Think You Can’t Afford A Mural, Not Necessarily!
ATTAINABLE MURALS Artaic glass-tile murals, partly made by robots, start at $30 a square foot. PHOTO: Eric Roth
New Technologies have taken some of the risk, expense and rich-person stuffiness out of covering a wall with a single stunning image.
TALK OF MURALS tends to conjure 18th and 19th century panoramas, hand painted to graphically retell, say, an African safari braved by the gentleman adventurer who commissioned the installation. Adding one to your own space might seem equally egoistic—and involved. But easily achievable new options that exploit robot assembly, large-scale printing and very forgiving adhesives are making believers of even modest commitment-phobes.
‘The mural ends up being not only the focal point of the room but a fun way of personalizing a space.’
Boston-based Artaic employs robotics and computers to manufacture highly customizable mosaic murals that start at $30 a square foot (not including installation). The company took a homeowner’s black-and-white photograph of her daughter diving in a pool and translated it-artfully pixelated-into a nearly 7-foot-tall vitreous glass mosaic. Designer Diane McCafferty installed the tiled mural in the family’s otherwise understated breakfast room: white cabinets, marble countertop and oak wall paneling. “The mural ends up being not only the focal point of the room but a fun way of personalizing the space in a less conventional way, which works with the minimal aesthetic,” she said.
