Help me fill this large white wall! (Spending as little as possible).

May 22, 2009 9:18 AM

Help me fill this large white wall! (Spending as little as possible).

One of the walls of my living room is 5 meters long and more than 3 tall - the couch lays below it (see it here).

It has been white and empty for a while and whatever solutions Ithought of, would cost me a fortune.

Here you can see the rest of the walls (1, 2, 3) to understand the style: it's white and metal (it's messy in the photos but it is supposed to be very minimal overall) and my tastes are mainstream nerdy with a trendy eye.

Let me know how you would fill that white wall (and how to do it cheap, knowing i need to source stuff in Europe, so shipping a 4x3 meters frame probably is not cheap) !

posted by madeinitaly to home & garden (29 answers total)

DIY Sol Lewitt wall drawings.
posted by googly at 9:21 AM on May 22, 2009

Vinyl decals. I know several French companies make slick ones (too expensive in the States) and IKEA has the lower end ones.
posted by cobaltnine at 9:24 AM on May 22, 2009

Rasterbator + any cool image you like + a few sheets of paper.
posted by odinsdream at 9:24 AM on May 22, 2009 [1 favorite]

Take a look at what this guy did (not the green wall, the other one), using photograph paper and double-sided mounting tape. He provides a little more info about the process in the comments here.

Also, Rasterbator.
posted by arco at 9:24 AM on May 22, 2009

Wall decals? (No loyalty to that brand, just Google "wall decals" and you'll find a ton.)
posted by JoanArkham at 9:26 AM on May 22, 2009

Floating shelves to get some of the clutter off the floor. Shelves can be thrifted, found, or fairly cheaply made on your own.

You could also just buy a cheap canvas and print/paint/stencil/draw whatever on it. Or you could string a clothesline/metal cable and use clothespins or magnets to attach (black and white?) photos.
posted by runningwithscissors at 9:27 AM on May 22, 2009

My first thought is hanging up a large piece of cool-looking fabric- go to a nice fabric store, or look online. Think wallpaper but cheaper and less permanent. I'm not entirely sure that would work with your style, but it would be a fairly cheap way to fill up a lot of space.
posted by MadamM at 9:28 AM on May 22, 2009

Get yourself a Cycloc bike holder and hang your bike up there.
posted by gyusan at 9:31 AM on May 22, 2009

Thanks already everybody! Maybe I should have added: I would also like your opinion on the content of the eventual "imagery" to be rasterbated, Vynil stickered or Canvased !

I know that part should be my creativity, but I am really open to good ideas (the Sol Le Witt walls are beautiful, but WAY too complicated to do) since all people seem to have nowadays are Pulp Fiction and Scarface pop art.
posted by madeinitaly at 9:34 AM on May 22, 2009

~ Jewel case picture frames
~ Photo wall
~ Chalkboard wall calendar
~ Personal Timeline
~ Quote board
~ Magnetic poetry--Steel board
~ Book wallhanging
~ One page book
~ World's Largest Crossword
~ Travel maps
~ Rastorbator--n-thing!
posted by litterateur at 9:39 AM on May 22, 2009 [1 favorite]

With very little artistic talent you could have a wall full of cool nerdiness if you live near a thrift shop with old individual china plates for sale. Little chips and cracks are fine, just adds to the character. Buy a bunch of different sizes and shapes and get a bottle of Plaid Enamels acrylic paint for ceramics and glass. Cut out stencils of letters (just print them out from PhotoShop or books) and paint words, code, inside jokes, basic outlines of pop culture icons and clip art on the plates....anything you want and are capable of. Afterwards you bake the plates in your oven to harden the paint. See this Etsy shop for an idea of what I mean.

I did a wall of this for about $45.00, including all the plates, the paint, the plate hangers, and the brushes. Everyone goes nuts over it.
posted by iconomy at 9:41 AM on May 22, 2009 [2 favorites]

Hmm. My inclination would be to find some silver paint and paint something modernish like a geometric pattern, just using tape to tape off the area.
posted by bluedaisy at 9:41 AM on May 22, 2009

How about a mirror, or many small mirrors hung like photos? The way the natural light hits your wall makes me think it would look amazing. Can you get mirrors locally at a flea market or bazaar? Or are you just looking for art/images?
posted by peep at 9:44 AM on May 22, 2009

My wife and I have a wall that we've decorated with about 25-30 (and expanding) haphazardly arranged cheap Ikea black picture frames, that we've filled with pictures in black and white of all the places that we've traveled to together. The more places we go to, the more we add to the wall!
posted by Grither at 9:44 AM on May 22, 2009

We've made large wall hangings by covering foam insulation board with fabric with bold designs. The foam panels are very light, and you can just pin the fabric on.
posted by zsazsa at 9:46 AM on May 22, 2009

I would suggest adding a little real art feel to the place, by rasterbrating some Klimt perhaps?

A few pieces that I think would like nice:

Water Snakes II

Water Sprites

Gold fish
posted by sickinthehead at 9:52 AM on May 22, 2009

The Rasterbator image should surely be either a) a photograph, as close as possible, of what the view would be if the wall were entirely removed, or b) a famous skyline...?
posted by game warden to the events rhino at 9:54 AM on May 22, 2009 [1 favorite]

Take your own photos and put them in frames with large mats. Find frames at Ikea or other discount place. You don't have to buy them all at once. Wait until they go on sale. You don't need 8 either. I think the four lined up in a row a few inches over the couch looks good. Your art doesn't have to fill the entire wall.

Buy two large posters and purchase poster frames at Ikea and hang them side by side. Art.com ships internationally and has everything under the sun. I searched for "blue car" and got 48 pages of results.

Buy or locate a large map and cut it up in equal rectangles. Frame in inexpensive store bought frames and leave a few inches between. Seen here on Art.com's site. See an example on page 3 on the front (or welcome) page, under the "Shop Now" rectangle.

These ideas are not super cheap but cheaper than a store-bought framed print or original art.
posted by Fairchild at 9:58 AM on May 22, 2009

Following on what runningwithscissors said, IKEA sells its Lack shelves for not a ton of money, and they come in stylish colors like white, red and black. Very minimalist to my eye, though judging from your follow-up maybe not what you're looking for.
posted by dellsolace at 10:21 AM on May 22, 2009

By all means, put something you like on the wall, but don't feel like it must be "filled". A painting/photograph, or a grouping of them will draw the eye and the wall won't appear so empty.
posted by Fleebnork at 10:38 AM on May 22, 2009

Does it have to stay white? White is so stark. Even painting a light color will change the look completely.
posted by radioamy at 11:25 AM on May 22, 2009

I used to have a place with a huge white blank space; I was this close to getting two copies of Where the Wild Things Are, slicing off the binding, and laying out the whole thing - probably on foamcore so I could easily un/remount it.
posted by Tomorrowful at 11:53 AM on May 22, 2009 [1 favorite]

Inspiration just struck, and after a few minutes of googling, I found a tutorial on implementation: Decoupaged book pages.
posted by litterateur at 11:54 AM on May 22, 2009

I projected a mural onto my wall with a computer projector and then traced and painted it. I'd keep it to one or two colours unless it's a straightforward design, as it can get confusing otherwise.
posted by jozzas at 12:21 PM on May 22, 2009

Slide projector on opposite wall (or ceiling mounted).
posted by coolguymichael at 12:48 PM on May 22, 2009

A friend of mine covered all the walls of a room with tinfoil - I expected it to look really crappy, but it was amazing. The light reflected off of it in the most interesting ways. What if you just put up a huge rectangle of it - 2 sided tape would work just fine, and then add a border made out of a wide ribbon. Make sure that it's high enough on the wall that it doen't get leaned on when people sit on the couch. Cheap and minimal.
posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 1:17 PM on May 22, 2009

I hung sheets of bright red Ogura lace paper on my wall like posters. Cheap and pretty. Other paper works too.
posted by thirteenkiller at 1:31 PM on May 22, 2009

Please move the couch down and rotate the bookcase, leaving 1 foot between the book case and the wall, and one foot between the couch and the bookcase. It's driving me crazy.

Then perhaps something like this over the couch, using both a wall decal and a small amount of paint. It would look very striking on a grey painted rectangle, or perhaps even silver paint.
posted by DarlingBri at 4:19 PM on May 22, 2009 [1 favorite]

Ebay has a good selection of vintage National Geographic maps.

A bank of wallpaper covered canvases could be pretty.

Record album covers-- framed or not!
posted by aquafortis at 5:51 PM on May 22, 2009