Local homeowners use murals to create vistas of adventure
While greige may top many homeowners’ lists for wall color, the bold are making things beautiful with murals. A touch of paint, or crafted wallpaper, can inject life into a neutral wall, telling stories, dictating ambience, and providing escape for all who enter a space.
Murals pull back the curtain for visitors to spy the whimsy and personality of the people who live there. With the specific designs, murals create a portal to botanical-filled jungles, exotic landscapes, or seas of elegant marble. Step inside two local homes, where murals are a vehicle for time-travel to eras gone by.
Home Murals
Linda and Frank Foster – The Holy City
Linda and Frank Foster had a specific vision for a mural in their dining room when they built their Collins Creek home in Greenville in 2004. “We started with wallpaper,” recalls Linda. “We liked Zuber. But when we contacted the company they said, ‘We don’t plan wallpaper around your room. You have to do the room around our wallpaper.’ Well, that just wasn’t going to work.”
The couple also owns a home on the Ashley River in Charleston and Frank is a history buff. They wanted to create a period piece of Charleston, one that presented the charm and heritage of the city that holds their hearts. They contacted Gary McInnis with Vision of Grandeur Art. “The artist was really incredible. Inspired. He was fantastic to work with,” says Frank. “He would paint ten hours a day, and he finished it in about ten days.”
The mural that surrounds the room is based upon three paintings of Charleston that Frank found. They span a 40-year period in the late 1800s. Depending on where you sit at the dining room table, you can look from the Market to the Battery, while letting your eye drift to Fort Sumter, Fort Moultrie, and beyond. The scenes are filled with Citadel cadets, Gullah ladies, and lofty clouds drifting out to sea. “I think it gives the room depth,” shares Frank. “We did a lot of research to get all of the elements just right, down to the foot-scrapers outside of a doorway. The minute you walk in the room, it’s sort of an optical illusion. We just love it.”
Susie and Andrew White – Americana
When Susie and Andrew White purchased their home in Alta Vista 32 years ago, they didn’t have to contact Jean Zuber and Co. for interior design. Panels of French wallpaper already adorned the walls of their dining room. Susie recalls walking through the house for the first time. “I loved it because my mom painted a mural in the dining room of my childhood home in New Jersey,” she reveals. “To me, there was an immediate connection and warmth.”
She initially thought the murals were hand-painted, and only upon further inspection learned about the historic wallpaper. “It’s hand-blocked,” she explains. “This specific scene is called Americana.” It’s so Americana that it’s on display in the Diplomatic Reception Room of the White House, hung during a refurbishment by First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy in 1961.
The White family’s meals are surrounded by panoramic scenes of New York, West Point, and Boston Harbor. “It has a lot of drama and creates a lot of fun and conversation at dinner parties,” shares Susie. “It’s quite lovely. When they installed it, they got fancy and even painted the light switch covers to match, so you’re not missing anything. We inherited something pretty fabulous. It’s magical.”
