Creating a feature wall....

Make your own wallpaper

I am redecorating our spare bedroom!

It is the last room in our home ( well apart from the bathroom....but that's a job for the pro's I think) that has not yet had the Nostalgiecat treatment!

I've  decided to give this room more of a purpose....with a creative makeover that will give it the WOW factor!

I want to turn it into a calming retreat, where I can curl up with a book and take a breather, AND provide overnight guests with a comfortable and beautiful place to stay!

I'm not usually one for overtly themed rooms, but with this room, I want to create a calm and fresh atmosphere, drawing on my Scandinavian coastal roots.

A great starting point when coming up with a room design for a makeover, is a feature of some sort....I love starting with art : this helps me determine both color scheme and the look and feel of a space!

And building on my recent obsession of displaying art in my home, I decided that I wanted to make a BIG statement on the wall behind the bed (which is staying in the room until the budget allows for an update)....

So, when my very talented photographer friend, Kristine Scott posted this picture (below) she had taken of waves crashing in on the shore of Norway, locally to where I am from, I got in touch with her straight away, and she kindly agreed to let me borrow her image for this project.

I love the colors and the movement in this photograph, and I just know it is going to be perfect for the look and feel I am after for the spare room!

You can see more of Kristine Scott's beautiful coastal photography on her Flickr page, and she also makes the most amazing nature inspired silver jewelry, that you can purchase here.

So , armed with this beautiful image, but not knowing how to transfer it onto the wall... I was over the moon when the lovely people at wallpapered contacted me, proposing a collaboration. It was as though it was meant to be, and we decided to turn the image into wall paper to cover the wall behind the bed in it's entirety!

If you have been reading Nostalgiecat for a while, and followed my recent series of posts on Displaying art in your home ( here, here and here) you will know that in my opinion art is the number one ingredient to a personal home....and nothing makes a more confident statement than huge art, and covering an entire wall with artwork in the form of wall paper has to be the ultimate commitment to your personal tastes!

As much as I loved Kristine's image of the waves, I decided I wanted a slightly more painterly effect.  So I used Lunapic, a free online image editing tool, to play with the image, and decided to pixelate the it, so that it will be more like an abstract piece of art, like below:

I also mirrored the image, so that the bed will not cover it too much, and lose some of the expression ...

After having played around with the image in this way and decided on the effect I wanted to create, I uploaded the original high resolution file of the image using make your own wallpaper.
Then I emailed my pixilated image design to the design team at wallpapered, who then worked with me to create the effect I was after, to turn it into a wall paper.

You can upload any image you'd like, as long as it is a high resolution file, and by using make your own wallpaper you can even see a preview of what it's going to look like.

 The design team at Wallpapered is very helpful and will work with you to get the best result possible, regardless of whether you want an effect, like I did, or not, to create the perfect feature wall for your home!

 There is also the option of searching their photolia gallery for over 1 million images ready to use to create your very own wall paper, should you not have an image of your own, as well as a wast array of  wall murals, like brick-effects and maps.

Here's a BEFORE picture of the wall in question:

With that gorgeous pixilated image covering the entire wall where the bed is, I am making a BIG artistic statement in here, and really setting the scene for the room.

Here's a concept board I've put together to show you how it's going to look in the room:

With the custom wall paper making such a huge, artistic statement in the room, I have chosen to keep the color scheme quite neutral, and the accessories to a minimum....but more on that in my next post. I am currently just waiting for my wall paper to arrive, and I can't wait to get it up on the wall. Then I will tell you all about my experience of putting it up, before showing you all the final result! So stay tuned to follow this makeover! By the way!   Have you entered my giveaway competition to Win an Eames ESW style chair yet??

Head on over to my  post here to enter!