Tapestries : Transform Rooms Into Extraordinary Spaces!

By Author: Alla Marinow
Total Articles: 8
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How many times have you walked into your living, dining or bedroom and thought – I really need to do something with this room! It needs a facelift, or at least something that will make it ‘sing’. Often when faced with decorating or transforming a living space into something more interesting, we turn to home decorating magazines for ideas. And what do we encounter – interesting spaces often boasting tapestries.

You can change the décor in any room by painting the walls, changing out the furniture, carpets, drapes or accessories, but at the end of the day all you have done is changed the colors, freshened up a room , created a new environment and spent a bucket of money. But what really creates an interesting environment, an ambience that is unique to your home, are tapestries.

A typical home today has lots of wall space. Often faced with a blank wall, we turn to paintings or prints. These will often fill up bits of the space, but a large wall remains exactly that – a large wall. How many people will walk into a home and go immediately to the wall to look at your paintings or prints. Never, or very rarely! ...
... Put a large tapestry on a wall, that picks up the primary and secondary colors in the room and you have something that immediately says; ‘WOW’- incredible!

Often when choosing a wall hanging tapestry, people think ‘too small’- in other words, replace a painting with a slightly larger size wall hanging, and leave lots of wall space around it. That kind of approach will result in a woven painting hanging on your wall, and will tend to look like a postage stamp. Tapestries are meant to be BIG. Our ancestors 800-150 years ago had the same decorating problem that we do today – large walls. And large walls require large tapestries.

Think Big! That is the first principle on considering a wall hanging tapestry for your home. Tapestries should be thought of as wall murals, and typically should occupy at least 75- 98% of your wall. Of course if you a clear story space to deal with, or a very long wall in an entry way, then you need to pick as large a tapestry wall hanging as possible. Sometimes a matching pair of tapestries will work better, as you can leave some space between them, making it look like they occupy more space.

Next consider the ambience or the mystery you want to create in the room. With tapestries you will be creating ‘an environment’ or a feel in the room that will be uniquely yours. Now, what do you want to accomplish with that wall tapestry? Do you want to create a quiet pastoral environment with landscape tapestries, a Tuscan feel with a Italian tapestries, a deep mysterious and mystical look with medieval tapestries, or ‘je ne sais quoi’ feel with French tapestries. Perhaps it’s a bold look with William Morris tapestries or floral tapestries will do the trick.

Finally, consider the primary and secondary colors in your environment. You want to pick up some of those colors in your wall hanging tapestries and – remixed in a different form creates a harmonious color scheme. Hand woven tapestries in 100% wool will create a sensual and lush feel. They have a softer palette, and therefore tend to look a little bit on the antique side. Jacquard woven European tapestries will have slightly stronger colors, more robust, like a younger wine.

At the end of the day, think about whether you really need a complete body remake (meaning all new furniture, drapes, carpets etc), or just a facelift with an interesting tapestries. And you can never have too many in your home. Two or three tapestries in one room will never be the wrong choice, especially interspersed with a few paintings or other wall décor. Not only will wall hanging tapestries create an interesting ambience, resolve large empty wall spaces, but also, will solve acoustic issues in a room – dampening hollow sounds that bounce off hard surfaces such a wood/tile/marble floors, paintings and wood or glass.