By Tedra Schneider
Room 911
Tedra Schneider.
In my last article, “What’s on your Walls?” I barely scratched the surface as to what can be attached to walls. Thinking back to the last 30-plus years I have been in business, I realized that there were some unusual challenges and innovative objects to make a wall look unique.
Below are some of my clients’ ideas based on their interests that led to a one-of-a-kind look.
New York City has always held a magnetic attraction for Mr. and Mrs. A. If they could have lived there, they would have. While that was not feasible, they spent any and all recreational time availing themselves of the delights of the Big Apple. They had tickets to the opera, to Broadway shows, traveling by subways, taxis and buses, en route to great dining establishments and the like.
When they wanted to update their family room, we achieved that with more contemporary furniture, lighting and area rugs. Not content to have the room be nondescript or not especially creative looking, we decided to collect all their playbills, ticket stubs, menus and match collections and make either a collage or individual framed pieces of artwork for the walls.
Because of their extensive collection, they had to weed down the most meaningful items from each category. In the end, we decided to put the playbills and ticket stubs “floating” in a large contemporary muted red frame. It measured three feet by five feet and took up nearly the entire wall. The matches and menus went into a shadowbox frame that also had the same measurements and – to keep a sense of balance – was also in the same muted red framing. It went on the other side of the wall. Sitting in that room on a daily basis provided them with great memories and a chance to reminisce on their experiences.
Clients who lived in a beach community had nautical maps and different nautical rope knots framed in a grey-blue color. It was joined by a seashell collection that not only had jars of seashells and large shells on display on several shelves, but a lamp made by the owner covered in seashells. While this was not the most unique wall decoration ever, the patterns we established on the walls brought it to life.
An actor who had a fairly successful career collected all the hats he had worn in plays in which he acted. The debate was where to hang them. In this instance we agreed that his bedroom and attached dressing room/closet could display a beret, a tam o’ shanter, a derby, a fedora, a cowboy hat, a king’s crown, a Greek sailor’s hat and an English boy’s cap he wore in a grade school play.
Let your interests and your imagination dictate what you will hang on your walls.
Quilts? Taxidermy? Car magazine covers? Marilyn Monroe paraphernalia?
Tedra Schneider can be reached at restagebytedra@gmail.com.