The Entry Wall Covering Deets + Recoloring the Image parts 1 & 2

Hi Everyone,

We are finishing up the post that began last Sunday. I will be going into more depth about my tapestry mural for the entry, how I recolored it. And, we will also look at the sample set I received from Romantic English.

If you’ve already read part 1 and would like to skip it, please click the link below to jump ahead. If you’re landing here for the first time or wish to review, please begin from the top of the page.

 

Part 2 Begins Here

 

Hi Everyone,

Oh my, we’re having a blizzard here in Boston! Then, it will warm up in the morning and rain all day. It will then freeze again overnight. Well, maybe stay in and shop?

 

Today, I want to go back to the entry wall covering. I’ve finally decided what I’m going to do.

 

I know you don’t believe me; however, now that I have the sofa and rug, it’s much easier.

It’s not that I don’t like my original choice. My concern is that the pieces won’t coordinate. Above all else, I don’t want to do anything that will take too much attention away from the Gracie panels.

 

Laurel, why haven’t you had those put up yet?

 

I did reach out several weeks ago, but the guy is super busy. It will happen, but it will take more time.

Back to the entry wall covering, and there’s the new little Murano glass lamp!

Finally, there are lampshades for the two vintage Mario Buatta lamps.

 

Also, I’m unsure if these shades will stay on the lamps. They look fabulous on the yellow lamps in the den, and while they’re okay on the kitchen lamps, I think I can do something better. For that, they will need to be custom. More about that later.

In the meantime, these lampshades are from Royal Designs, and no, they are not the gray ones. The gray shades are a taupe color and looked awful with these lamps. This is the white shade you can see in the widget below. Anyway, for about 80 bucks on Amazon, this is a lovely shade with polyester fabric that can be washed. It is not a bright white. It’s more of a cream, but fine for now. The shades look much better than they do in the image above.

 

And then, the little Murano lamp I showed you the other day arrived from the Netherlands.

 

It’s funny; my fireplace mantel, mantel screen, and something else I recently got are all from the Netherlands. But, this person, Henny, not sure if that’s male or female was the best of the best vendors on Etsy. The store is called DecorativeFinds21.

He/she/they thanked me for buying the lamp and then proceeded to follow up every step of the way. Supposedly, the USPS tried to deliver the lamp on February 7th; however, there was no sign of that happening. No problem. I fetched the lamp on Thursday from my friendly neighborhood post office.

 

And, look what was inside the box!

I know that Henny was nervous, so I wrote him immediately to assure him that the candy had arrived safely. ;]

 

This is the view when one walks through the front door.

 

Laurel, doesn’t the jib door hit the table when you open it?

 

That’s a great question, and the answer is NO! It stops 1/8th of an inch away from the tabletop and leg.

Okay, let’s look at the kitchen as it was two years ago.

 

Let’s crop that shot.

Oh, gawd, how I hated that horrid light fixture in the kitchen. I don’t understand how anyone can think it looks good with the adjacent crystal chandelier in the entry.

 

Now, let’s look at how it is today.

 

I always knew I wanted a little lamp in the entry because I think most spaces look better with more than one light source. However, I also needed a lamp that would look okay with the lamps in the kitchen. I worked hard to get the photo to look like it is in real life.

The lighting is so beautiful, and I am so glad I did not do any recessed lighting in the kitchen.

Unfortunately, the image I posted last night on my Instagram (please follow me!) is a little bright, and someone chastised my lighting, saying it was glaring. It is not at all bright. In fact, some might think the kitchen is a touch on the dim side. I can make it super bright if need be, but mostly, the lights are not bright.

 

I had to turn off the cabinet lights because it is impossible to get them to look as lovely in a photo as in person.

 

This is from a tapestry wall covering from Romantic English. You might notice that the design is reversed above. Actually, I believe the correct way is how it is below.

I sized it for David at Romantic English.

We’ve exchanged several emails, and basically, one can have whatever they want. He can custom-make a design in any size, and yes, reverse it if one wants.

Below is the original colorway for the tapestry I re-colored.

 

However, for my space I think it looks a tad too gold, so I put the image in my photo editor and made it bluer and greener.

 

To close, let’s bring that image back down that shows how the tapestry will look in the entry. I’m doing this because there’s another version.

Below is the other version. Please notice how I picmonkeyed the shot to give the impression that the light slightly reflects on the tapestry wall covering. By the way, it is a print of a tapestry, not an actual tapestry weave I’ll be doing. I will explain more about that in the next post.

Both versions are beautiful, and you will still see the other side. (See below.) However, I think the lighter side will be better on the right.

On Monday or Tuesday, I’ll continue this post to show you what I’m planning for the other two walls and, finally, the beauty I found for over the stairwell. I can’t wait to show you.

 

Also, I plan to make a short video to show you the samples I received from Romantic English a few weeks ago and a review of each.

 

In the meantime, one last shot shows how the tapestry wall covering will look during the day with the lights off in the entry.

 

I adore the little snippet of the wall covering one can see from the dining area or when coming out of the den towards the kitchen.

xo,

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Part 2 Begins Here

 

Wednesday, February 19, 2025

Hi Everyone,

As I said the other day, I’m working with Romantic English to create some elegant artwork for my upstairs entry and the big wall over the stairwell between two Anglo-Indian wall sconces.

 

This has been challenging because the fireplace wall will have two beautiful double-width Gracie panels.

 

Above, you can see one of the Gracie panels. However, what’s reflected in the mirror is not the piece I’m doing.

 

Ever since I decided to put the screen downstairs, I’ve wanted to reproduce the Otis House painting I love.

When I realized I’d have to wait a long time to get a super high-res image of the Otis House art, I began looking at all the gorgeous tapestries on the Romantic English website.

 

There are hundreds of gorgeous pieces to choose from. However, as I understand it, if you see something at an auction house, a museum, or a place like 1stdibs, David can recreate it for you at a fraction of the price.

Antique tapestries can sell for hefty five figures to six figures for a rare piece in perfect condition.

But, there’s more. David can also custom-color and redesign your piece to your exact specifications. He’ll also provide a rendering and a strike-off (sample) of what you’ll get.

So, to get started, David told me that he needed either the Pantone colors or hex codes for the colors to achieve the best color match.

 

Laurel, what’s a “hex code?”

 

Oh, sorry. Hex stands for hexadecimal. It’s a series of six numbers and letters preceded by a hashtag. The code conveys the color’s amount of red, green, and blue, as well as the chroma (amount of gray), tint (white), or shade (black).

We will see how I grab the hex code when working on Picmonkey in a sec.

Okay, the hex codes are not a problem, but what is a problem is that there are thousands of them in my tapestry! Still, David doesn’t need all of them to color the piece. He would probably be fine with about 12 of the main colors as a point of reference. But since this is me, I did 36 colors.

 

However, before I share that information with you,  I want to show you the sample set of materials Romantic English uses for their tapestries.

 

 

Below is a closeup of my favorite of the bunch.

 

It’s hard to believe this is plain old canvas, but it is. The texture looks so real, but it’s a print. Remember this post where the company blew up a much smaller file size, and some of the lines looked cartoonish up close? Well, there’s none of that here. This was the little sample you saw in the entry on one of the jib doors.

 

Below is the textured cotton canvas, similar to the one above.

This is the fabric used for my mural, and after it’s paper-backed, it will make an excellent wall covering.

 

I took the liberty of recoloring it to the best of my ability—it’s like putting a wash over the entire piece. I also lightened it. However, my piece is nothing like this one. It is much lighter, to begin with.

 

You can see my tapestry below.

 

Above is after I edited the colors.

You can see it on the website in the original colorway.

If you’re considering getting one of the tapestries but want to see the sample set first, you can order it here.

 

Below is a little video I made to explain each fabric. I loved all of them except for the woven poly cotton and the textured microfiber.

 

 

Okay, now get ready. Below are the three panels used as wall covering in the entry with the 36-color color key.

 

 

How on earth do you do that, Laurel?

 

It’s super easy.

On picmonkey, I take a square from the graphic maker and bring it over to my virtual board, where my image is. Then, there’s a dropper icon. (see below) After clicking it, I drag it over to the spot where I want to grab the hex code on my image. When I hover over the square, it automatically tells me the hex code. (The dropper is over the square with circles around it, but you can’t see the dropper in the screenshot.)

From there, I duplicated the squares and repeated the same process with the dropper.  I realize it would be easier for you to understand if I could demonstrate how to do this. It’s incredibly easy and fun, too!

 

Okay, as I said earlier, there’s one more piece of art in the entry.

 

It’s for the wall opposite the jib doors.

It began as the piece below. I am using the right side of the piece and need about 30″ for the panel’s width.

 

And then, I recolored it to coordinate with the other two sections.

 

 

Why didn’t you use another section from the first tapestry?

 

That’s an excellent question! I adore this piece, but it’s not large enough to do all three panels.

So, to make it clear, Romantic English can create the tapestry in panels, and I imagine do a print on whatever substrate you prefer. I’m not sure if they can apply the paper backing, but as was discussed in this post from early January.

However, in the meantime, I found another source for fabric backing specifically for the purpose of using the fabric as a wallcovering.

But, Laurel, you didn’t explain how to recolor the image.

Oh, gosh, you’re right. Okay, you put the image in your photo editor and have fun. I just use the one in my photos. However, you can also edit images in Picmonkey. The image can be made warmer (more yellow), cooler, (more blue), or one can add more red, green, or sepia. You can change the contrast, brightness, sharpness, and more.

There isn’t any one way. One has to experiment to get the effect they want. Often, I’ll do several versions of the original image until I settle on the one I like the most.

For the image below, I darkened the tapestry wall covering because it’s in shadow.

 

 

Okay, I have one more piece of art to share with you. But it will have to wait until Sunday.

 

Tomorrow is the party I think I mentioned that I’m giving for 35 women. Oh my, I have to go cut up vegetables! It seemed so far off last April, but alas, at this time tomorrow night, it’ll be winding down.

xo,

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