Do You Really Need That Mural?

Not awesome mural.  Just slapped on the
 wall screaming Olive Garden Restaurant.

    I was prompted to do this rant thanks to the reception hall's ugly mural at that wedding this past weekend.

     I know people pay a lot for painted murals, and with a talented artist they are beautiful, but I've seen so many done so badly that I cringe when I hear the word, "mural."  I'm not a mural fan from the stand point of slapping up that ocean view or that Tuscan countryside out a faux window and having someone tell me it's their theme.  A picture is not a theme.  Either make the mural count for something or get rid of it.  In other words, take it further people!  Tuscans don't sit in their living rooms decorated al la Rooms To Go with murals of the "countryside" on their walls.  They have beautiful rustic beams in their ceilings, wonderful old world tile, awesome rustic plaster walls.  In comparison a 3'x5' mural just seems a bit silly.

Awesome mural.
It makes a statement.

     Choose to be the Tuscan rather than the patron in an Olive Garden restaurant.  Stretch your imagination and DIY skills a bit further and beat the heck out of some 2x4s, stain them and nail them to your ceiling joists over the drywall, trowel some smooth wall texture on those walls for heaven's sake.  Got some wood working skills?  Make some cornices to "hold" those "beams" up.  Frame out that silly little mural to look like a window or get rid of it all together, after all you are now IN a Tuscan room and not sitting in a traditional ranch with a mural on the wall.

     The cost to be in a Tuscan room?  Regular old 2x4s are under $3 apiece, stain, under $25, texture under $50,  pale creamy paint for the walls under $60.  So essentially for about $200, you could have Tuscany instead of looking at a little $200 mural that means nothing to the room.  A woman with a set of tools who knows how to use them is a dangerous thing.  Now imagine what you could do if you wanted a Spanish Plaza and had a tile saw.  Awesome.