The word “space” encompasses a multitude of meanings and dimensions. There’s outer, inner, gimme, lost in, wasted and wall, just to name a few. For the moment, let’s concentrate on wall space and not worry about the other kinds. Whether you live in one room or romp through one hundred, one of the biggest obstacles a homeowner faces is how to utilize wall space effectively. Adding to the problem is the fact that there are so many potential mistakes to choose from. How can anyone even make a decision?
Artwork is the last thing most people buy. Still, it is more important than one might imagine. (It’s certainly right up there with houseplants and aluminum foil.) Art defines the theme of any room it is placed in. A painting or mural can make or break any other color scheme, depending on how large and colorful the rendition is. Everyone, of course, has different tastes and the right to their own two cents about their own four-cent abode. The ugly, iridescent truth is that many homes would look a lot better if the wall space was either re-designed or utilized differently.
Obviously, you can’t alter the structure or number of walls in your home, but you can control the selection of shapes, colors and sizes of the things that will adorn them. Proportion is just as important and colors and shapes. (In this case, fit follows function.) A large painting might overwhelm (or whelm, as Mel Brooks used to say) a small room, whereas a tiny painting in a large room might not even be noticed. If the room in question is small, consider utilizing wall space for maximum impact. Wall art takes up little space, but has as much visual weight as a large piece of furniture. Just as you would limit how much you can spend before you go out shopping (major assumption here, I know), you should also decide which colors and shapes work and which do not within your particular surroundings.
So how does one go about decorating walls in the best of taste? Well, for one thing, forget about matching the color of the flamingos on your lawn with those in your home. Study the colors you have chosen for your walls and ceilings. Get a color chart from a paint store. Find the colors you already have on the chart and then find which others might complement them. This will help eliminate some obvious no-nos.
Walls can be painted, textured, covered, faux finished or wallpapered. They can also be neutral or the color focus of the room. When choosing wallpaper, you must first consider the square footage of the wall area of the room in question (excluding doors, windows and cabinets). Find out how many square feet each roll of your paper will cover and divide the room area by the number of square feet on a roll. Don’t forget to buy extra rolls for mistakes! And don’t pass go, don’t collect $200 and do not, under any circumstances leave the store without checking the lot numbers on the rolls you buy. I made this mistake once and my faux-tin ceiling had squares where there should have been circles and lines where there should have been space. (And there was a headache where once there was peace.)
Bookshelves and wall storage units (metal or wood) seem to be a little safer. Bookshelves of double depth permit books to be stacked one behind the other and can assuage a collector who cannot even find a place to sit down in his or her apartment. Shelves can bridge windows or large arches as well as the walls above doors and windows. By utilizing double depth and double sets of shelves, one can quarter the physical amount of wall space required. Everything will be fine until the day the collector needs a book that is behind seventy-five others. When that happens, it will probably be better to move.
Wall units are versatile and can be made with drawers, shelves, dividers or just left open. They are great for utilizing wall space in an office, den, laundry room or bedroom. Units can be combined and stacked for endless possibilities. Well-painted galvanized metal shelves are easy to clean and will not rust. The nuts and bolts used as fasteners should also be galvanized. Whether one purchases metal shelving at a relatively inexpensive supply house that caters to commercial firms or at a too often overpriced furniture boutique is a question of choice.
In the end, personal choice based on life style will win out. Whether ‘tis nobler to hang photographs, paintings or murals or take arms against a sea of troubles and wall paper, it is only you who can prevent forest fires. Have a good time, but whatever you do, don’t call on me to help you. I know my limits. By the way, do you happen to know anyone in the market for some faux tin paper with circles and squares that almost match?
“Wake Up The Walls In Your Home! It’s Time!”