I've been gardening, but today was particularly hot, and idle fingers on the internet led me to consider indoor wall gardens, the two-dimensional kind. Wall paper has moved beyond repeated cabbage-roses.
This is more reminiscent of the murals in European castles and chateaux
Is that a Jacaranda? Gardeners have a different perspective on these things than the botanically-oblivious. We want to know what plant is what, and is it accurate? Well grown? Badly pruned?
We may prefer a specific genus.
This one looks like an old botanical drawing from pre-photography days. Nice.
Abstraction more your taste?
A little of this would go a long way. I like the blues and greens in this:
Subtle is more restful, but I would sit and wonder--what plant is that? Ash? Campsis? It's not Wisteria...
This takes an 18th century style botanical drawing and alters it to a contemporary style.
Tropicals go way back as wall murals. Their bold foliage create striking murals, as well as striking gardens.
This one evokes dried specimens, complete with tape.
Bamboo is classic. I'm not fearless enough a gardener to grow bamboo, but I like it on the wall. Culms are not going to sprout in the middle of the room.
However much I love xeric plants, this doesn't do it for me. It's...stiff.
This one, too. What's that palm? Does Dracaena bark really look like that? What's that flowering plant between the palms?
Must have been a cyclone that shredded these banana leaves. I would have waited for a new flush of leaves. Those look too torn up to immortalize.
That's not quite what Strelitzia leaves or growth habit look like, yet it's nicely done. I like the faded hints of foliage in the background, like a foggy day. I couldn't sit in the room, though. I'd be thinking how the Strelitzias don't look accurate.
This is a photograph ( I think). Love the landscape there, a place to sit and dream about, but photos...not sure about that. Someone remarked that unless wall-sized murals are very high quality, they look awful, and that very high quality wall sized murals are expensive.
This one is cool, like a walk in a winter forest on a misty day, but the trees remind me of drought-killed Sycamores. There are some of those around here.
That tree on the left looks like it had a botched pruning job at one point. The things we notice.
Hmm...colors are nice, but I like the background best.
Someone is making waterproof wallpaper. What a cool shower...wonder how it would hold up.
And outdoor wallpaper, too. Wallpaper isn't just glued on paper now. It can be applied and removed, indoors or out.
So that's what I did on a day when it was too hot to garden, and the house was clean enough already! I've even vacuumed behind and underneath the furniture!
These examples are from behangfabriek and MuralSources. If it is too hot or too cold or too rainy to go outside, perhaps a two-dimensional garden fantasy indoors?
Disclaimer: I have no relationship to these companies; this is in no way a surreptitious advertisement. Just stuff I saw on the internet.
Must have been a cyclone that shredded these banana leaves. I would have waited for a new flush of leaves. Those look too torn up to immortalize.
These examples are from behangfabriek and MuralSources. If it is too hot or too cold or too rainy to go outside, perhaps a two-dimensional garden fantasy indoors?
Disclaimer: I have no relationship to these companies; this is in no way a surreptitious advertisement. Just stuff I saw on the internet.
Ha-ha. Very funny. Too much heat for you!
ReplyDeleteIt doesn't take much heat to be too much heat for me. Also I was running out of things to clean indoors. It's been a long summer.
DeleteI actually really like some of these! Your commentary was the best part, though. I kind of like the winter forest one, but I'd have to paint little flowers and young leaves expanding on the branches. Leafless winter branches are very depressing for me. One of many reasons I couldn't stand living in the deciduous forests of the East Coast. My favorites are the first 5, the subtle golden one, and the one that looks like botanical specimens.
ReplyDeleteThat is a great point that only a gardener could see, that newly emerging spring leaves have such a magic as to bring joy to the witness! :)
DeleteI like some of these, mainly the more muted examples which would be easier to live with. I must remember not to wear a botanical print (like the one I have on at this very moment with what I think are meant to be roses mixed with something I can't identify) next time I see you.
ReplyDeleteAwww, but I like botanical prints, too! I agree, muted indoors is a good idea.
DeleteI like that first one very much, probably because I've been watching a lot of period English and Australian dramas lately (The Forsyte Saga, for example, the 2002 version, for the first time). I've been indoors too, not because of heat but because of a shoulder injury. That first reminds me a lot of the set decoration. That eye-popping one with things that look like owls would give me a headache. It looks like I imagine an acid trip would.
ReplyDeleteDamian Lewis made a great Soames, and he was a truly scary Henry Eight in Wolf Hall.
DeleteHope your shoulder heals well. Is it time to fill up your greenhouse with the tenders yet? Get well soon!
I agree, the owls are what one would imagine are acid-trip owls. I like the greens and blues in it, though.
The bare trees are a little too Andrew Rackham for me -- great temporary deco for a halloween party, but a bringdown for daily viewing. If I had to pick one of these for a room where I spent any amount of time, it would be the subtly patterned yellow-silk-looking one. (I'd just decide/declare the foliage ID to quiet the inner gardener.) Any of the rest would be fun for a short visit, and the top pic is my favorite of those.
DeleteYou found some real beauties! I remember watching my parents hang wallpaper in the late 70’s, it was horribly difficult (or maybe they just weren’t good at it?). I’ve been flirting with the idea for awhile now but it seems like it would be easy to do poorly.
ReplyDeleteThere are some tricks to paperhanging (see youtube) and like gardening, practice, practice, practice, but the wisdom of hiring a professional paperhanger with an anal-retentive personality cannot be ignored.
DeleteI really loved some of these, but I've removed my fair share of wallpaper and have developed an aversion. We are thinking about repainting the living room though, and maybe something like this would be perfect for one of the walls... Would you use any of these on a wall that is broken up by a couple of windows, or would that ruin the effect?
ReplyDeleteI think the general belief holds that large walls in rooms with little furniture against the walls (dining rooms, for example) generally are the most successful for mural type decoration.
DeleteI think you have 100 times more design sense than I, so why are you asking me? ;^)
My Strelitzia and edible banana are both shredded like that. And we are only just going into our windy summer season. I would tear my hair out if I wanted unshredded leaves! But I have two huge fat Strelitzia buds. Still waiting to see edible bananas one day.
ReplyDeleteThere's one house nearby that has been growing edible bananas for years--they get huge bunches of them and the homeowner has built special wooden supports that he places to support the bunches. So it can be done...if you have the water.
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