What are wall murals?
In this article, we'll look at what wall murals are, how they can be incorporated into your design and what rooms best suit a wall mural. We'll also discuss how to perfectly partner colour, pattern and texture into your design to create a cohesive and balanced final effect.
Since completing his fashion marketing degree and spending a year working in luxury PR in London James has spent 8 years living and breathing wallpaper and interior design. Joining Graham & Brown in 2015 working through the marketing and product teams before spending time in field developing our Graham & Brown partner network. 2021 saw James’ return to his passion of delivering exceptional product and design into the market heading up the Graham & Brown lifestyle interior brand.
Working across all product categories James’ ambition is to deliver beautifully curated loving homes to our customers and inspiring them every day.
While feature walls have been around for a while now, wall murals are taking interior design in a different direction. Focusing your room décor around a single key feature is standard practice, and a wall mural provides a striking element from which to construct a dynamic and personalised space.
In this article, we'll look at what wall murals are, how they can be incorporated into your design and what rooms best suit a wall mural. We'll also discuss how to perfectly partner colour, pattern and texture into your design to create a cohesive and balanced final effect. Keep reading for our three wall mural choices from the experts to get the best look for any size space.
What is a wall mural?
Rather than using patterned wallpaper to create a signature wall, a mural is a bespoke piece that does not feature a repeated print or design. A wall mural is confined to a single wall, essentially giving you a full-size ‘picture’.
Wall murals are individually made to suit your exact dimensions, and the method used ensures that there is no degradation of the image. Even if your wall is larger than normal and your mural needs to be increased in size to fit, you won’t see any grainy effect or edge blurring in the image. It will be as sharp and as crisp as a smaller version.
Are wall murals on trend?
Trends come and go, but wall murals are far more individualistic, much more personalised, and as such transcend simple fads. They also date back to ancient times – the Romans and Greeks loved a mural or two!
This is your space, and a wall mural allows you to bring your personality to a room, whether it's a delicate Japanese floral mural, a striking jungle scene, or a contemporary Manhattan cityscape in monochromatic tones.
Because they're so easy to hang (we'll get to that in more detail in a moment), they've become more popular as people embrace more creativity with their interiors. The quality of wall murals has also improved vastly over the years, with better printing techniques producing premium-quality murals that really last. Colour fade, even where murals are exposed to direct sunlight, is far less of a problem than before, ensuring the design stays crisp and fresh for longer.
The sheer range of designs on offer also makes it a popular choice, and there are murals for both traditional and contemporary interiors. It may be a trend, but at Graham & Brown, we believe it will stand the test of time and become an established design technique rather than just a passing fashion.
What is the difference between wallpaper and wall murals?
Technically, a wall mural is actually easier to hang than patterned wallpaper. Unlike patterned paper, which requires you to line up the edges to get the pattern to repeat correctly, a wall mural is custom-made for a specific area.
Usually, wall murals consist of five or six 'drops' or lengths of paper that fit together in a sequence to create the mural. That means there's no waste, no offcuts, and no need to spend ages trying to line up fine details.
You can create a signature wall with patterned wallpaper, but a wall mural is a single image that doesn’t repeat and can be much more impactful.
It's also a budget-friendly option for instantly transforming any room. Wall murals are not that much more expensive than patterned wallpaper, although there is a slight premium as the mural has to be custom-made to your exact dimensions. So, every wall mural is a 'one-off'.
At Graham & Brown, we want to make great interior design accessible to everyone, even if you're completely new to DIY wallpapering. So, all of our wall murals utilise Paste The Wall technology. This means you apply the paste to the wall rather than to the back of the wallpaper and hang the paper 'dry' straight onto your preprepared wall. This makes it much easier to apply the paper without getting into a sticky mess transporting it from the paste table to the wall.
Our top tip: Preparation is everything. While wall murals can hide a multitude of sins, such as blemished or cracked walls, it's always wise to start with the best possible surface to get a flawless finish. Take your time cleaning and stripping old wallpaper off and ensuring the wall is smooth and blemish-free.
Further down the line, if you decide to change your wall mural, Paste The Wall paper makes it much easier to remove the old mural without too much fuss or frantic scraping!
Our three favourite wall murals
There are hundreds of designs to choose from in our wall murals collection, and it’s always hard to pick your favourites. But after much deliberation, here are our top three designs:
New Eden – A dazzling garden full of colour and beautifully balanced forms, New Eden is an extraordinary mural for nature lovers. It's also our Mural of The Year 2024 and takes you on a journey full of hidden treasures. It perfectly partners with our Colour of the Year 2024, the rich Viridis, or pick out key tones by using Adeline paint as your complimentary colour.
Glasshouse Sage – Available in Matt, Fabric Effect, Mica Fibrous and Fibrous finishes, Glasshouse Sage is an elegant mural that transports you back to a time when glasshouses and hothouses were all the rage. The subtle sage tones perfectly partner with soft sage green paint. The colourful birds add extra interest, making this an ideal choice for a living room, orangery or bedroom.
Serendipity Rainbow – The bursts of colour and enchanting display of form and pattern in Serendipity Rainbow are utterly mesmerising. From hot pink to sky blue with splashes of hot mustard and zesty orange, this delightful design is perfect for bringing some serious colour into any room. Inspired by the seedheads and flowers collected on her walks, designer Clarissa Hulse has created a magical wonder that perfectly partners with paints such as Funkytown (a burnt umber tone) and bright Pink Robin.
Unleash your creativity with Graham & Brown wall murals
If you’ve always admired murals, wanted something special to be the focal point of your décor, or just love being different, wall murals allow you to unleash your creativity and add some real personality to your room. Browse our collection of wall murals today, and remember that each one is custom-made to be as unique as you are.