Marie Flanigan has been creating timeless, enviable spaces for years. She founded her interior design company fifteen years ago and has been an interior design trailblazer ever since. She’s known for incorporating exciting new design trends within her interiors and fusing them with her classic and sophisticated touch.
Marie is not afraid to be bold, and that’s been proven in her recent project where she created a dramatic and opulent mural on a set of dining room cabinets. An effective way of combining aesthetics with practicality, she decorates an otherwise boring built-in cabinet with a beautiful and ingenious wallpaper idea.
Marie adds her mural to a dining room, a space we all know can be tricky to really make a statement in because they have to be very practical rooms too. So if you can elevate your storage and keep that balance of aesthetics and practicality then do so. But really this hack could work to update any cabinetry in any room –a children’s closet, a bedroom wardrobe, an understairs cupboard.
It is undoubtedly the wallpaper that makes this look so successful. As it’s the main component of the overall area, Marie selects a chic forest landscape that is timeless in design and the darker colors don’t overwhelm the neutral space, but ground it.
Although this might look like a complicated DIY, many mural designs are available in pre-cut rolls, so usually minimal math is involved. But the key to this look, as with any wallpaper or mural, is to be exacting right down to the last detail. Luckily Marie also posted a step-by-step for how she created the look…
1. Select a wallcovering
Marie’s first step is to select the wallpaper, mural, or covering. It’s entirely up to you what style of paper you use, but if you’re looking for a lasting look that will both stand out and tie in with a space you can’t go wrong with a classic landscape design. Marie selects a luscious forest landscape for her cabinets which she had custom-made, but there are plenty of similarly luxurious-looking options available.
Like Marie’s mural, this wallpaper comes in pre-cut rolls making it easy to fit on cupboards or cabinetry. Reminiscent of a French painting, this soft print is the perfect accompaniment for cabinets in any room.
You don’t have to go down the mural route if you’re considering wallpapering your cabinets. Instead, try a repeat patterned wallpaper like this Tague Floral Roll.
Serene Classical Landscape Wallpaper Pattern Tall Lush Trees Peel and Stick Mural
Much like Marie’s wallpaper, this classic landscape depicts lush trees and vegetation. It’s a timeless image that’s not going to date any time soon.
2. Measure the cabinetry
You don’t want to run out of wallpaper and be left with half-covered cabinets, so make sure you add extra width when measuring so you have plenty of material to work with.
Marie’s top tip is to ‘add extra width to accommodate the strike side of the cabinet door.’ This will allow the pattern to ‘seamlessly transition’ when you’re both applying and cutting your paper. This is what you can see Marie’s team doing in the video.
All the details have been considered with Marie’s design, even the inside of the cabinets which are painted in a blue that coordinates with the exterior frame. Note that Marie paints a layer around the circumference of her cabinets and matches this with the interior of the cabinets. The deep blue hue is sophisticated and ensures the unit is coordinated throughout. Marie describes this as ‘a layer of drama’ that makes the look seamlessly cohesive.
3. Install the mural
(Image credit: Julie Soefer / Marie Flanigan Interiors)
This step is the hardest to get right so we can see why Marie left the installation to the professionals but if you have the time and patience you could DIY this look too. Remember to prep your cabinets first and then go in with your wallpaper. The material will need to be neatly applied and measured correctly and then trimmed according to the remaining excess paper.
4. Go in with the hardware
Another key detail that Marie considers is the hardware. In this case, she selects brass door handles that match the mural and other accents in the dining room.
She advises to ‘use minimal hardware to maximize the flow of the mural.’ Picking up on the metallic in the landscape, the handles subtly blend in while enhancing the cabinetry with a touch of metallic. Marie has also hung pictures in gold frames and fitted a wall lamp with a gold base to ensure that the room becomes one with the mural, ‘We love the idea of continuing the mural across a room for a complete wallpapered look,’ she adds.
Marie’s wallpaper hack proves wallpaper is not just for the walls, and is such an easy way to add some character to plain cabinetry. Whether you call in the professionals or give this a go yourself, it’s a simple and affordable way to elevate your storage.
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