I painted a dining room

You probably know by now that 2019 was the year of me getting my feet wet in the mural game. Compared to some artists I know, I really don't have that many on my resume. But for me, three major murals in one year (plus a bunch of other random things) was a lot! Especially since two of them were outdoors. I learned a lot, got really exhausted and hopefully I'm starting to finally make a real mark on Atlanta.

Over the course of last year, I had a handful of people approach me about painting portions of their house - outdoor, indoor, living room, bedroom, etc. So the idea of an in-house custom mural was not alien to me, but I was starting to think it was only a pipe dream. No one had made the leap to actually schedule me to do one so I wasn't sure if it were ever going to be possible. Cut to 2020 - all I had to do was wait for the right client and more importantly, the right interior designer to be my champion! House Lift Design was responsible for orchestrating this whole thing and I'm so glad they did. Brenda and Camille knew my work well enough to see that this dining room was the perfect fit. The furniture and finishes are still being worked on, but I just couldn't wait to share my completed portion - the wall painting.

As you can see by the above photo, the ladies of House Lift Design had determined a color scheme that was right up my alley. Cool blues and tonal greys are totally my jam and being that this space is a formal entertaining area, the goal was to keep things airy while still making a bold statement that would tie the entire room together. My method was to paint instinctively, follow my gut, and build a visual pattern that felt dreamy and cloud-like.

I used traditional interior latex paint that I mix into different shades on-site and covered all the wall space within the boundaries of the molding. There were only a few challenges along the way, the main one being that I had to make sure I wasn't getting too wild or too dark. Sometimes I can forget where I am and take too big of a risk when it comes to the gestural strokes, but the beautiful thing about paint is that it can always be painted over! So even after the composition was starting to feel a tad too dark and heavy, I was able to paint it over and pull back some of the denser areas.

The end result is... dare I say... perfect? It's a much more interesting (and probably more cost effective) method of making a design statement than wallpaper! I knew I could do it and it would turn out well, but I don't think I really KNEW that it would be this great. And the rug and the furniture isn't even in yet! It's a bit hard to tell by pictures since the mural goes around the whole room, but just trust me when I say it really transports you into a new headspace to be in that room. I have to mention one more time, a big thank you to House Lift Design for turning this pipe-dream into a reality. I really don't have the words to express all the feels I have about this family living with my work on their walls.