A Woodsy Wall Mural Makeover

While updating our dining area, I decided to step outside my usual black-and-white painted walls and add a forest-inspired wallpaper mural. I loved how it it transformed my dining nook by bringing the outdoors inside!

A few years ago I built a corner built-in bench for the dining nook in my Philadelphia rowhome. Although it made for a cozy space for my husband and I, we wanted to switch things up and make better use of the space.

It was also feeling like time for a new table – I loved that this table from Urban Outfitters had storage while still feeling minimal and sleek, and had matching bench I could mix up with my wire chairs.

Urban Outfitters Huxley Storage Dining Table

Urban Outfitters Huxley Upholstered Bench

After removing our built-in bench and repainting the living room walls, the space felt much roomier, but like a blank slate.

While looking for inspiration for what we could do with the space I started finding some really great wall mural ideas and fell in love with the Virgin Forest wall mural – all of the evergreens remind me of the New Jersey Pine Barrens (one of my favorite spots to go camping).

wallpaper mural design concept — Dining area concept

I was still really nervous about putting up a wall mural – what if I put it up and hated it?

To help make the decision I created some 2D and 3D floorplans using Floorplanner so I could see what it would look like. I always want something to help me visualize an idea – whether it’s inspiration from a similar space, a floorplan design, or even a messy Photoshop mockup – so even if the floorplan wasn’t 100% perfect it would still help me visualize what it would look like.

Concept 2D floorplan of living room and dining area

Concept 3D floorplan of living room and dining area with wall mural

Concept 3D floorplan of the dining area with wall mural

Putting up the wallpaper mural took about a day – mostly because we were working with plaster walls (which are never plumb and don’t have straight edges) along with some more complexities like a doorway and a window that we needed to cut around.