photo murals
Q. I prefer photo murals to wallpaper. Where can I find a good selection?
A. Pioneered in the early 1930's by commercial photographers like Drix Duryea and nearly as ubiquitous as drip-dry shirts in the 1970's, photo murals have again entered the decorative consciousness. They are often made with digital images and go up as panels, like wallpaper.
Graham & Brown, a British company, recently introduced three digital wallpapers. Especially glamorous is Roses, an intense close-up of pink blossoms, above. Other patterns include Blue Water and Green Flower. The murals come as sets of three or four panels ($130) and cover an area eight feet high and either six or four and a half feet wide; www.grahambrown.com or (800) 554-0887.
Blue River Digital in Citrus Heights, Calif., offers more than 1,400 stock images like starry skies and snowy mountain ranges. These digital murals are custom made to fit your wall (unlike many stock murals). The company can also transform a digital photograph into a mural. Prices start at $3.95 a square foot plus a $75 set-up fee for the customer's artwork; www.blueriverdigital.com or (800) 706-4276.
Filling Black Holes
Q. Is there a creative way to use a nonfunctioning fireplace?
A. Dependable but less atmospheric sources of heat have left many older buildings with fireplaces that serve no practical purpose. Those gaping maws can, however, be decorative if not functional.
Many New Yorkers are tempted to turn them into storage space for books. I am not a fan of this measure, but if you insist, have a skilled carpenter build a unit with shelves that will fit inside the fireplace and look intentional. Shops like Gothic Cabinet Craft can work miracles; (888) 801-3100 or www.gothiccabinetcraft.com. A directory of carpenters in New York and other cities is at www.justcarpenters.com.
If the idea of turning a fireplace into a catchall lacks a certain flair, consider using the space to display a favorite possession. Eric Lysdahl, a young Manhattan decorator, uses his living room fireplace to house a brightly colored ceramic pagoda.
In the 1960's the trendsetter Pauline de Rothschild transformed a small but fairly deep fireplace in her Paris house into a miniature summertime gallery. In it she placed six willowy black lacquer tables, each a different height yet no more than six inches square, bearing a single piece of antique blue-and-white porcelain. A similar effect could be achieved with small bamboo tables topped with ceramic bowls or vases. Bamboo 4 Sale, in Aptos, Calif., has sets of three stools or stands ($68); www.bamboo4sale.com or (831) 685-0152. For decorative ceramics, try Pearl River, 477 Broadway (Grand Street), www.pearlriver.com or (800) 878-2446.
Then again, you could just let your fireplace be a fireplace, if no longer able to provide heat. Olde Good Things, an architectural salvage business with a shop at 124 West 24th Street, (212) 989-8401, often has vintage andirons and other accessories that would go a long way toward turning a hole in the wall into a thing of beauty. Recent offerings included a 1918 cast-iron gas fireplace with a stone face ($250) and a rusty iron fireplace cover embossed with a family of deer, the buck fantastically antlered. Covers, incidentally, were devised to seal fireplaces when they weren't in use; www.oldegoodthings.com or (888) 233-9678.
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- bill 12-01-2005 3:53 pm
Q. I prefer photo murals to wallpaper. Where can I find a good selection?
A. Pioneered in the early 1930's by commercial photographers like Drix Duryea and nearly as ubiquitous as drip-dry shirts in the 1970's, photo murals have again entered the decorative consciousness. They are often made with digital images and go up as panels, like wallpaper.
Graham & Brown, a British company, recently introduced three digital wallpapers. Especially glamorous is Roses, an intense close-up of pink blossoms, above. Other patterns include Blue Water and Green Flower. The murals come as sets of three or four panels ($130) and cover an area eight feet high and either six or four and a half feet wide; www.grahambrown.com or (800) 554-0887.
Blue River Digital in Citrus Heights, Calif., offers more than 1,400 stock images like starry skies and snowy mountain ranges. These digital murals are custom made to fit your wall (unlike many stock murals). The company can also transform a digital photograph into a mural. Prices start at $3.95 a square foot plus a $75 set-up fee for the customer's artwork; www.blueriverdigital.com or (800) 706-4276.
Filling Black Holes
Q. Is there a creative way to use a nonfunctioning fireplace?
A. Dependable but less atmospheric sources of heat have left many older buildings with fireplaces that serve no practical purpose. Those gaping maws can, however, be decorative if not functional.
Many New Yorkers are tempted to turn them into storage space for books. I am not a fan of this measure, but if you insist, have a skilled carpenter build a unit with shelves that will fit inside the fireplace and look intentional. Shops like Gothic Cabinet Craft can work miracles; (888) 801-3100 or www.gothiccabinetcraft.com. A directory of carpenters in New York and other cities is at www.justcarpenters.com.
If the idea of turning a fireplace into a catchall lacks a certain flair, consider using the space to display a favorite possession. Eric Lysdahl, a young Manhattan decorator, uses his living room fireplace to house a brightly colored ceramic pagoda.
In the 1960's the trendsetter Pauline de Rothschild transformed a small but fairly deep fireplace in her Paris house into a miniature summertime gallery. In it she placed six willowy black lacquer tables, each a different height yet no more than six inches square, bearing a single piece of antique blue-and-white porcelain. A similar effect could be achieved with small bamboo tables topped with ceramic bowls or vases. Bamboo 4 Sale, in Aptos, Calif., has sets of three stools or stands ($68); www.bamboo4sale.com or (831) 685-0152. For decorative ceramics, try Pearl River, 477 Broadway (Grand Street), www.pearlriver.com or (800) 878-2446.
Then again, you could just let your fireplace be a fireplace, if no longer able to provide heat. Olde Good Things, an architectural salvage business with a shop at 124 West 24th Street, (212) 989-8401, often has vintage andirons and other accessories that would go a long way toward turning a hole in the wall into a thing of beauty. Recent offerings included a 1918 cast-iron gas fireplace with a stone face ($250) and a rusty iron fireplace cover embossed with a family of deer, the buck fantastically antlered. Covers, incidentally, were devised to seal fireplaces when they weren't in use; www.oldegoodthings.com or (888) 233-9678.
- bill 12-01-2005 3:54 pm [add a comment]