Lessons and ideas for DIY Home Builders and Renovators by art-tech innovator, Sharron Tancred

Once upon a time, there was the Red Hill House – long before any decorative building products!

I was into home decorating – probably, a lot like you!  I loved my 1890s style workers cottage and wanted it to be my beautiful nest but back then, married and working hard with a huge social life; I had no time to study interior decorating! I didn’t know what to do.  Sure, I had taste, always have had, yet it felt daunting spending money on home renovation and decorating when I couldn’t afford a decorator.

As a construction company, I thought you might also love my new range of 8 Artful Design Finishes, including murals, pool finishes and splashbacks at The Mural Shop. Benefits for developers and builders could make this your new USP:

• Variety:  So far, eight artful design finishes delivering VIBE!  Splashback, Tile, Glass, Films, Metal and Mosaic

   

• Convenience: We have created packages for developers at our Custom-er Help Desk.  Otherwise, our shop is fully automated and local deliveries are typically shipped within 3 days to 3 weeks of final sign-off pending the product ordered
• Compliance:  QBCC Legislations Compliant, Australian and New Zealand Safety Standards, all available here. Note, I joined the HIA to develop the finishes back in 2017. Member No 1207320

   

• Potential Public and Community Art Contribution satisfaction given The Mural Shop is artist-run– just Google Sharron Tancred
• Uniqueness:  All our artful finishes are by me and sold only, and direct through The Mural Shop; as well as Private Art Commissions through Tailored Artworks

• Wellness:  I am also an Interior Decorator with a Cert. in Colour Psychology.  Thus, my works have been created, in unison with my clients, to raise positive emotions, and create beauty
• Livability:  My artworks feature International Themes based on 14 years of art commissions – Water, Nature, Light and Love . They transform spaces with positive emotions making rooms feel more livable and closer to nature

   

• Low Waste and Minimalist Design  – We focus on Minimalist Design that feels complete.
  – The products allow developers to use them as the heroes, while other finishes can be more straightforward
  -Residents feel less inclined to clutter and decorate when there is a beautiful focal point provided for them
• Australian Made and Owned Licence: We proudly manufacture seven out of eight products locally in Brisbane, and Toowoomba *Mosaic is robotically engineered in Taiwan
• Lo pricing: My dream is to get more art into built environments for everyday people. Therefore, my mark-ups are low.

LESSON NO 1:  Decorating is easy when you have a template

The Shorncliffe House. My next historic home renovation, and with hubbie No 2. was another timber workers cottage in the dress circle of Shorncliffe.  It wasn’t ideal –  in an easement, two-bedroom and just 30 centimeters from the house next door! It was noisy – you could hear next doors toilet flush!  Yet, after three years in that house, we sold it on day 2 for our asking price! What made it sell so fast? I decorated on theme again, for the heart and emotions and put stained glass in every window facing the easement to create privacy from our neighbour. 

Next, there’s the theme. I like to describe a theme as creating a play.  Your house is your stage and your theme is the story, style, colour palette and vibe that you carry inside and out. You can blend style and theme to your heart’s content!  Like, Industrial-Beach, Country-Lakeside, Tropical-Resort or Modern Waterfall. You might love Art Deco but have a modern home- Mid Century-Modern!  Or, be renovating your 1980’s all timber home into Natural Modern.  Try Googling the style you are thinking of and gradually narrow down the look.

Or, here’s a much faster and more economical way! A method that will also instantly communicate to your builder, architect or interior designer where you are at.  Oohee!

LESSON NO 2: Even the worst house in the street will sell fast if you blend good design with functionality.

The North lakes House. We built House No.3. with Plantation Homes. I was feeling ambitious and optimistic that I had the taste, energy, and now garden know-how, to create, get this, a Modern French Provincial styled home!  I researched traditional Tuscan homes and re-imagined them with modern materials in collaboration with an interior decorator and landscape designer. I learned a stack. 

We sold that big gorgeous home with its gleaming all-white interior, warm tumbled tiles, chrome chandelier and wall sconce lighting, oversized area rugs and bright modern artworks on day No.2, again for our asking price.  Creating a theme pays off when you take it to the max.  But what was my biggest lesson to share with you?

LESSON NO 3: Colour co-ordinated old fashioned and eclectic styled furniture can work in a modern home, but NOT old-fashioned art – it’s just too much.

Art is your architecture’s expression. Focus on it.

The Murrumba Downs House. We bought a 3-year old modern home from an Asian family. The Asian inspired gardens obscured the lakeside view and were full of mosquitos. However, the taupe walls, white architraves, gold Ceasar Stone and carpets, gorgeously big Red Cedar interior and exterior posts and French Doors, and black window and door frames created great architecture. Now an interior decorator, our furniture and accessories fitted great. Still, the homé expression lacked because the open plan living area lacked a hero and, that there was little connection between inside and out.

LESSON NO 4: Your focal points are the spaces that create your style, theme and colour palette. All you need do is balance them throughout, inside and out.

In decorating, colour creates a feeling.  For instance, all pastels create a light, tepid vibe.  Deep, dark colours will feel heavier and formal.  All whites will feel cold and require colour and texture to warm them up.  However, I chose the richness of jewel colours, inspired by my home’s natural materials, to imbue a warm, tropical-exotic or vibe which, when accented with blacks and whites creates contrast and thus, excitement and a feeling of happiness! 

Lesson No 5: To cohesively lift the vibe, saturate your existing architectural colours and express them through artwork and your accessories in a themed message relevant to your life and décor.

So, Tropical Exotic!  Creating a theme like this was easy.  All you need is visual imagery in artwork, patterns and plants.  I linked the new pool and gardens with two things.  Firstly, I upcycled our tatty looking French Styled bamboo table with a Mosaic Mural (available through The Mural Shop). Next, I painted a custom artwork (Tailored Artworks) about our family, by the pool, bathed in golden light – which has made us feel happy ever since and every visitor comments on it. Thirteen years later, we are still here, content and loving the comments this house gets from anyone invited in.

Lesson No 6:  Cleverly styled and themed key focal points that create linked areas will give you the overall vibe you seek.

Are you still seeking ideas?  Now the adventure gets BIGGER because here’s where I started creating DESIGN FINISHES with The Mural Shop, which perhaps a world first!

Throughout 19 Brisbane Home Show exhibitions, people building and renovating would ask me if I could do things like paint art on tiles, personalised splashbacks, outdoor murals, ceiling murals, glass mural, etc. mosaic. 

Lesson No 7: Worldwide trends happen because, in The Universe, where one person is seeking something or thinking something, others are too. We are all connected.

In October 2017, after some research, I saw a niche in the decorative building products industry and started looking for Australian suppliers. Then, I got very creative, very legal, including with the Housing Industry Australia, and very technical for FOUR LONG YEARS.

Lesson No 8:  “Quitters never win, and winners never quit”. Napoleon Hill, Think and Grow Rich.

Six months later, we launched Real Art Splashbacks at Tailored Artworks. ‘The very first of our decorative building products.  Quickly, one thing leads to another.  An interior designer introduced me to a 3D printing company which impressed me because I do NOT like printed art!  I am an art snob. Sniff sniff!  Yet, 3D printing, or textured printing, looks real!  I loved that my printers could do BIG, and we could BUILD THE ART INTO THE ENVIRONMENTS, therefore value-adding to any home because it would create a unique point of difference.

Lesson No 9:  Too many little things create a cluttered look. In decorating, it is about proportions – large items, and small things, including in small spaces.  The bigger the space, the larger and brighter the colours and less so the smaller the space.

Then, we created  Outdoor Murals, Tile Murals, Vertical Tile Feature Strips and Glass Murals BOOM BOOM BOOM!  Ideas given to me at talks and expos were rushing back to me. 

I decide to use an Australian mosaic company with a factory in Taiwan who could reproduce my art in a new and modern way.  Premium quality, pixel-like detail so staggeringly beautiful that it stood out against the otherwise cottage industry, super expensive Italian Smalti industry or en-masse produced mosaic made from limited tile colours. 

Lesson No 10:  Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.

Not long afterwards, I met another Brisbane printer using state-of-the-art HP Latex inks.  Inks made from RUBBER!  All-natural, non-flammable, no odour and drum roll; a gorgeous velvet matt finish that looked a million bucks.  None of that plasticky sheen!
We created Splashback Murals, with two options!  Overlaminate Film for existing glass, undulating and textured surfaces, furniture and Printed Glass Murals – for those of you needing custom cut glass delivered.

Enough products for an online shop; The Mural Shop.

The rest is now a blur of technology, trying to get an e-commerce system to sell numerous products without a warehouse, and organize how to cost the freight of a thousand different weights and sizes from various custom suppliers through the one freight app. It took almost 4 years to bring you The Mural Shop.  

Lesson No 11:  Lack of imagination is the one thing that will make most people fail. 

I have read that imagination is more powerful than knowledge.  After all, imagination leads to the pursuit of knowledge.  The egg is before the chicken! I cracked that one, hey.

Just like the chicken and the egg story, is the art and décor story.  Before that, is the build and decorate story. People build, or renovate, and then they decorate. Why not blend the two?  Then, you save the Earth, money, time and have less to clean.  

I research trends.  Up for some facts?  No fake news here! 2021 Pinterest keyword trends:

Outdoors Indoors 108%
Feng Shui Décor 137%
Home theatres 368%
Art therapy activities 444%
Low waste living 446%
Outdoor play area 550%
Audio rooms 803%
Indoor Wall Fountains 917%
Outdoor bars 2795%

Lesson No. 12  Law of Attraction – know what you want, make room for it, and it will come.

People want more liveable, immersive, natural, stimulating environments done once and done well. It’s a good goal – for the Earth. For life.

What’s it got to do with you?

Here’s the gist of it all—my secret. Are you ready?….

Lesson No. 13.  When you build art into your new home or renovation, you transform the emotional vibe from needing more to achieve visual satisfaction. Minimalist design that feels complete.

So, here you are looking for ideas.

Lesson No. 14.  Most people want different, but not that different! 

Most people, maybe not you, want something just within reach of their comfort zone. Or, inside it, just. What are we all comfortable with? The stuff we already know and experience.  In Colour Psychology, this thinking resonates with the colour BLACK! (It’s why teenagers love it so much when they tell you, they already know and don’t want to change their behaviour). I digress. Let’s think globally for a second.

What is everyone familiar with and loves?  May I tell you that after 13 years of getting into people’s heads to figure out what they love is- water, sunsets, nature, light and love; International themes. I have painted hundreds of them.

So, yeah, my work takes care of the different, but not that different when your home’s design finishes are simply about nature and life.

Lesson No 15:  Know your style, start with style and express it!

Style means: Is it modern, rustic, ethnic, beachy and abstract, semi-figurative or figurative? The way your artwork and objects with a subject look and how obvious they are about their subject! Email me if you don’t get that.

Modern abstract beach theme

Next, there’s the theme. I like to describe a theme as creating a play.  Your house is your stage and your theme is the story, style, colour palette and vibe that you carry inside and out. You can blend style and theme to your heart’s content!  Like, Industrial-Beach, Country-Lakeside, Tropical-Resort or Modern Waterfall. You might love Art Deco but have a modern home- Mid Century-Modern!  Or, be renovating your 1980’s all timber home into Natural Modern.  Try Googling the style you are thinking of and gradually narrow down the look.

Or, here’s a much faster and more economical way! A method that will also instantly communicate to your builder, architect or interior designer where you are at.  Oohee!

Lesson No. 16. Art is the expression of your style and theme

Look through my library and find art that expresses your build and use it as inspiration—chicken before the egg.  Choose areas of your home where a significant focal point can be the one decoration of the entire space. That is where you start. Let’s think about this.

One thing means buying less. Less to clean. Less waste. Fewer mistakes and a whole lot more beauty, value and meaning in your life. One thing that is already your style and theme! YOU. It says YOU and your architecture and garden and joy and space that you love to be in. Like Eclectic-Exotic, Bo Ho-Rainforest or Modern Beach Resort.

HERE ARE OUR COOL-LOGIC PRODUCT IDEAS FOR YOU!

SPLASHBACK MURALS

Okay, so splashbacks have a function, and for many people, that is as far as it goes. A suitable splashback is one that does its job and protects the wall from the day-to-day grime associated with cooking, cleaning, whatever!

But what if you had the option to combine functionality and design and create some real Wow Factor that would unite your space, express your vibe and add a magnificent point of difference all at once.  Its called decorative building products! Tall ask? Not one bit!  Being practical, bathrooms, followed by kitchens, are the two most renovated rooms in the house. But kitchens are so much more than a space to prepare food; it is where we share good times, bond over drinks, and embrace cuddles, smiles, gorgeous smells and colours!

So, your kitchen should be that haven that inspires and excites you! Your kitchen splashback is your opportunity to express yourself, your architecture, its garden and your style!  The splashback is more than that space behind your kitchen stove that you look at every day. It is a highly visible vertical expanse of a wall; it’s a canvas.  Now, I know in times past people have applied photographic images to splashbacks and, gotta say, I am completely against that.   Buy ART at the heart of your home, instantly says should and warmth and style. 

Plus, making your splashback your magnificent hero, not cabinetry, can help you stay minimalist elsewhere! 

Have your splashback mural printed onto glass, or we’ll deliver the film for your existing glass!  You can customize our existing library by requesting a colour tweak, even upload your artwork through each product’s “Print Your Own” Feature at the bottom of every page!  No standard run-of-the-mill splashback for you, meaning you don’t have to sacrifice that oh-so-important functionality to create your stunning kitchen feature.

OUTDOOR MURALS

There isn’t much out there like this, not that we can find. Lovely big, outdoor quality artwork by Sharron Tancred.  Outdoor Murals are one of our best selling products because an Outdoor Mural immediately adds design and function to an outdoor space. They effectively solve eyesores like unsightly fences, bessar block walls and views from panorama kitchen windows. Naturally, an Outdoor Mural will instantly create the atmosphere you desire for your pool, spa, BBQ or garden! If your plants grow, raise it up!

As pool murals, especially our water-themed artworks, you will achieve the illusion of being in the scene, with it’s beautiful reflections. A delight for your senses!  So, if you want to feel like you have the beach in your backyard, you know what to do.

If instead, you live in a high rise apartment, secure your tough Outdoor Mural to your balcony wall and if you move, take it with you!  It’s easy to repair the wall when you leave.  Have you got an oversized wall? ‘maybe a driveway, or along the side of a commercial building?  Outdoor murals can be printed at any size and come in panels that fit seamlessly together.

Our outdoor murals are very much like traditional wall art, but for outside! We UV Print and triple laminate our artwork onto non-rust metal treadplate and deliver them ready to hang, with a 6mm screw hole in each corner. Done and dusted. Hey, if you would prefer hand-painted, check out Tailored Artworks murals.  And our next gorgeous idea for you is….

GLASS MURALS

Everyone has windows, glass doors and glass panels in their house, right? Good, I would hope so! You already have the foundational material needed to apply a Glass Mural on Overlaminate Film to add beauty and/or a gorgeous veil of privacy to your space. 

If you don’t have any glass for whatever reason, this is not a problem either because you can also select print directly onto the glass on our Glass Murals page!

It’s all a matter of preference and budget. However, both options are transformative. Just check out our gallery of before and afters to see how Glass Murals add a veil of beautifully coloured light, a sense of space and magic to a room.

Are you wondering where else to incorporate a glass mural? They look fantastic as glass wall dividers to help organize open plan living, adhered to shower exteriors. A Glass Mural is also extremely useful in preventing your guests from walking into glass doors! I hope you love them.

TILE MURALS

Tiles are versatile, extremely durable and easy to clean; flat tiles more so than textured as floor tiles. And, If you consider yourself DIY savvy, you can install them yourself!

We now that tiles are great for bathrooms and kitchens but again, why build and then decorate?  Art printed onto tiles is beauty and function in one.  As established above, art creates your style and theme, and in that, it also creates an illusion of space.  In small areas like most bathrooms, this is a crucial design feature.  Tile Murals are equally stunning architectural features for your home in dining rooms, living rooms, verandahs, pool walls and more.  

Tile Murals are especially effective as outdoor kitchen splashbacks and weatherproof artwork for outdoor living and entertainment areas!

Four out of our eleven tile sizes are wall, floor and pool safe. Please double-check the tile sizes within our webpage’s black-box info before you order your tiles to ensure you consider safety.

VERTICAL TILE FEATURE STRIPS

I don’t have to repeat my pitch. We all know how awesome tiles are by now. But Vertical Tile Feature Strips are extra cost-efficient! Minimalist design relies on less-is-more accents to do all the work.  Our very cool tile feature strips do just that.

For budget-savvy bathroom renovations, you can replace a strip of tiles with a vertical Tile Feature Strip for a cheap and fast refresh unless there is significant damage. Alternately, for exclusive bathroom designs, a Tile Strip adds your style statement.  Add to this; your everyday bathroom design can be made more affordable by allowing a strip of Tile Art to be the hero and the rest of your tiles, nice-n-simple. Are you going, Maximalist?  Perfect! 

Blend patterns, textures and a Tile Strip, or two in the one design aesthetic for a fabulous layered look.  Because we have two tile sizes, 10x30cm or 30x60cm and the artwork printed over them, it means that you can split a mural into two, maybe even three sections! The best news is, in tile design, it looks better when the wall tile and feature tile grout lines do not match.  So, stress less!

Other great uses for Vertical Tile Feature Strips are for gorgeous statements for outdoor walls, showers, steps and kitchens!

CEILING MURALS

Let’s not forget our sky walls! Why do we assume that no one looks upwards? Ceiling Murals have been incredible design features since caveman and The Renaissance days, and they are coming back in!  Murals create the illusion of space for low ceilings and emphasize sophistication, warmth and wow factor for high ceilings.

Ceiling Murals create a spiritual experience, perfect for bedrooms and spaces designated for relaxation. If you have a floating ceiling, otherwise called a suspended ceiling, or maybe a ceiling niche, you are in luck; they are your ideal candidates for your Ceiling Murals!

You don’t have to contract Michelangelo to install your Ceiling Mural. Being peel and stick, re-adjustable, heck, even reusable, and just .6M wide, you can DIY it! Alternately, get a friend, hire a wallpaper or signage installer to help you out. Easy as.

MOSAIC MURALS 

Our Mosaic Murals are like nothing you’ve ever seen before. These are stunning conversation pieces that will add a modern vibe to your tabletop, foyer, fountain, pool wall, mailbox, bathroom, kitchen, laundry or BBQ splashback, garden wall or outdoor shower.  Incredibly functional. You can pressure-clean it, scrub it, leave in the Aussie weather for years and rest easy that they will last.

Unlike our printed Tile Murals and Vertical Tile Feature Strips, our Mosaic Murals are pixel-like tiles of coloured ceramic! Indeed, our Mosaic Murals are the most archival and weatherproof artwork option in our range of eight design finishes. Any size is possible, and you can put them anywhere. For wet areas, just add a non-slip sealant.  Plus, it’s a DIY process!  Your  Mosaic Mural comes boxed in sheets, with instructions ready to apply to your substrate!

Another thing, these tiles are pool safe, so if you were wondering how to get artwork on your pool floor, this is the way to go. These tiles are so durable that they could survive a volcano…probably…maybe. Mosaic Murals are our more expensive option, but I’m sure you can appreciate that quality lasts.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR KEEN INTEREST!

We hope that you are now feeling inspired and are set upon a course of action!

Lesson No 17:  When you know what you want, visualize it, and put it to your subconsciousness, the Law of Attraction will bring it to you. 

Then, your brain will recognize it instantly, and, with action applied, you will manifest the things, life and money you desire.

The Mural Shop is the culmination of 19 Home Show Exhibitions where people of all walks asked me for solutions to everyday design dilemmas.  I didn’t have those products, but I attracted all the right people into my life to bring them to fruition for YOU.  Likewise, here you are, attracted to me, looking for practical design solutions that will transform your spaces with vibe, meaning and style. 

So, let me reward you, my friend!

Thank you, and if you have any questions about our decorative building products, reach out, right here. We’d love to help!
Best

Sharron Tancred