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Wall treatment ideas: Instant mood with pattern, texture, color

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The red spaghetti wall at the new Highland Park restaurant Maximiliano is a reminder that bold looks can come from the humblest of materials. As we reported last week, the graphic design is etched MDF, the same kind of inexpensive medium-density fiberboard you can find in hardware stores.

The Maximiliano wall prompted us to blast through our weekly home profiles and pluck examples of designers and homeowners who decided to forgo the basic paint job in favor of something different for their walls.

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One of our favorites is in the Pasadena home of Walter Herrington, a graphic designer who painted an abstract backdrop for his master bedroom, above. It’s complemented by a bed and wooden stool by Christian Liaigre, a floor lamp by Isamu Noguchi and pottery by Oly.

We also love how architect Rebecca Rudolph and her husband, Colin Thompson, a designer and builder, repurposed materials when they remodeled and expanded their house in Atwater Village. In the living room: a wall wrapped in recycled pine fencing, right.

For more glimpses at wall treatments, keep reading ...


In Venice, Robert Choeff and Krystyan Keck deployed chalkboard paint in an unusual place. The result: kitchen cabinets as kid’s canvas. Full gallery


Here’s chalkboard paint used to different effect: Alexis Hadjopulos, co-owner and creative director of the vintage home decor emporium TINI, short for This Is Not IKEA, has won fans with his mix of high and low design, vintage and modern, designer-label buys and garage-sale finds. In his house, chalk graffiti provides the backdrop for a piano that Hadjopulos affectionately calls ‘the Elton John.’ Full gallery


Walter Herrington, whose bedroom we pictured at the top of the post, came up with a nice solution for his hallway. Rather than play down the long, narrow space, he played it up by painting stripes. The key: using three soft hues. Full gallery


We featured the home of Santa Monica artist Aaron Kramer when he was the subject of a show at the Craft and Folk Art Museum in Los Angeles. Among the ideas in his house: wall-mounted ‘boats’ that had been pieced together from sections of wooden salad bowls and mounted on a staircase wall. Full gallery

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Bob Ramirez and Lorri Kline turned a traditional house in Santa Monica into a tropical retreat reminiscent of a Bali beach resort. In their sons’ bedroom, a rock-climbing wall leads to more play space. Full gallery


Filmmaker and KCET-TV producer Juan Devis and artist Laura Purdy worked with architects Linda Taalman, Alan Koch and Rebecca Rudolph to update a Midcentury home. One of the new features: raked stucco walls that glow in saturated pink and saffron, a nod to Mexican Modernist architect Luis Barragán. The finish is striking from afar and ...


... up close. The texture of the walls plays off the smooth wood furniture. Credit for both Devis-Purdy photos: Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times. Full gallery


James Bond, co-founder of the sneaker line Undefeated, and artist and community arts advocate Karen Kimmel chose to display their collection in different ways inside their Los Feliz house. In the breakfast nook, paintings were hung with no space between the works. And in the bedroom of Bond and Kimmel’s son, Ace ...


... the walls were turned over to an installation by the New York skate-culture shop Supreme. Credit for both Bond-Kimmel photos: Stefano Paltera / For The Times. Full gallery


Lisa Borgnes Giramonti wanted more bookshelves in the dining room of her Los Feliz house, but she worried they might crowd her Midcentury Danish table. Her solution? Wallpaper with a bookshelf design made by London-based Deborah Bowness. A horseshoe bench completes the space. Full gallery

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David Edward Byrd and Jolino Beserra have lined their 1928 Spanish bungalow with mosaics made from broken ceramics and found objects. In the kitchen, walls started with Mr. Potato Head and see- hear- and speak-no-evil monkey mugs, which is part of ...


... the wider view the Bryd-Beserra kitchen. More colorful mosaics cover the fireplace and outdoor shower. Credit for both Beserra-Bryd photos: R. Daniel Foster. Full gallery


Of course, sometimes a little paint does do the trick. In his Venice cottage, muralist Paulin Paris painted the lilac silhouette of an English race horse alongside daughter Sabine’s canopy bed. Full gallery


Alix Soubiran painted a Napoleonic campaign tent for her daughter’s nursery. The peaked ceiling lent itself to the treatment, she said. Unlike wallpaper, which sports a repeating pattern, the tent mural allowed for details such as folds in the tent fabric and a painted cockatoo perched by the window. Soubiran also is ...


... the designer behind the Princes and Crows collection of wallpapers, so it’s no surprise that wall coverings play a big role in her Los Feliz home, a 1923 duplex that she transformed with husband Joe Mauceri, a film and TV director and writer. Pictured here: the dining room, where Soubiran’s playful side comes out. Credit for both Soubiran photos: Michael Robinson Chavez / Los Angeles Times. Full gallery


Andrew Stoneman and Laura Haskell of Costa Mesa created a delightful wall graphic in son Laird’s room by sketching on the wall, taping the outline and then painting the tree with acrylic paint. Full gallery

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ALSO:

Weekly tour: Marmol Radziner house

The tour archive: Homes of the Times

Landmark Houses: The L.A. Times series

-- Craig Nakano

Photo, top: Walter Herrington’s bedroom. Credit: Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times

Photo, second from top: Rebecca Rudolph living room. Credit: Los Angeles Times

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