the walls to break up the "plainess" of it, or install a curtain rod and hang up Tord Boontje's 'Until Dawn' floral curtain made of Tyvek paper. Obviously choose to do a combination of all around the house to break things up and add interest. But seriously, just using blu-tak to put some pictures up can make a big difference, esp if they're pictures that you personally like.

Oh my! AT readers, I appreciate all the suggestions! I am speechless!
Liz, Good Luck with your white walls…I know you feel my pain.
Keith -- You ROCK! I love the Mobileos and Wall Sconces! Ordering the Mobileos ASAP!
Anon - Thanks… I’ll wear tinted sunglasses (LOL)
Mary Galvin, I love green…it makes me happy. Thanks
Maya, I love the art and my bedroom is similar. Thanks for the link.
Jojo, Mg, JenPDX, Joanne, Becca, Dana, Terry B, Meg, Lucie, Shannon, Harry, DJ, Baly, Christine (the one in DC), Brian, Jennifer Mitchell, and everyone who posted suggestions… Thank You!
I have work to do and some great ideas & links.
Stay Tuned,
Trammell

Another idea is to put fabric on canvases. It then has an inch or so of depth (well, depth isn't the right word because it's coming out of the wall, but...)

It's even sometimes cheaper to find cheesy canvases at a discount store with painted on scenes than new ones.

You can also find thrift shop framed art and frame your fabrics.

Check out eBay for "old tapestries" too. I am kicking myself for not bidding on a huge silk Chinese one which ended up selling for $110.... it was 8 feet wide.

Art is so subjective... some ideas: an windowpane with mirror..(2 nails needed-no biggie)...paint your own canvas, cheap & lightweight...hang two wooden shelves, one slightly raised above the other, and decorate sparsely with a few pillar candles...3 dimensional art like an old painter's palette, crazy clock collection, tea light holders...botanical plaques from the dollar tree hung in a cluster...multiples of flea market frames with blown up black & white photos.

My wife and I were on Trading Spaces last year (really -- Austin, Smokey Hill Rd.) and Laurie tackled our big, stark white living room. She painted a gigantic coral-red tree right on the wall. Prior to her doing this, we always assumed we'd just need to paint the walls a flat color or faux finish them or something -- it never occurred to us to simply use it as a big blank canvas for a big painting. Good luck!