Slipcovers for Your Walls

What’s your creative media? How do you paint your palette? Some would say traditionally and others described here might say with flowers.

Fabulous Florals and Garden Mania are just a couple of headliners used recently by Traditional Home and the New York Times Magazine / Design Issue to describe the current fascination with floral design fancy.

Traditional Home, New + Next, May 2013

Party planner David Stark’s book Party Favor, shows multiple ways to use flowers for table decoration and for entertaining, and is featured in Traditional Home’s New + Next column.

You have to go to David’s website! It’s one of the most fun and interactive sites you’ll ever encounter. You’ll enjoy the wind chime tags where you can see examples of his many extraordinary creations, including this handmade screen of flowers for a Bat Mitzvah he designed at the Rainbow Room in NYC.

Paper cut flowers become a screen by David Stark for a Bat Mitzvah at the Rainbow Room in NYC

You’ll also enjoy popping bubbles with a pushpin and using the large hand as your cursor and even hole punching his books. But go to his blog, where you’ll discover all the incredible things he’s done with his highly creative team, including an entire pop-up paper flower shop for the opening event of his David Stark Design book in 2010. Yes, I’d say he likes flowers as well as paper. He’s inspired by artists like Daniel Murphy and Claes Oldenburg, whom I also enjoy. He states about his flower popup shoppe, ” I was inspired by the concept of the now iconic show presented by Claes Oldenburg in his studio in the 60’s called THE STORE.  In our flower shoppe, we created a stylized stage set where the purchase of accessible hand-made art objects became part of the theater piece.” He might like this incredible display cut from styrofoam “paper” cups by Katie Martin. It blows me away.

Flotant, paper cup artwork by Katie Martin

The New York Times Magazine recently touted the use of flowers through historical references, including: Gustav Klimt, Christian Dior, Chanel,  Isabelle de Borchgrave’s beautiful sculptural paper dresses, and murals in their spring Design Issue.

NYTimes Magazine – Design Issue, April 2013

These curvy floral mural panels in a sumptuous room designed by Peregalli and Sartori Rimini remind me of Kristin Nicholas’ Garden panels below.

Kristin Nicolas’ Garden of Family Farm Life Mural

Amazing the resemblance!…Finally, this clever piece that House Beautiful does had me dreaming of flowers and more ways to use our Multi/ Bold version from our recent photo shoot.

House Beautiful, March 2013

Here’s a way to make wallcoverings work as artwork in this Mixed Bouquet in a Floral Salon Olioboard.  If you like it, give it your vote!

A Mixed Bouquet in a Floral Salon

– Ashley

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Houzz had a great ideabook this week by Gabrielle de Stafano about the history of wallpaper with wonderful illustrations of types of wallpapers through the ages.  It struck me that many of our designs could also be used as illustrations.  Here are a few quotes from Gabrielle’s ideabook, and our examples.

During the 1500s more ornate designs mimicking fabric patterns — such as brocade  and damask — covered the walls and lined the armoires and chests of the gentry.

Casart coverings’ French Peacock Damask

(Chinoiserie) This  style became popular with European designers during the 1600s, who used rice paper panels to depict landscapes with delicate flowers and birds.

Our Birds and Birch uses vinyl, not rice paper, and there are no delicate flowers in the landscape.

Casart colored version of Birds and Birch colored in a Dining Room

Wallpaper in the 18th century was all about color and pattern.  During this era artists translated pictorial depictions from tapestry design onto papers. Scenic, large-scale papers were very popular in France.

Kristin Nicholas’ Garden of Family Farm Life is definitely  all about color and pattern.

Kristin Nicolas’ Garden of Family Farm Life Mural

This scenic large-scale custom mural was done for two designers’ weekend retreat.

Casart custom mural installation

Wallpaper in the 19th century included many distinctive wallpaper patterns designed by William Morris, father of the Arts and Crafts movement.

Using stylized forms and motifs from nature, Morris created flat but intricate patterns…

I think our Flower Power fits that description.

Vinyl and prepasted papers also appeared in the ’50s, making wallpaper even more accessible.  The peacock design… is reminiscent of the art nouveau revival design that emerged during the middle of the century.

Casart’s Peacock Pattern-Quill

Our Quill pattern colorways, above, and installed, below.

Casart Quill Pattern in Indigo / White

Wallpaper today is alive and kicking. Besides the traditional wallpapers we know and love, contemporary geometric patterns have become extremely popular.

MoRockAnSoul Designs

Amy Finkle’s MoRockAnSoul’s array of designs and colorways above, and a more subdued example below.

Amy Finkle’s MoRockanSoul XOXO Design for Casart

Gabrielle, thank you for providing the research and the quotes which allowed me to have the fun of finding similar examples in Casart’s collection of removable, and reusable wallcoverings.  We’ve come a long way since wallpaper’s beginnings!

Here is Gabrielle’s ideabook for Houzz so you can see the entire article and all of her illustrations.

-  Lorre Lei

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I don’t think it’s just me but I’m seeing color, pops of color and unexpected color all over the place. Just an example, my latest grandinroad catalog has bright colored outdoor benches and chairs where they would normally be unpainted wood, wicker, white or beige. They are calling the change their “Spring Awakening” in celebration of their 10 years. No, I’m not their spokesperson but these just brightened up my day to see. Click here to see more.

Not only are catalogs using color for their products but interior designers are as well in their projects. Below are a bunch of snapshots of where pops of color can make a room sing through the following ways. Hopefully they will equally inspire you with lots of colorful decorating ideas.

Furniture:

Yellow & Pink Furniture – Artistic Design For Living

Green Sofa & Chair – Barrie Benson

Orange Chairs – Burnham Design

Red Chair – J. Allen Perceptions Interiors

Monochromatic Styling:

Red Carpet Stairs and Linden Museum Displays – Crux Creative

Red – Barrie Benson

Green – J. Allen Perceptions Design

Lime – Civility Design

Color Blocking:

Homepage – Poplin & Queen

Stripes – Bolick Interiors

Curtains – Barrie Benson

Rug – Angie Hranowsky Design Studio

Wall + Rug + Chairs & Desk Area – J. Allen Perceptions Interiors

Nursery:

A Nursery no longer needs to be pastel – Selma Hammer Designs

Crib Detail – Selma Hammer Designs

Multi-surface:

Custom wallpaper + Accessories – Little Crown Interiors

Remember Spirograph? – Little Crown Interiors

Chairs + Tile + Rug + Walls – Design Club

Unexpected & Unusual Locations:

Floral Entry – Rachel Halvorson Designs

Reclaimed Wood – Rachel Halvorson

Look up! Orange Antler Chandelier – Civility Design

Floral Spontaneity – Barrie Benson for Poole Shop

You can see room views of Casart’s pop of floral color here with our Flower Power Design.

Casart Flower Power makes Art for Your Home easy for renters

Casart Flower Power – Pops with color in a Teenager’s Room

Accessories:

Shades & Pattern as Artwork – Seaside Interiors

Orange – Kristy Cohn Design

Desk Caddy – Frugal Finds

A Clever Blue (Foo) Lab? Bookends – Frugal Finds

While I’m thinking of all these ways to interject color, I can’t help but circle back to grandinroad’s cover picture on their website, which makes me daydream of the restful days of summer and clear colorful, beautiful blue skies and pops of seaside color surrounding. Color can be so soothing….

grandinroad’s inspiration from Nature

– Ashley

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