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

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

madeinitaly — Fri, 22 May 2009 09:18:30 -0800

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) !

By: googly

googly — Fri, 22 May 2009 09:21:55 -0800

DIY Sol Lewitt wall drawings.

By: cobaltnine

cobaltnine — Fri, 22 May 2009 09:24:13 -0800

Vinyl decals. I know several French companies make slick ones (too expensive in the States) and IKEA has the lower end ones.

By: odinsdream

odinsdream — Fri, 22 May 2009 09:24:32 -0800

Rasterbator + any cool image you like + a few sheets of paper.

By: arco

arco — Fri, 22 May 2009 09:24:37 -0800

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.

By: JoanArkham

JoanArkham — Fri, 22 May 2009 09:26:02 -0800

Wall decals? (No loyalty to that brand, just Google "wall decals" and you'll find a ton.)

By: runningwithscissors

runningwithscissors — Fri, 22 May 2009 09:27:41 -0800

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.

By: MadamM

MadamM — Fri, 22 May 2009 09:28:38 -0800

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.

By: gyusan

gyusan — Fri, 22 May 2009 09:31:46 -0800

Get yourself a Cycloc bike holder and hang your bike up there.

By: madeinitaly

madeinitaly — Fri, 22 May 2009 09:34:10 -0800

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.

By: litterateur

litterateur — Fri, 22 May 2009 09:39:57 -0800

~ 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!

By: iconomy

iconomy — Fri, 22 May 2009 09:41:40 -0800

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.

By: bluedaisy

bluedaisy — Fri, 22 May 2009 09:41:55 -0800

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.

By: peep

peep — Fri, 22 May 2009 09:44:20 -0800

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?

By: Grither

Grither — Fri, 22 May 2009 09:44:50 -0800

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!

By: zsazsa

zsazsa — Fri, 22 May 2009 09:46:06 -0800

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.

By: sickinthehead

sickinthehead — Fri, 22 May 2009 09:52:39 -0800

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

By: game warden to the events rhino

game warden to the events rhino — Fri, 22 May 2009 09:54:39 -0800

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...?

By: Fairchild

Fairchild — Fri, 22 May 2009 09:58:28 -0800

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.

By: dellsolace

dellsolace — Fri, 22 May 2009 10:21:08 -0800

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.

By: Fleebnork

Fleebnork — Fri, 22 May 2009 10:38:12 -0800

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.

By: radioamy

radioamy — Fri, 22 May 2009 11:25:50 -0800

Does it have to stay white? White is so stark. Even painting a light color will change the look completely.

By: Tomorrowful

Tomorrowful — Fri, 22 May 2009 11:53:50 -0800

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.

By: litterateur

litterateur — Fri, 22 May 2009 11:54:17 -0800

Inspiration just struck, and after a few minutes of googling, I found a tutorial on implementation: Decoupaged book pages.

By: jozzas

jozzas — Fri, 22 May 2009 12:21:49 -0800

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.

By: coolguymichael

coolguymichael — Fri, 22 May 2009 12:48:42 -0800

Slide projector on opposite wall (or ceiling mounted).

By: 5_13_23_42_69_666

5_13_23_42_69_666 — Fri, 22 May 2009 13:17:27 -0800

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.

By: thirteenkiller

thirteenkiller — Fri, 22 May 2009 13:31:31 -0800

I hung sheets of bright red Ogura lace paper on my wall like posters. Cheap and pretty. Other paper works too.

By: DarlingBri

DarlingBri — Fri, 22 May 2009 16:19:26 -0800

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.

By: aquafortis

aquafortis — Fri, 22 May 2009 17:51:11 -0800

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!