Wall decoration

[Bram]

OK, I realise you guys were probably hoping for a weird picture or a youtube movie, but tough cookies; it's just me in need of your assistance once more.

I've this rather large empty wall in my apartment that I'm at a loss what to do with. It begins in my living room, but mainly runs the lenght of my adjacent, open, but rather narrow kitchen. It's maybe 20 feet long, and I can't really put any furniture there because it would block the entrance to my kitchen.

I could go with a narrowish bar with some stools, or a graffiti, or a couple of posters, or whatever, but somehow, none of these particularly appeal to me. The rest of my apartment it rather modern (white, minimalistic, lots of stainless steel furniture), and I kinda wanna keep it in style, but this empty wall is just too much (or rather: too little).

Any ideas? Everyone's an interior designer these days, so anything goes

[Nastaboi]

Well, my wife just aquired a lamp like this to our living room. The thing is, it casts very nice and decorative shadow on the wall which was blank before that. The lopside is that you may have to go to Denmark to get it.

[Anusien]

Flatscreen LCD TV?

[Moxlotus]

Flatscreen LCD TV?

Anusien FTW.  Flatscreen LCD TV>all options

[Bram]

Yah, but I already have that. It's on the opposite wall. And no, I don't want another one - I hardly even use the FIRST one

[nataz]

obv. a transformer wall mural.

[Hi-Val]

Buy about five (make it an odd number) prints of different Josef Albers "Homage to the Square" , get them framed in black with white matte and hang them up equally spaced. Since you describe your place as modern and white, I think they'll look amazing. Choose colors of Albers pieces that match what you have, but the beauty is that Albers was a phenomenal color theorist, so all of his individual paintings match and you can combine any together and they will all still match.

Modern apartment, modern art.

[Bram]

obv. a transformer wall mural.

OK, and now let's imagine that I want girls to come over.

Those Albers things look pretty amazing, by the way. I'm totally game for modern art. The only problem is that I sorta only want original art. This may prove financially unrealistic so I may have to reconsider, but atm I'm looking for promising local talent to rip off, so to speak.

[Yare]

A piece of original MTG art?  There are a bunch on eBay.

A long beach poster is also a choice.

[Hi-Val]

Bram, you might want to consider Roy Lichtenstein prints, or even Warhol. Both made use of the silkscreening medium, so for some of their pieces, that are no "originals", so you don't have to worry about not owning one : )

I'm glad you liked the Albers! I have one of his prints on my wall currently and it's a very "centering" kind of thing, and it's modern but not to the point where people get angry with it (as some people do with modern art). If you want to occupy a LOT of your wall space, try to find a life-size Jackson Pollock print, some of them are very long.

If you'd like to check out Lichtenstein, he has a Triptych called "As I Opened Fire" that might work for occupying a lot of space.

[Metman]

Paint the wall some color that isn't white.  You should do this to all your walls, but paint the damn thing some off the wall color if you know what I mean. 

[nataz]

OK, and now let's imagine that I want girls to come over

weak. mayhaps you are just looking for the wrong girl.

Depending on how much space you have, there are some pretty cool sculptures you can find that are fashioned from metal and meant to be hung on the wall. I'm not sure what you have available locally, but I've seen some great pieces at friends places in New York and Boston. For reference, imagine high polish (chrome even), flowing lines, and a long horz. profile. It does tend to be expensive though, unless you know some poor/hungry/desperate art students.

I know a classic favorite among my old college crowd were the huge "softcore" posters from abercrombie...but that may not be what you are looking for. Still, if you are gonna cover a huge space, mind as well look at something pretty.

hmmm, How much color are you looking for? Are you looking for something to fit into your living space, or are you looking for something to define your living space.

I've been reading up on the use of light as art recently also. It's tough to recommend anything without seeing the space, but white walls can be a great start. Between different textures, natural light that evolves during the day, and artificial enhancers, you can get some cool effects.

Oh, something that me and my friends worked out, but never actually installed (stupid insurance) was a CO2 cooled, LED lit, liquor bar/display. Clear plastic tubes, with a second hollow tube on the inside. The outer tube was filled with different types of liquor, then inner tube (again clear) was filled with water, an aerator stone, and a LED light at the bottom (sealed). The entire rig was vertical, about 3 feet high for the tubes, and then we had it hooked up to a basic CO2 pressurized system and a soda gun. CO2 lines and Soda gun-esq connections hidden by a basic black bar rail. Built in mini fridge with ice. So much fun, and it looked amazing.  In theory you could set up a whole array with lots of tubes and different colored lights. It would make quite a display on a white colored wall, and its obv. amazing for parties. We had a small scale working model, but had to abandon it due to pesky landlords. They also made us take down the BarBQ grill on the fire escape. *sigh*, I miss college. 

 

[OfficeShredder]

Buy every single piece of power nine that shows up on ebay for the next year, and glue them to the wall.  That would be so fricking awesome (before you do that, send me a set )

[JuJu]

Small paintings + Wall Lights, I'm not sure on the dimensions of the wall, but I'd think that would be pretty cool. You could, you know, use a long mantle as well and put whatever on there.

Also, for kicks, you could find as many prints as possible for Wall creatures and hang those up xD

[Anusien]

In all seriousness, I find landscapes occupy that sort of space well.  Either realistic or not (++Dali).  Snow or wood scenes look really good.

[Twaun007]

I vote for a black and white Blues Brothers poster, preferably the one featuring Jake, Elwood, and the 74 dodge sedan. I would also hang it up in a frame so it looks professional and not collage dorm like.

Here are some examples of my favorites:

http://www.moblues.org/images/odds&ends/Blues%20Bros%20italian.jpg

http://www.gobaeng.de/images/products/4003.jpg

http://www.sfondideldesktop.com/Images-Movies/The-Blues-Brothers/The-Blues-Brothers.jpg

[jro]

Bram, you might want to consider Roy Lichtenstein prints, or even Warhol. Both made use of the silkscreening medium, so for some of their pieces, that are no "originals", so you don't have to worry about not owning one : )

That's not really true, because there are still what amount to "original prints", reprints, poster versions, etc.  For example, there's only one original painting of Lichtenstein's "As I Opened Fire"; it's in the Stedelyk Museum in Amsterdam.  Which means that if Bram really wants the original that bad he can go steal it, but otherwise, he'll have to do with a reproduction.  I have a smaller repro of it where each piece is 20"x25", instead of the original's 68"x56". I guess there are larger ones, too.

Honestly, though, anything that can fill up that much space will cost a lot, even a nothing-fancy repro print (not to mention if you want it framed).  If you're looking for something to basically fill the wall, even a local artist would probably ask for something north of US$1500.  You might be able to get someone to paint directly on the wall for cheaper.  Sticking with a modern art theme, maybe you could paint the wall as a mural-sized Mondrian, which I guess might count as ripping off local talent.  Or, you could use a program like Rasterbator to giant-size whatever you'd like.  Check out their image gallery for some pretty cool uses of the program in conjunction with painted walls, etc.

[Machinus]

Tables of nuclear mass vs:

Nuclear charge
Chemical properties (periodic table)
Binding energy per nucleon

Or, pictures of scientists.

[nataz]

Or, you could use a program like Rasterbator

Thats really cool. I suppose you could do the same kind of thing in photoshop, but I'm too lazy to learn how.

[Hi-Val]

jro-- I know that Lichtenstein did a lot of original paintings, we have several in Columbus. I think he also did some screen work though, which if Bram tracked down, would alleviate his desire to own "originals" : )

The other thing is that Lichtenstein signed lithos are still very reasonably priced; they can be had for between $1k and $5k. You can have some of his original work for what I think is a fine price for original runs.

If you like Lichtenstein, which it sounds like you do, check out Deconstructing Roy Lichtenstein:

http://davidbarsalou.homestead.com/LICHTENSTEINPROJECT.html