Holiday Inspired Custom Wallpaper

Whether you like it or not, the Holidays are in high swing again. And while the holidays can mean many things to different people, one of the most salient features of this time of the year is snow. Though the weather has been relatively mild here in metro Detroit, we know it's just a matter of time before we're buried under a mound of snow yet again. For those of you who enjoy winter sports and shoveling your sidewalks, we offer a custom wall mural featuring winter in all its glory.

Our inspiration room is already on the austere side, and this chilly wall mural only helps the room's cool factor. The frozen river bank winding off into the horizon gives the mural a great sense of depth. The snow covered rocks have a wonderfully light, soft texture which mixes nicely with the sharp, angular branches of the tree lining the river.

This wall mural is available at our main website here, as well as a number of other wall murals featuring frozen lands from all across the globe. If your tastes sway to warmer climes, we have plenty of tropical wall murals for you to consider. From all of us at Great Wall Custom Coverings, Have a happy and safe holiday!

Custom Wallpaper from Wallgazer.net: TapeStack

Providing custom wallpaper murals for clients over the last 5+ years has been a thrill. But a little while back we decided we'd take some time for a personal project and design a line of wallcoverings that we would like in our homes. Patterns and murals appealing to a younger, graphic design oriented set. With that said, a lot of our wallpaper designs for Wallgazer have a nostalgic nod to the 80's.

The wall mural from our inspiration room is one such design available at Wallgazer. It's called TapeStack; it was designed by Andi Kubacki and is available for purchase here. The blending of today's incredibly sleek computers and modern furnishings with a truly analog inspired wallcovering creates a quirky doubletake moment. The juxtaposition is an effective design element, perfectly showcasing our affinity for the decade we grew up in.

Wallgazer has just over 50 designs from tire tread patterns to Japanese toy inspired wall murals. If you're looking for a more tradional photo wall mural, check out our main site Great Wall Online, which has numerous wall mural image categories. You may also submit your own photo for a custom wall mural based on your image. If you'd like to create your own cusotm wallpaper pattern, we can assist you with that as well.

Custom Wallpaper Imagery: Natural Patterns

We love the look of photographic wall murals. From the campy mass produced scenic murals of the 70's to the modern looks of today, photographic wall murals are always intriguing to the viewer. Some of our favorite images to dress up your walls are our Natural Pattern designs, located on our main site Great Wall.

The Natural Pattern wall murals are really versatile. A single image can be reproduced large in it's entirety to create a photo wall mural. Or, the imagery can be repeated to create a custom wallpaper pattern. This is the case of the wallpaper in our inspiration room. The twigs in the natural pattern have been mirrored multiple times to create a highly organic backdrop for these very modern shelves, a nice juxtaposition.

In addition to this image, we have many other Natural Pattern murals to offer. Textures of sand and wood as well as stones, flowers, and assorted foliage will give your space a brand new atmosphere without blowing your budget. Larger and smaller sized wall murals are available to accommodate a myriad of needs, and custom sizing is available for those hard to fit spaces.

Custom Wallpaper Imagery: Keep it Simple

It's hard to believe that three months have elapsed since our last post regarding our adventures in the world of custom wallpaper. Yet here we are, hanging our heads in shame, typing away wildly to make up for lost time. So what have we been up to? Whereas 2009 has been a rough year for a lot of businesses, including a lot of friends locally, we've been able to slog through these hard times, all the while growing. We've doubled our output capacity and increased our payroll. We're happy to say that most of our employees including ourselves live in our town of Ferndale, MI, so we're doing as much as we can to help out the local economy.

But enough about us, let's talk about you and your limitless options for a custom wall mural. An over the top image or wild color palette can dress up a blasé room, but if your space is already fleshed out with attention grabbing art and furnishings, a simpler wall mural can be a wise solution.

The image in our inspiration room illustrates this. A busy rug and bold geometric art lend themselves nicely to the coordinating wall mural. The simplistic industrial shapes in the custom wall mural in no way detract from the bold accents. The mural simply reinforces the theme of an understated geometric aesthetic, and the splash of perfect blue sky keeps the color moving around the room. Just another example of how unique and interesting imagery can create a wall mural to accentuate your space. Contact us to begin your project today!

Custom Wallpaper: All About Abstraction

We often produce custom wallpaper installations based on photographs, which can range from any myriad of subjects. We also produce a lot of custom wall murals based on artwork. Some of the most striking wall murals that we've produced are abstract paintings.

There is a lot of impasto work in the most engaging murals based on abstract artwork, a technique that often raises paint strokes on the canvas, giving a highly textured look. This texture translates well onto wallpaper, giving a trompe l'oil effect, as if the paint were jumping right off the wall.

The inspiration room features a whole other breed of abstract art. The image is of an artist's palette. The paints swirl around each other, with gradients of color evidencing the mixing that the artist has done to achieve certain colors. An unexpected work of abstract art, but very interesting nonetheless, perfect for a custom wall mural.

Conference Room Custom Wallpaper

Is your business's conference room boring and drab? Dress it up with custom wallpaper. A beautiful wall mural hung in your conference room will help elevate the creativity of your employees, as well as certainly impressing your clients. Be it in a home or office, our wall murals are able to transport the viewer visually to another place, which never fails to amaze.

The conference room above is located in New York. The decorator wanted to create the feeling of being in Central Park, surrounded by green with the New York cityscape peeking out above the trees. As the installed photo demonstrates, the look was quite literally and successfully achieved with panoramic wall murals that line the walls all around the room.

A purposeful image can create a visual theme related to your business. A mountain range can create a feeling of stoic solidity. An arch can give the feeling of creating connections. Whatever your business's direction, there is always a coordinating wall mural image to correspond harmoniously with it. Ready to take your board room or conference room to new heights? Contact us to start your custom wallpaper project today.

Custom Wallpaper Imagery: Patinas

We love the freedom that decorating with custom wallpaper gives you. With custom wallpaper, you aren't constrained by pattern books and swatches; most any image can dress your walls as you see fit, as opposed to how others think you should decorate. With this in mind, we encourage people to think outside of the box and paper their walls with unexpected looks.

Hence, we offer today's custom wallpaper imagery inspiration. Patinas occur when objects such as metal and wood are exposed to the elements, oxygen and water. This exposure leads to unpredictable but beautiful chemical color changes on the surface of such objects. Greenish copper patinas are perhaps the most recognizable, like the look of the Statue of Liberty. We suggest that you carry over this look as a custom wall mural.

The mural in the inspiration room features not only a patina copper, but ridges and divots in the metal as well. The random streaking and discoloration makes the mural look like an over-sized abstract painting. The perfect splash of color and interest for a neutral decor scheme. The same effect can be achieved with even richer tones with rusts, which can vary from orange and brown. The end result being an elegant custom wallpaper with just the right mix of an industrial attitude.

Custom Wallpaper Imagery: Sea Life

We're plunging beneath the waves to find today's custom wallpaper imagery inspiration: sea life. In the briny deep you'll find all sorts of animals deserving to find a place of prominence on your wall. From dolphins and sharks to majestic coral reefs and even sunken ships, there is no lack of variety to draw upon for a sea life wall mural.

The custom wall mural in the inspiration room showcases an image of a red gorgonian sea fan. The sea fan is a type of soft coral, this variety hailing from the Indian Ocean. The deep, rich reds may be the main attraction of this mural, but notice the smaller flower-like objects scattered over the branches. These are polyps that only appear at night. Their flowery appearance has a slight Asian flavor that we really like.

We have quite a collection of sea life images for you to choose from. Some of most popular sea life murals are columns of coral, as well as schools of fish. A school of fish, all packed in tightly together, has an inherent pattern like quality already, to create a more static wallpaper look as opposed to a photographic wall mural. As with any of our images, they can be manipulated to suit your taste and decor as closely as possible.

Custom Wallpaper: Random Photos

Oftentimes our clients have a very specific reason why they want to commission a custom wallpaper mural. Be it that they are trying to achieve a certain mood in a room or convey a specific message, a clear end goal is almost always in mind. But sometimes a client has an unusual image that they love, but never have considered using it in any way.

This is the perfect set-up for a random photo wall mural. sometimes you don't need a reason to create a custom wall mural other than the fact that you have a really cool image and an empty wall to fill it with. These are the types of images that you capture serendipitously. Not a posed vacation picture, but the bizarre unclassifiable shot you captured of some random thing while you were on that vacation.

For instance, the custom wall mural in the inspiration room is an image of a broken window pane. Clearly, most don't decorate with a "broken glass" theme, but the interesting nature of the image allows the mural to stand on it's own, with no real intentions required. The spiderweb-like cracks and hazy backdrop of a city makes the wall mural's subject matter unique, and takes the image from being merely a forgotten snapshot to a large scale piece of art.

Custom Wallpaper Inspiration: Petroglyphs

If you're looking for a custom wallpaper application with a sense of history, you'll love today's mural. The wall mural image inspiration we're featuring are petroglyphs, which are most commonly attached to prehistoric peoples. Petroglyphs are created by etching or engraving into a rock face, with people and animals being the most often depicted subjects.

Printed on wallpaper as a wall mural, petroglyphs will effect your room's decor in a number of ways. First, the natural stone background behind the carvings will instantly add an earthy element to your space. Cracks and fissures in the rock printed with photorealistic detail will give the impression of actually being in the presence of real rock. Additionally, the petroglyphs themselves resonate with the past; you can't help but wonder who did the carving and why. The anthropological aspect of this custom wall mural will certainly give your space an academic kick.

The Petroglyph National Monument in New Mexico features thousands of engravings, plenty of opportunities to capture your own image for a custom wall mural. If you haven't been there or don't plan to go, contact us for our free image research service. Other artifacts and architecture of ancient peoples may interest you more; from totem poles to ziggurats, history is peppered with countless inspiration points for a custom wall mural.

Custom Wallpaper Inspiration: Architectural Elements

Since we haven't touched on this custom wallpaper imagery inspiration in a while, we're happy to bring back architectural elements. This is the fourth installment in this series, and we don't see an end in sight. The presence that a wall mural featuring architectural elements has can't be ignored.

The inspiration room gets a brand new dimension of depth with the image of the crook of a building. The window grids ground the look with a bit of rigidity, while the subtle variations of blues and purples of each pane lends a playfulness to the mural. With each pane being colored slightly differently from the next, a sort of glass patchwork quilt effect is created.

If subtle color variations aren't your bag, consider creating the wall mural in black and white, a great treatment for any architectural wall mural. With an image like this, there's a voyeuristic element to the wallpaper, as if you're looking in at another world. Take a a fresh look at your decor scheme, there just might be room for your own custom wall mural.

Custom Wallpaper Imagery: Smoke

Don't call the fire department, it's just custom wallpaper burning up your walls. Today's custom wallpaper image inspiration is smoke; another instance when custom wallpaper allows you to decorate in exciting and unexpected ways.

Smoke has a mysterious, sensuous look. Printed as a custom wall mural, a smoky look is the perfect backdrop for a titillating dinner party. The smoke in the wall mural in the inspiration room above is tinted with a hint of blue, but could just as easily be presented in pure black and white. Or, a touch of magenta could be used to give the smoke more of a warmer feel.

The ethereal, romantic feeling of smoke and fog always reminds us of the Hudson River School art movement. The atmospheric effect that mist and fog had in these paintings is what truly made this landscape style stand out. Capture the essence of this style as a custom wall mural to give your home the same gorgeous sublime look that Thomas Cole himself would appreciate.

Custom Wallpaper: Bring On The Color

Custom wallpaper allows you to decorate in ways you typically wouldn't consider. Especially if you're a stoic modernist who likes to surround yourself in neutral white and off-white color schemes. Whether you like the minimal design aesthetic, or you just haven't painted the walls in your new home yet, use a custom wallpaper installation to introduce a brand new color palette to your decor scheme.

The inspiration room above was strictly white: white walls, ceiling, window treatment and chandelier. To us, this offers up the opportunity to experiment with color on an accent wall. The entire room doesn't need to drowned in color to effectively capitalize on some non-white hues. The custom wall mural situated behind the desk is makes a huge difference to the room's look, while still being nicely reigned in, letting the predominantly white decor speak for itself still.

Using a colorful custom wall mural to cut through the all-encompassing sterility of a purely neutral color palette is the perfect way to bring more visual interest to a room, while still adhering to a more modern design sensibility. The inspiration room's wall mural is not only colorful, but has a great sense of motion and shape as well. Tired of white walls staring blankly back at you? Bring some more color to your life today!

Custom Wallpaper Imagery: X-rays

Today's custom wallpaper image inspiration is x-rays. If you've been unfortunate enough to experience a broken bone, you know the look of an x-ray intimately. There's a certain mystique about the look of an x-ray; be it the ghostly, slightly macabre appearance or the soft, almost ethereal coloring, an x-ray image can be perfect image source for a custom wallpaper installation.

Consider the inspiration room above: the subtle blues and grays of the wall mural allow the punchy, acidic green of the bench to stand out. The open hand in the wall mural, though slightly eerie, still has a welcoming quality. Almost as if to say, "Have a seat, won't you?"

Clearly this custom wall mural would be right at home at a radiology department in a hospital. But if you can overcome the obvious and find a wall in your home that would work with an x-ray image, the effect would be quite striking. As always with our custom wallpaper, your x-ray image may be tweaked to your liking; the color could shifted to a warmer tone for a more neutral living space, or the image could be repeated to form a unique pattern. Why not immortalize a previous injury? Send us an x-ray of your bones, which we would scan to create your very own one-of-a-kind wall mural.

Custom Wallpaper Project: Nursery Wallpaper

Today we're featuring a custom wallpaper design that we produced for an expectant mother and her husband. As a mother to be, she knew she would be spending a lot of her days, and even more of her nights, in the nursery with her daughter. In an effort to liven up the atmosphere for her baby as well as herself, we were commissioned to transform the nursery room into a virtual fairy wonderland using custom wall murals.

The mural was designed using a number of stock photo elements and references that were in keeping with the fairy look. Images of little girls were modified to have a painterly look, then wings and light flowing fabrics were added. Throughout the wall mural the fairies appear in unexpected places, from one who is sleeping on an turtle, to another in pure white nestled amongst a flowering dogwood's blossoms.

The main challenge of the custom wallpaper installation was creating a look that spanned the full perimeter of the room seamlessly. But the challenge was made entertaining by all of the fanciful snippets we were able to add to the design. The end result is a calm and peaceful space that the whole family, especially baby, will enjoy for years. Do you have a nursery you'd like to finish with custom wallpaper? Contact us to learn more.

Custom Wallpaper Inspirtion: Classic Video Games

Today's custom wallpaper imagery inspiration is one that is ever so near and dear to us: classic video games! As kids that grew up in the mid-eighties, the huge explosion of the popularity of video games was positively narcotic. The leap from the Commodore 64 to the Atari was inspired, and we never looked back.

A custom wall mural featuring classic video game imagery would of course be perfect for a game room. There are many ways you can end up when using vintage graphics as your starting point. As in the inspiration room, we used an alien craft from Space Invaders as the subject. While maintaining the 8 bit look, we dressed up the design with modern color choices and a subtle gradient.

Custom wallpaper allows you to decorate with such freedom. Surely, there's very few stores you could walk into and purchase vintage video game wallpaper. While the look in the inspiration room is more of a mural, the design could easily be repeated out to create a custom wallpaper pattern. The colors can be tweaked to the nth degree, guaranteeing your wall mural will fit seamlessly with your current decor scheme.

New Wallpaper Design: Gold Rush

Today we'll be stepping back from our usual custom wallpaper imagery inspiration to focus on a new pattern we'll soon be launching on Wallgazer. the new wallpaper design is titled "Gold Rush." Gold Rush was designed by artist and graphic designer Andi Kubacki, and may be printed on our traditional wallpaper. It may also be printed on our peel and stick wallpaper, which is becoming very popular.

We've entitled the pattern Gold Rush because the line work is reminiscent of the flourishes that were added to painted signs during the California gold rush. Additionally, the outline of the pattern draws allusions to stitching you'd find on the seat of old school denim jeans. And while the line work is very interesting, the negative space created through the pattern lends a bit of fluidity to the design.

The Gold Rush wallpaper design will be available shortly, but currently we have dozens of newly imagined wallpaper patterns and wall murals available at Wallgazer. Shop the site now for the most recent current custom wallpaper offerings available today. If you're looking for photo murals on wallpaper, be sure to check out our main website. There you can also submit your image for your very own custom wallpaper installation that features your artwork or photography.

Custom Wallpaper Project: Using Concert Photos

With the weekend approaching, you’re probably figuring out how to best enjoy your free time. If going to a live performance is part of your agenda, you may be interested in today's custom wallpaper project. Nowadays it’s much more acceptable to take photographs at a concert, and that is the project we’re proposing: creating a custom wall mural from your favorite live concert shot.

Now, taking in recording equipment and getting bootlegs of the concert is another thing altogether, and if the artist requests not to be photographed that needs to be adhered to. The wall mural image from the inspiration room is a shot from a recent Phish concert held at the Gorge Amphitheatre in Washington state. The mural’s incredible colors streaking through the air are glow sticks. The amphitheatre itself provides a stunning backdrop for these vibrant accents of color.

Stage lighting in general will always give a wall mural a very cool look. Saturated tones of blues, reds and purples stand out nicely against darker areas of a venue. Even the crowd, not the performer, can become the star in your wall mural. So if it’s not frowned upon, take your camera to your next concert experience and capture some shots, one of them may be perfect for our own custom wallpaper installation.

Custom Wallpaper Imagery: Random Photos

Have you ever driven or walked by something that caught your eye and thought: "I'd love to get a photo of that, it's so unusual..."? Be it a building or an architectural element, a piece of graffiti, or an interesting perspective on an everyday object, these are the types of random images that we love to be seen used as custom wallpaper installations.

The custom wall mural in the inspiration room is based on an unintentional collage of posters and handbills I've seen over and over again that I've intended to photograph. Located on (in)famous 8 mile, all of these posters that have been pasted up are slowly peeling away, revealing previously posted announcements. Ripped and jagged, colorful with haphazard streaks of torn white paper highlights, the potential eyesore has always had a striking effect on me.

The wall mural shown is thus an approximation of this accidental work of art on 8 mile. Again, exactly the type of random image that we encourage you to look at with a more discerning eye. Though these images create unexpected and non-traditional murals and giclee, the overall effect they can have on your home is immense.

Custom Wallpaper Inspiration: Vampires

Today's custom wallpaper entry takes us to the dark side, where things go bump in the night and danger lurks 'round every corner. Or, look at our vampire-inspired custom wallpaper installation another way, as pure aesthetic enjoyment; which is the current attitude about vampires and other fanged creatures of the night.

You see, growing up Vampires used to be terrifying. Images from Nosferatu and Béla Lugosi portraying Dracula were dark, ominous, and patently unattractive. Cue today's new crop of Vampires that are decidedly more Hollywood: young and attractive, free of the less savory trappings of blood suckers of yore. That's fine by us, From Twilight to HBO's True Blood, Vampire related imagery has been become an appealing source for custom wallpaper.

For those of you that think this may be just like Halloween everyday in your home, you're partially right. If you want an overtly ominous design like the wall mural in the inspiration room above, we can certainly achieve that. Or you could commission an original wallpaper design, perhaps a creepy old Victorian inspired blood red wallpaper, or a wallpaper pattern based on spider webs. With full design capabilities, we can help you achieve the undead look that you've been dying to have.

Custom Wallpaper Inspiration: Tie-Dye

Today's custom wallpaper inspiration marks the celebration of a couple milestones. Our tie-dye inspired wallpaper is an homage to the 40th anniversary of Woodstock, held originally in August 1969. Initially billed as a music and arts festival, the event became more of a beacon of a new cultural and political awareness to the hundreds of thousands that attended as well as the country at large.

As the country is currently embroiled in debates over health care, it's interesting to reflect on how different our political realm is now compared to the late '60's. One thing that hasn't changed is our affinity for tie-dye, which is a beautiful art form perfectly suited for a custom wall mural. Tie-dye techniques can be dated as far back as 500-800 AD, later becoming a cultural phenomenon and uniform of those ascribing to the "hippie" style. The circular swirling shapes of the mural compliment the round chair and light fixture effortlessly.

The fact that this is our 100th custom wallpaper blog post is the second milestone. Thank you to those who have read and commented on our entries. If you've been reading this blog for a while, you know that we are truly passionate about the unique art of custom wallpaper. Though we may not have the same visionary status of those storied icons of the '60's, we share that same spirit of individuality, and hope you'll continue to share your time in reading our next 100 posts.

Custom Wallpaper: Altering Reality

When producing custom wallpaper installations for our clients, our end result is always to dramatically change the feel of a space, as well as how viewers respond to the mural within that space. With scenic or environmental imagery, we're essentially trying to transport the viewer to another place and maybe time.

In a sense, we're attempting to alter the reality of the viewer with a wall mural: though they may be in a New York townhouse, a mural of a Southwestern landscape will be the strongest, most salient aspect of the room, thereby giving the notion that one is out of time and place. We couldn't think of a more clever way to fully transport oneself while still being 100% legal.

To take a transportative scenic a step further, we've sometimes flipped the horizon on more static images. For example, the inspiration room features a custom wallpaper installation of a rocky coastline, punctuated by deep blue water. The image has been flipped on it's side, and though the effect may not be instantly recognizable, subtle lighting cues and the rippling water pattern gives the impression that something is somehow askew. This innocent attempt to confound the senses is just one of may tricks you can use in creating your own custom wall mural.

Imitation: Not Always The Best Form Of Flattery

Today we won't be focusing on a particular aspect of custom wallpaper. Instead, we want to discuss the unique and creative essence of our company, Great Wall Custom Coverings. Founded nearly five years ago (we celebrate our 5 year anniversary at the end of the month), we sought to create wall murals and custom wallpaper that weren't available to the masses, to create one-of-a-kind installations that our clients would enjoy for years. We didn't realize the special position we'd create for ourselves, not only providing print services but creative consultation, project management, and in general highly innovative problem solving.

Along the way we've amassed a body of print work, based on our designs as well as our clients: designers, artists, photographers, architects, and event planners. We've shared photographs of some of these installations to show the breadth of our capabilities, as well as to inspire people in the process of undertaking a custom wallpaper project.

The image above is a collage of our installation photos. However, this image was being used on a competitor's website. Fortunately, they were very prompt in removing the image form their site once we contacted them, but the situation illustrates the unique position our company inhabits. Though we are artists by nature, we use commercial printing methods, inks and materials to create custom wallpaper. But as true creative professionals, this synthesis comes naturally; we don't need to fake it.

Consider a hand painted mural: you can put a paintbrush in anyone's hand, but that doesn't guarantee a professional, aesthetically pleasing result. Most any printer could take a stab at printing custom wallpaper, but these printers typically specialize in temporary banners; throw away products, and are not comfortable in the realm of interior design or fine art, where we truly excel. Take a company like the one that hijacked our photos above: they think that they can make a few extra dollars by adding custom wallpaper to their product line. With little expertise in the decorating industry, they look to creative company's like us to help create their own creative identity. But no matter how many images of ours they steal, they will never have our vast knowledge and enhanced comfort level when it comes to having a discerning artistic eye.

In short, you need to trust your custom wallpaper producer as you would an architect, contractor, or interior designer. If one of these professionals couldn't represent their own work and substituted another's project as their own, would you use them? We sell originality, creativity and integrity, not other people's work. We invite you to check out our installation gallery to see how we've assisted our clients, and to show you how a real creative company can bridge the gap between the disparate worlds of artistic vision and professional commercial reproduction.

Custom Wallpaper Inspiration: Subdued Imagery

Oftentimes the custom wallpaper imagery we blog about is quite striking. Perhaps it's an innate flair for the dramatic, but vibrantly colored murals with plenty of motion and visual interest are certainly alluring. Today though, we are casting off the shackles of over the top indulgence and focusing on custom wallpaper for a much more demure palette.

Incorporating a custom wall mural into your decor that isn't a dominating focal point is definitely possible. Consider the wall mural in the inspiration room. While the wallpaper has a strong graphic pattern, and a modern look engendered by the subtle alternating gradient, the overall tone of the piece is very soft and ethereal, almost like it isn't there. This is a balancing act we hope to achieve when creating a more soft-spoken custom wall mural: maintain a supporting role for the mural, while not letting the design be mundane and lifeless.

The wall mural featured above is called "Cellular Grey," available for purchase at Wallgazer.net. If the hard-lined graphic look doesn't speak to you, consider an oversized floral pattern in off-whites and creams, which would tonally create a static look, with a lot of visual interest created by shadows and highlights around the mingling flower petals. Need more ideas for a subdued custom wallpaper installation? Contact us to learn more.

Custom Wallpaper Inspiration: Classic Cars

Now that the month of August is here, Metro Detroit will shortly fall into the annual classic car craze with the Woodward Dream Cruise. Classic cars inspire thousands of enthusiasts to line historic Woodward Avenue for miles in either direction, celebrating their love for vintage autos. Let this same adoration be your inspiration point for a custom wallpaper installation featuring classic car imagery.

The Dream Cruise, held August 14th, 15th and 16th is now in it's 15th year. One of the most exciting spots to check out the cruisers is our hometown of Ferndale, due in part to the direction of Michael Lary, event coordinator of the Ferndale Dream Cruise. With live entertainment, activities, and vendors of all types, the Ferndale Woodward Dream Cruise has become the place to be. All those present represent almost every different social group with one common interest: the love of classic cars. If you share this same passion, consider using a custom wall mural using a classic auto as your focus.

In the inspiration room above, we've taken a less than literal approach using the classic car theme. Instead of creating a custom wall mural with a shiny, colorful exterior, we honed in on a vintage car interior. The wall mural, presented in black and white, would be the perfect addition to any room where you'd like to display your affinity for classic Detroit autos. What better way to reward the classic car enthusiast that has refurbished an older car than with a wall mural featuring their vintage auto. If your loved one spends all their time in the garage, perhaps a mural featuring their car will help keep them indoors more often!

Custom Wallpaper Imagery: Random Photos

We're closing out another week with a custom wallpaper installation inspired by random photos; the type of imagery that you wouldn't necessarily think of using as a wall mural, but can create unexpectedly unique environments.

In the inspiration room, the image we used is an old and weathered section of wood that was perhaps part of an old building that has fallen into disrepair. The coarseness of the wood brings an interesting texture to the table, and the numerous layers of chipping paint add to the tactile feel. The true centerpiece of the wall mural though is the splash of graffiti in yellow spray paint running through the wood, giving the mural a real focal point, breaking up the monotony of the weathered wood.

You may or may not have captured an image like this. A simple detail like the inspiration wall mural is easy to pass by without noticing. But when you take a moment to inspect the random details that surround you, a plethora of abstract imagery is readily available that are perfect for a completely one of a kind custom wall mural.

Custom Wallpaper Project: Decorating Your Office

Congratulations. You've finally made it. Now that the cubicle you once inhabited is a distant memory, it's time to make that office with the view your very own. If you're interested in decorating with custom wallpaper instead of decorating your office space with mass produced artwork, we have just the right material for you. In this day and age when company loyalty is, well, non-existent, it's wise to decorate a space with a wall mural you can take with you should you part ways with your employer.

A custom wall mural printed on repositionable wallpaper ensures you'll have the most unique and talked about office in the building, as well as the ability to take down the wallpaper and reinstall it in a new space should you get the corner office down the hall. We featured this material is a previous entry concerning dorm and apartment living, but the same principal applies: your custom wallpaper can be jsut as mobile as you are.

The custom wall mural featured in the inspiration room offers a calm, somber retreat from the usual harried reality of office life. This can be your very own vacation photo, or an image from one of our galleries. So now that you've gotten to the office that you dreamed about while toiling away paying your dues, take your decor to the next level and make a statement far greater than those with just some family photos and plants nestled on their desks: go big with a custom wall mural to highlight your achievements; you've earned it.

Using Custom Wallpaper With Out Of The Box Elements

When using a custom wallpaper installation in your home, it's important to keep in mind how the wallpaper will interact with your present decor scheme. But if you're starting over with a brand new themed room, you can purchase your out of the box decor elements to meld harmoniously with your custom wall mural.

Take for instance the inspiration room above. Our client wanted to create a desert themed environment that was in keeping with a very popular CG film. Though we couldn't brand the wall mural with characters from the film, the client easily found mass produced decals to place on top of the wallpaper, getting the scenic effect that was desired, with the characters that his son loved.

Above and beyond the wall treatments, the client also brought in other decor pieces and furnishings to fully complete the look. You'll notice in the image that our client also painted out the ceiling to extend the wall mural overhead. In all, this is a perfect representation of the successful outcome of marrying custom wallpaper and store bought accessories. Contact us to learn more about our process and what we can do for your themed room.

Custom Wallpaper Inspiration: Forest Scenes

When we're not toiling away designing and printing custom wallpaper, we love to get outdoors, one of the most relaxing activities. Whether you're a runner, hiker, or full blown back country backpacker, you're hard pressed to find the same level of peace and quiet you find when you're alone in the wilderness. Take that feeling you get on the trail and transplant that into your home with a forest inspired custom wallpaper installation.

Like people, forests seem to have different moods as the day goes by. At daybreak, bright and clear with lots of activity; like a real morning person. As the day draws to a close, the pace slackens with thoughts of relaxing. The custom wall mural in our inspiration room has this calm evening feel, with fleeting rays of lights peeking in through the foliage.

A great way to literally bring the outdoors in, consider using your own photography of wooded scenes. This is the perfect way to personalize your home with custom decor, and will surely give your space a calming atmosphere. Take photographs of your favorite trail and have a wall mural to keep that space close to you, even while you're caught up in the rigors of day to day life.

Custom Wallpaper Design: Passport Wallpaper

Today's custom wallpaper inspiration source is your trusty old passport. Whether you've been to our neighbors Canada or Mexico, or all the way around the world, your passport tells the story of your travels through official stamps that more often than not include the date of your passage. Why not commemorate your travels with a custom wall mural based on an image of your passport?

Different countries of course have different styles of passports. The passport shown in the inspiration room's wall mural is from France. Loosely collaged pages from the passport create a unique and random pattern of stamps and scribbles. The cool oranges in the wall mural mesh well with the room's decor, the slight busyness of the mural tempered by a more reserved room layout overall.

The US passport is quite interesting as well, in blues augmented with reds and purples. Of course, the more stamps the better to flesh out your custom wallpaper design, but don't worry if your passport is a little thin; we can digitally add in stamps from other countries to help flesh out the look. Adding in additional items to the custom wall mural is encouraged as well: photos, souvenirs and trinkets that remind you of your past travels could be layered into the wallpaper easily.

Custom Wallpaper Inspiration: Spiritual Imagery

The custom wallpaper imagery inspiration we're focusing on today is spiritual imagery. Though you may not want to bring up religion at dinner party, you can certainly feel comfortable displaying a religious custom wall mural that accentuates your decor in your own home. Regardless if you're outspoken or more meek about your spiritual life, a wallpaper wall mural will speak volumes about your faith.

For instance, in the inspiration room we're featuring an image of Buddha. This specific Buddha image is a photograph of a statue in Thailand from an ancient temple. This is the type of image that you may have captured on a trip overseas. We recently met a modern day pilgrim who made the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, a trek by foot beginning in France and concluding in Spain. That says devotion in any faith, and the imagery he captured was perfect for a wall mural or giclee to commemorate the experience.

Whichever faith you belong to, a custom wallpaper installation will surely be an inspiring addition to your home. Or, if this type of mural would be a good fit for your house of worship as opposed to your home, know that we've previously printed a number of custom wall murals for Churches and Synagogues across the country and around the world. The balancing act is creating a mural that is at once beautiful and engaging, while not being either heavy handed nor trivializing the content. Contact us to learn more.

Custom Event Décor by Great Wall Custom Coverings

We updated our homepage recently to give a better snapshot of the creative nature of our company. Of course we design and produce custom wallpaper, but we also produce custom event decor as well. We do a lot of bar and bat mitzvah celebrations and themed corporate events, but lately we've been contributing decor pieces for weddings. Most importantly, our work was recognized and included in TNT's first reality show, "Wedding Day."

The premise of the show is to give deserving couples who have overcome adversity the wedding of their dreams. A great concept that was executed brilliantly by Mark Burnett Productions, who've produced numerous successful programs including "Survivor." The happy couple we helped decorate for was right here in Detroit, and they were given an unbelievable Celtic inspired wedding, complete with a replica of a Celtic church in the Westin Book Cadillac's grand ballroom, complete with pews, faux stone walls, and faux stained glass panels which we designed and helped produce. We also produced an image of the Celtic Tree of Life as a floor graphic to adorn the dance floor, as well as table runners featuring artwork by the bride's young students.

The show airs July 18th 2009 at 9:00 AM EST on TNT. The image displayed above is not from the wedding, but was from a party that we decorated for an art auction house. They wanted to use custom backdrops to create a turn of the century Paris feel. We accomplished this with photography, as well as trompe l'oil elements to create the facades, windows, and statues. Similar techniques that we employ for custom wallpaper installations, but on backdrops that go up and come down in a single day. Check our our event decor website for more examples of our backdrop work, and tune in to TNT to watch our national television premier!

Custom Wallpaper: Architectural Elements

If you've followed this blog, you know that architectural elements are some of our favorite custom wallpaper image inspirations. In keeping with this tradition, we're offering another inspiration room featuring an architectural wall mural. Instead of focusing on a detail in a facade or a specific material, this mural depicts a large apartment complex in Germany shot from afar.

Initially, the image was much more colorful. We muted the colors of the mural to blend more with the dominant neutral tones of the inspiration room. Taking the image to black and white would also be a good idea for this space. Additionally, the layout of the building in the mural has a slightly uneven tempo, which is a nice counterpoint to the perfect symmetry of the furniture placement.

Another clever element of this custom wallpaper installation is that when viewing the mural, one gets the impression of being elevated, like having a bird's eye view from a high rise building. This is a great way to add an additional feeling of space to a smaller room. Mirrors can always accomplish this task as well, but the unique feeling of space that an architectural wall mural can offer is exciting new way to create volume in a room.

Custom Wallpaper Inspiration: Northern Lights

Today's featured wall mural invites you to capture the mysterious beauty of the northern lights as a custom wallpaper installation. The aurora borealis, which is most often viewed around the North pole, has been an inspiration to us. Growing up in Northern Michigan, we were lucky enough to see the northern lights on occasion. Hence, the unearthly glow of the northern lights has long been an inspiration.

The custom wall mural we're featuring in the inspiration room features the northern lights in a green hue, offset by the final remains of sunlight disappearing behind mountains in the distance. This gives the mural several strong, independent fields of color. The angle at which the northern lights are presenting gives the wall mural a great sense of motion as well.

With custom wallpaper, you can view the northern lights in your home everyday, even if you live nowhere near the North pole. The lights can appear green as in the inspiration room, but they can also shift to blues, reds, and combinations that create heavenly gradients. A wall mural featuring the northern lights will inherently have an abstract, artistic feel, perfect for dressing up a room with an original focal point.

Custom Wallpaper Inspiration: Car Flame Decals

Here is a custom wallpaper installation for all the car lovers out there. Specifically, the car buffs who love flame decals and the like. Hand painted flame decals have been used to give vehicles an edgy, hot look for years. Recently, commercial printers have been producing self-adhesive vinyl flame decals that are easy to install and are more cost effective than hand painted work. Now, take the look of flame decals off the car and get the look on your wall with a custom wall mural.

The flame imagery for the wall mural can be fully customized. The look in our inspiration room is photorealistic, a close up shot of swirling flames. You may opt for a mural that features more graphic inspired illustrated flames. Either way, the look that you've loved on cars is now available as a wallpaper for your home, business, even the garage.

With the advent of digitally printed vehicle graphics, many styles other than flames have become popular. Barbed wire, skulls, and wild line work are popular as well. Any of these inspiration points can be easily translated form a vehicle wrap to a custom wall mural. With murals printed on high quality materials, you'll love the fact that your wallpaper mural will need hardly any maintenance over the years, time you can spend working on and maintaining your automobile. Need more inspiration? Contact us for ideas and image research to make your very own decal inspired mural.

Custom Wallpaper: Just The Right Fit

Custom wallpaper allows you to decorate like never before with imagery that you never thought could be produced as wallpaper. And while we often blog about flights of fancy with wall mural image choices, there is also a very pragmatic, useful side to custom wallpaper installations as well.

Take for instance the install image we're featuring. Our client had an exact spot that she needed to fill in her home. She had the perfect image to use, a shot from her own garden. We simply needed to crop the image to fit the space. Instead of printing the image on wallpaper, it was printed on artist canvas and stretched over non-warping foam board, aka giclee. Hence, this troublesome spot that was always hard to fill has suddenly become the focal point of the room.

Our custom wallpaper service is invaluable for similar circumstances: alcoves, end walls, areas above chair rails, spaces that aren't always the most accommodating for artwork can come alive with a custom printed wall mural. Since all of our work is custom, there is no need for concern about awkward sizes or angles; these obstacles are easy to circumvent and are solved on a case by case basis. Do you have an odd space that you need to address in your home? Contact us to learn more about using a custom wallpaper solution for your hard to decorate areas.

Custom Wallpaper Design: Asian Accents

Custom wallpaper projects featuring Asian imagery are some of our most popular sellers. Be it a wall mural featuring bamboo forests, Zen rock gardens, or alphabetic characters, there are plenty of options for you to choose from. We offer a full line of Asian inspired wall murals on our main website, Great Wall Online.

There, you'll find an assortment of wall mural imagery that is very environmental in focus. The wallpaper wall mural we're featuring in the inspiration room focuses on a detail of a Chinese tile wall mural. The colorful tiles combine to create a dragon in blues and greens with accents of red, which help tie the mural into the room, pulling out the red hues of the ornate chairs.

Your own photographs of a trip abroad would certainly be worth while considering. A scenic shot like the Asian inspired wall murals on our site would work well, or go for a more idiosyncratic look with a mural that features a detail or element from a photo that interests you. If you don't have the right image but you can envision the wall mural you want, contact us and we can assist you with image research.

Decorating With Outdoor Art

Now that the 4th has officially passed, it's starting to really feel like Summer. Here in Metro Detroit, it always takes a little longer to feel the heat, but now that it's here, all we want to do is spend time outdoors. Whereas we usually blog about using custom wallpaper installations to decorate your home, today we're focusing on dressing up your exterior spaces with custom printed outdoor wall art.

Our outdoor wall art is possible due to the fact that we use materials and printing processes that create prints that are viable outdoors for 5+ years. Our inks are waterproof, and highly resistant to UV light. In addition, we laminate the print which is a self-adhesive vinyl, then mount that to a 1/4" rigid plastic that is highly impact resistant. A lot of commercial lingo that basically equates to a beautiful but enduring piece of artwork for you to enjoy for many years.

Our inspiration setting, an outdoor patio with potted bamboo, seemed to beckon for more of the same. The outdoor wall art features a photograph of bamboo in varying widths and tones of greens, which coordinate perfectly with the outdoor furniture. As with our custom wall murals and wallpaper, the image used to create the custom wall art is completely up to you. Find a treasured image from your personal photographs, or check out our website for imagery or assistance in tracking down the right photograph for your project.

Custom Wallpaper Imagery: Random Photos

From all of the multitudes of photographs you've captured on your digital camera, we know there is a photo there that would make a great custom wallpaper installation. We love using elements from photos, or a macro shot of a detail, that you typically wouldn't expect to find as the focus of a wall mural. These images often create abstract, original murals that are available to a very limited few, namely you.

For instance, the image above is a shot of a chandelier. The chandelier is backlit with blue, which varies with shades of purple and green, giving the mural a peacock color scheme. The glistening facets give this custom wall mural a shiny look, reminiscent of the bling custom wallpaper entry we wrote about previously.

A custom wallpaper installation featuring your photo is easy to order, and can be delivered to your door within 10 business days or sooner. We encourage you to revisit your old images and see if there is something there that surprises you. Random images make great murals and conversation pieces, so set your imagination free!

Custom Wallpaper And Beyond: Custom Décor

The installation image we're featuring today doesn't focus so much on custom wallpaper or giclee, our usual custom interior décor products. Instead, we're intending to highlight the freedom and flexibility offered to you with custom printed interior décor.

The giclee art piece in the inspiration room belongs to our office manager. She was trying to find a piece of artwork to match a specific fabric. After looking for years, she realized that the best solution was to use the actual fabric to create an art piece as opposed to buying a pre-made piece of art to coordinate with her existing décor. In this regard, she circumvented any concerns of the art piece meshing well with the room since she was able to use her inspiration material as the art piece itself.

This is one of the most exciting aspects of our business for a lot of our clients; they've had these pieces that have inspired them for years, and they want to use them in their homes, they just didn't realize they could be used for custom interior décor products. The same fabric piece we used to create the giclee could have just as easily been used to create a wall mural, or tiled up for an original custom wallpaper pattern. Inspirations can range from photos to artwork, poetry and prose, or simply trying to bring an environmental representation of a memory or favorite location to your current space. As we often say, the sky is the limit when it comes to our custom interior décor services, and we invite you to set your imagination free to create the custom décor project you've always dreamed about.

Custom Wallpaper Project: Vamp Custom Wallpaper

If you read our previous post about Gothic inspired wallpaper, you know we don't shy away from the dramatic. In keeping with that theme, we offer our vamp inspired custom wallpaper. Vamp can mean different things to different people, with connotations to vampirism, vintage pin-up girls, and back around to goth. One perception of vamp that all agree on is that a woman with vamp style is dark, gorgeous, and gets what she wants.

Our custom wallpaper design is the prefect interplay of vamp and film noir. Darkness edges the image of an angel from a Gothic church, which gives the wall mural a smoky, mysterious look. The juxtaposition of our vamp model and the innocent angel is a fun way to keep the wallpaper's theme from getting too dark.

The custom wall mural may be tinted for a more emotional response. A red tint over the wallpaper image would have a much more intense presence, while a blue tone would give the mural more of a reserved cool. As vamp style can be interpreted in numerous ways, so can a custom wallpaper's imagery be derived by numerous sources and inspirations. Whatever wall mural image you choose, it will be surely be a perfect addition to a room with a vamp aesthetic.

Custom Wallpaper Design: Using Fonts and Text

Oftentimes in our entries about custom wallpaper we're discussing photographic imagery to be used as a wall mural, and the affect that the image will have on the wall mural's viewers. Consider taking a completely different direction and commission a wall mural that features text and font as art forms.

American artist Edward Ruscha is well known for his work that utilizes text and font to give his unique commentary on American culture. By either creating his own stylized fonts or intermingling text with background imagery, Ruscha's work has been starting conversations about graphic design as an art form, and drawing parallels to Pop Art for decades.

The custom wallpaper installation we're featuring in the inspiration room is comprised of a printer's block letters, haphazardly arranged . Real wood texture and depth give the wall mural an original look, and the stacks of numbers and letters, some in reverse, speaks to the complexity of human language and meaning, and font and text as tools to express that complexity. If you want to take a more literal approach to a font mural, your own prose or poetry would make a truly unique custom wallpaper installation. Or, use your own imagery along with text to pay homage to Ruscha's work.

Custom Wallpaper Project: Use Your Own Original Artwork

For those of us without a strong creative streak, a custom wallpaper installation can bestow a bit of creativity to your everyday life. But for those of us that are artistically inclined, our custom wallpaper printing service is a brand new avenue to display your work. If you've been working on canvases that are more traditionally sized at 2' x 3' or 4' x 6' or the like, you'll love the extreme size that a custom wall mural will show your work at.

Whether you're working with oils, pastels or watercolors, any medium that may be scanned can be transformed into a custom wall mural. Once your artwork is digitally scanned by either yourself or us, we then scale your original artwork to the full size of your wall, and print it in panels. The end result is very similar to traditional wallpaper, only this custom wallpaper will feature your very own original artwork.

While a custom mural of your artwork will surely be a welcome addition to your home, it would also be a thoughtful gift for a loved one. And since we utilize archival based inks that make our custom wallpaper waterproof and incredibly UV resistant, you won't have to worry about the longevity of your piece. Childrens' artwork that may not be as polished as a seasoned artist is still a very viable source, and would fit well in their bedroom, playroom, or arts and crafts room. So dust off those brushes or go back to your portfolio and find the piece that would make a perfect wall mural, your original artwork mural will certainly leave a lasting impression with its viewers.