Mural Mural on the Wall

Matt and I are finally going to break ground on our bedroom this weekend, which has me frantically sifting through my magazines and bookmarks fueling up with last minute inspiration.  While I am dying for a large-scale piece of original art, my bank account looks at me with a big frown and says:  yeah right. Thank god I have a projector that hooks up to my computer.  With this fancy device and my two-can-of-paint-budget, I can easily knockoff duplicate almost any one-color wall mural.  A few of the following are vying for my attention:

Room 206, Hotel Fox, by WK Interact

This beauty has been siren-songing my name for a while.  Matt likes her too (of course) but Erin says it will look like a big porn threw up on my wall - or something to that effect.  I wouldn't copy her exactly, but I am taken by the stark black and white of this room.

The Hotel Fox boasts several other murals, none of which are right for my room, but they are fun to look at nonetheless:

Room 106, Hotel Fox, by Geneviève Gauckler

GRRRRR, I steal children's souls while they sleep!!!

Note to self:  put this in your baby's room

I was really in love with the porn lady until I got wind of this kitty cat:

Larry the Cat at Portland, Oregon's Ace Hotel

Yes, I have written about Larry before, but really, can anyone ever get enough of this lovely feline?  I didn't think so.  Seems as though my love for animal decor will never die.

Specifically, my Love for Horses in Houses, yum:

Studio Ilse

I really really really want my entire house to be horse themed.  Horse couches, horse art, horse murals, horse dishes.  I mean seriously horse themed.  Screw one wall covered in horse art, I't talking top-to-bottom.  How's that for en masse?  I think I just felt a tear rolling down my cheak.

If I can't have wall-to-wall horses, pictures of people I don't know will work as well:

Hotel Particulier, room by Natacha Lesueur

The wall behind my bed is about 3 times the size of this one with the photos, so if I can score 6 giant head prints, then I'll be in business.

It seems as though I'm running to catch up with the band-wagon, as giant heads are all the rage:

Sixty Hotel designed by Studio 63

More big heads:

Interior by Concepts Interior Design

And just to drive the point home:

(L) Suite 5, The Lute Suites, Marcel Wanders Studio; (R) unknown, found on Studio Picaso's flickr photostream

Perhaps the heads are too much for you and you'd prefer to zero-in on the window to the soul:

Offices of Neogamma / BBH, via This Ain't No Disco

This mural in the offices of Neogamma BBH is certainly swoonworthy.  The fact that they have a second proves that these dudes know how to party:

I'm pretty sure they were able to zero-in on exactly what sheeps think about: "blurb. color. exclamation mark. splash."  sort of like me when I write blog posts.

In other animal mural news (I told you I couldn't get enough):

Unknown from Digital Picaso's flickr photostream

I never thought I'd say this but, that tromp i'oil chandelier is almost overshadowing those lovely animals.  

If, like me, you're diggin the faux furniture wall mural, and would like to leave the artwork creation to those who actually know what they're doing, perhaps you could try one of these wallpapers:

Semi-Drum, Semi Drum x 2, and Stripy Jumper available via the collection

Want something bigger?  That's my girl:

Wall murals by Surface View

There's those darn animals again.  Here are some wallpaper murals that don't belong to the creepy phyllum:

Femme Fatal available via walnut wallpaper

oops, that was only one non-animal image, now I'm getting back to my roots with this animal-house mural:

Home Made Restaurant

Yum, if the food at this restaurant is 1/4 as good as their design, then they shall be serving the people for eternity.  Great.  Now I'm hungry.

And finally, an image that is neither animal or silhouette:

Interior Shot by Gabby Zimmermann

Ok, so maybe this wall doesn't really fit in, but it sure is pretty and I would hang the hell out of that wallpaper given the right opportunity.

So, what do you guys think?  Should I go for a gigantic wall mural (please don't suggest a wall sticker!) or should I play it safe and do something that actually says "real people sleep here?" 

I should be making the big dollars

I had to usurp my previously planned post when I stumbled across the latest Philippe Stark designed hotel and realized that I. Am. A. Creative Genius. Remember these chairs that Erin posted from our Round Top trip

Remember how I begged Erin to take the picture and I cried my eyes out the entire car ride home because I couldn't afford the $1,500 pair.  Remember how everyone else thought I was insane?

I guess Philippe will always understand me.  He heard my cries and said ever so softly and sweetly, it's OK, Karly, I'll put them in the Mama Shelter hotel in Paris where you will never be able to afford to see them in person but will sleep soundly knowing that, you too, are a design prodigy.

The one thing I still can't quite understand, however, is this: why was I mentally crafting this post whilst eating peanut butter straight from the jar in my (in dire need of renovation) kitchen rather than while racing through the streets of London with an entourage of interns frantically scribbling notes about every piece of furniture I point to on their overflowing clipboards.  Why?  Why?!  Your guess is as good as mine.  

More proof that I should be the head of a global designing empire (well, other than this steadfast blog, where I technically split the power):

Oh the shape is so good.  They didn't have this version in the cow field under the hot Texas sun.  Go figure.

And here's the best chair of all, I certainly would have found the $750 for this one:

All this crap is HAND BEADED, people.

My creative genius will certainly become more convincing once you realize that I, too, would insist on a mac computer and a wookie lamp in every room:

Did I tell you that I saw a concrete wall once?

Of course, this next picture shows the departure between myself and la amateur Stark:

What I forgot to mention in my Tag the other day is that I'm deathly afraid of elevators.  Las Vegas hotel employees LOVE me for requesting a room on the lowest possible floor.  A hotel of my design would never have elevators.  Well, unless, of course, they were the glass kind that really don't bother me at all.  Up.  Down.  All day long.  Look at me.  Oh, I also don't know about those aluminum foil explosion mold chairs.

Black Light, Schmack Light.  I really just wanted to show this picture in the hopes that Top-Design-Nathan would cruise on over and see that THIS is the proper way to display daily life artifacts from the past century.  Note the lack of fussy unfinished wood cubes?  Note the intentionally cluttered stacks.  Congratulations bar in the Stark hotel, you have the top design.  And the crowd goes wild:

I think this is a curtain.  I do not like barstools. I have nothing more to say about this picture.

Pros:  Magritte Bowler Hat Lamp; concrete walls.  Cons:  Overdone floor

More overdone floor.  Although I commend Stark for picking a carpet that will hide stains while being a little, um, are we supposed to call it edgy... this carpet just seems a couple of years out-dated.

So, to summarize, me = creative genius.  Mama Shelter = not so bad.  Philippe Stark = wouldn't hurt to listen to my advise.

PS.  More on this hotel here

Hoodwinked

If I admit that the following pictures have been scattered far and wide across the net since midsummer would that prevent you from reading this post? Hopefully not, because I've got a Top Design review coming up later, (maybe even much later this afternoon since my evening television viewing was preempted by the debate) but I didn't want to leave you twisting in the wind without your daily fix of decor crack. Behold the vision of British designer Suzy Hoodless:

I kind of think this is the most awesome room, ever. (Do I say that a lot? Well, there's quite a few awesome rooms out there...) I don't usually like this super streamlined furniture, but with the crazy cinderblock walls, the insane mural thing, and the most amazing window that I would sell Hunny Bunny's kidney for, those couches are perfection.

Once again: perfect amount of layers. Love the clean pops of color against muted patterns and textures. And I'm not usually about random animal antlers scattered on my tabletop, but this is a hunting lodge in Scotland. Maybe when you finish your meal, you just toss the bones into the "centerpiece?"

Ok, I wish this was the console table I had in front of my hallway wallpaper. LOVE it! Also, I think this is the first picture I've ever seen with orchids that look purposeful... They're growing... near a window! Gasp! You would think most orchids were born to sit atop some ugly coffee table in a Trading Spaces room. Or at a realtor's open house.

I have a wee fixation with old Persian rugs. And Thonet chairs. And large hunks of wood. And red. Yes, it's a killer combination of au natural with modern polish.

Bet you didn't see this one coming, did you? Did you?

It's a dark and scary night at yet another Hoodless designed hunting lodge in Scotland. After a long day wading through the marshes and high moors under a gray and drizzling sky, you return to your bunk in hopes of a quiet evening with a good book, and then a night of restorative sleep. As you open the heavy door hewn from rough timber, knob worn from centuries of travelers much like yourself, you notice a single candle burning near the end of the room. Suddenly, the flame wavers wildly and you hear a noise behind you...

Hawh hawh hawh... chih chih chih...  hawh hawh hawh... chih chih chih...

A scream sounds behind you and the candle sputters violently out. Hot pressure at your throat -- you feel yourself choking and you try desperately to inhale but your mouth is covered by fur...

The rug! The rug! As your vision clouds and throbs and tunnels to a close, you find that the last thoughts flittering across your darkening mind are... Tooo.... rustic. Tooooo.... rustic!

I love ya, Suzy, but would a little bit of modern refinement be amiss? Maybe electricity, even?