- The Complete Guide to Wall Decor -

Welcome to atHome Murals guide to wall decor.  Whether you wish to hire an artist to paint a mural in your children's bedroom or purchase an art print for above your fireplace mantle, atHome Murals Guide to Wall Decor provides the information you need to make your decision. Using the guide below, you will gain a perspective of not only cost, but also what actions you will need to take to acquire a particular wall decor item. Once you have spent time considering the different types, links are provided under "Sources of Wall Decor" that will take you to further resources specific to that wall decor item. So whether you are looking for wall decor ideas or for a specific type of wall decor, atHome Murals has the ideas and the products you need. Thank you for visiting and enjoy your time at our site.

Here are a few great ideas for bringing beauty to your walls. Please let us know if there is something we can help you find. We are constantly attempting to improve our site.

Type of Wall Decor	DIY	ETC	Cost	Coverage	Sources of Wall Decor
Custom Murals	1,5,6	80	$25-$125	15%-100%	atHome Wall Murals Articles - Source of Articles on Wall Decor
Wallpaper Murals	3,6	8	$7.50-$10.00	40%-100%	atHome Wallpaper Murals - Source of 1000's of Custom Wallpaper Murals
Do It Yourself Murals	1,2,4	120	$2.50-$5.00	15%-100%	atHome Wall Murals Painting Murals - Source of Info on Painting Wall Murals
Custom Stenciling	1,2,4	20	$4.00-$6.00	10%-30%	Royal Design Studio - Source of Stencils, Supplies, and How to Guides
Decorative Painting	1,2,4	16	$1.50-$2.50	100%	Royal Design Studio - Source of Faux Finish Supplies and Instruction Dick Blick Art Materials - Source of Art Supplies for Faux Finishing and More
Fabric Tapestry	3	1	$10.00-$25.00	15%-50%	European Tapestries - Source of Elegant Tapestries Ready for Display
Wallpaper	1,3,4	8	$2.50-$10.00	25%-100%	atHome Wallpaper - Source of 1000's of Custom Wallpaper Murals
Fabric	3,4	6	$1.00-$20.00	25%-100%	Fabric.com - Premier source of Fabric for home decorating. SPECIAL!
Framed Wall Mirror	3	1	$25.00-$125.00	5%-15%	Lamps Plus - Source of Framed Wall Mirrors and Home Lighting SPECIAL! Bellacor - Source of 100's of Elegant Framed Mirrors and Other Fine Home Decor SPECIAL!
Framed Art Prints	3	1	$25.00-$200.00	5%-15%	ART in a Click - Source of Elegant Art Prints and Canvas Reproductions SPECIAL!
Art Posters	3	1	$2.00-$20.00	5%-15%	1,000's of Framed Posters - Source of Posters from Hundreds of Categories
Painting	2,4	4	$1.00-$2.00	100%

DIY - Do It Yourself Index

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The "Do It Yourself Index" evaluates each type of wall decor on six categories. The numbers in the column labeled <b>DIY</b> indicate what categories apply for the wall decor listed in the left column. For example, custom wall murals list 1,5,6 in the DIY column. That indicates a custom wall mural requires you to conduct some research to determine the type and style of mural you desire, requires hiring a muralist, and will require hiring professional wallpaper hangers if you choose to have your mural painted on canvas. The numeric values correspond to the following categories.

1. Researching Options (1) - Your research can begin with atHome Murals article, "Important Aspects of Home Decor with Murals", which emphasizes understanding the theme, style, scope, and cost of your project prior to beginning work.
2. Painting (2) - Will the project require you to use a paintbrush?
3. Installation or Hanging (3) - Wall decor that is not painted directly to the wall surface, typically requires hanging. For wallpaper, this often means applying glue to the wall and hanging or glueing the wallpaper to the wall.
4. Special Instructions or Training Required (4) - Some projects, require a certain amount of instruction or training to be done successfully. For example, decorative painting is an advanced painting technique that often requires a short course or instructional video depending on the technique you wish to attempt.
5. Hiring an Artist/Muralist (5) - This task requires your time as you search for someone to paint a mural or canvas. Please read atHome Murals article, "Things to Consider When Selecting a Muralist" for further details.
6. Hiring Professional Wallpaper Hangers (6) - In order to hang wallpaper and canvas murals, it is often necessary to hire professionals. If hanging a canvas mural, a professional can insure the canvas is removable at a later time if you choose to move or re-sell the canvas mural.

ETC - Estimated Time to Complete

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The Estimated Time to Complete (ETC) column looks at approximately how much time, in hours, is required to complete each wall decor type. The approximate time indicated is for the time required to complete a project on a 8 foot high by 10 foot wide wall.

Cost of the Project

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The Cost of the project is given in U.S. dollars per square foot. An approximate range of the cost is given from least expensive to most expensive. Some exceptions will apply, so use the values only as a guide. To calculate the total cost of the wall project apply the following formula:

Total Project Cost = (Square Feet of Wall * Cost Per Square Feet) * Coverage Percentage

An Example: Lets use our 8 foot tall by 10 foot wide wall as the example. Lets assume no windows. The total square feet of wall will be 8*10=80 square feet of wall. This value becomes the first term in the equation above. Cost per Square Feet is taken from the Cost column for the type of wall decor we are interested in. Lets use custom murals and select a value on the lower end of the range, say $30.00 a square foot. That gives us the second term of the equation. The final term is the Coverage Percentage. For this project we want 90% of the wall to be covered with the mural. Keep in mind that we are working in percentages, so we want to use 0.90 as the third term. This gives us the following result:

Total Cost of Project = (80*$30.00)*0.90
Total Cost of Project = $2160.00

NOTE: The result of the above calculation will appear when you hover the cursor over the cell of interest in the Cost column. The values given are the range in total cost assuming maximum coverage on an 8'x10' wall.

Coverage

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Coverage indicates the percentage of the wall surface covered by the wall decor item. A range of values are presented based on typical usages. Wall decor types with a wide range of possible coverage percentages are considered more flexible. For instance, you have the flexibility of requesting a full wall mural from a muralist or a much smaller window mural, where as art prints fall predominantly in a class of fixed size wall decor items that typically smaller than custom murals.

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