photo murals
Bringing Your Favorite Places Home
WRITTEN BY MARESA GIOVANNINI
Wherever you live, you can use a photo mural to make your home feel like a year-round vacation spot. The simple wallpaper addition can be a breathtaking focal point that evokes the happiest memories. Unlike a framed photo, a photo mural is large enough to seemingly transport you through space and time to your happy place.
Picture yourself gazing at a foggy forest landscape, a sparkling nebula, a canal in Venice, or your favorite white-sand beach. Or, take a trip back in time with a black-and-white image of a cityscape. Choose from predesigned wallpapers from companies like Photowall, Home Depot, or smaller companies you can scout on Etsy. You can even have something customized from your own high-quality photographs; eazywallz is an online company that does just that. Their peel-and-stick photo wallpaper is perfect for the person with consummate wanderlust. When it’s time for a new adventure, you can easily remove the mural and put up a new one. Search eazywallz on Instagram to view examples of their custom wallpaper.
Creative offices and kids’ rooms are places where you can think outside the box using photo murals. Both spaces are designed to encourage imagination and inspiration. In a home, photo wallpaper works well on a feature wall, behind a bed, or in a reading nook or powder room. Bathrooms have traditionally been the place for oversaturated tropical beach scenes (think juvenile shower curtains). But the new style of photo wallpaper leaves kitsch behind and elevates your interiors when used intentionally.
Select a wallpaper with an image that suits your space and a color scheme that complements it. Neutral colors, faded finishes, or simple images are best. Consider taping a small version of the image to the wall and sitting with it for a few days to make sure it’s a good fit and conveys your desired feeling or message.
sea-through
Capturing Vacation Views
A vacation home is rarely purchased because of the house itself; rather, it happens to be in the right location. You want your home away from home to feel welcoming and relaxing, but you might be able to go without some amenities if the home is right across the street from the beach. If the location is the reason you’re there, take full advantage of it by capturing the views
Walls of windows are the best way to feel ever-present in your vacation destination. Floor-to-ceiling windows are ideal in locations that often deal with poor weather conditions. Multiple panels keep your walls structurally sound and the elements out. If your home is in a more moderate or tropical clime, disappearing walls of glass are modern and allow you to seamlessly soak in the view from indoors and out.
For peekaboo views of your surroundings, skylights and clerestory windows are ideal. Alternatively, you can install windows in unexpected places at eye level. Perhaps you’re able to add a window over a bathtub or in a shower. A window in a walk-in closet will allow you to select the best outfit for the day without ever checking the weather. And in the kitchen, forgo upper cabinets on either side of the sink in favor of a wall-length, panoramic window. You’re on vacation; even chores should be a breeze.