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If given the choice between hanging up one of her kids’ art projects or a fancy gallery piece, interior designer Mary Kathryn Wells would pick the homemade craft every single time. “The most meaningful art to me is the stuff the people I love the most have made,” says Wells. Her three kiddos’ projects are focal points inside their Nashville home—“not just playroom art,” she assures. But nothing tops her latest display: her dining room walls are swathed in a custom wallpaper entirely based on their doodles. “When we set out to renovate our home, I approached it as a living archive of our family’s story,” she shares. “This was about celebrating the people who live here and making their creativity permanent.”
The designer had been wanting to collaborate with local custom wallpaper company New Hat for some time, so cofounders Elizabeth Williams and Kelly Diehl were the first ones she called up to see if the vision she had in mind was even possible. They were game. “We wanted the result to feel like a piece of contemporary art as well as a collection of ideas, like the best page in a sketchbook,” says Williams. Ahead, they reveal what it takes to turn kids’ art into epic wallpaper without it feeling chaotic.
Invest in the Design
Part of the reason Wells was drawn to New Hat is that they work almost exclusively with interior designers. “So the process is pretty seamless because I handled the project management,” says Wells. The good news for the rest of us: New Hat has expanded their services for custom kids’ art wallpaper to any design-loving families. (You can start the conversation by filling out the inquiry form on the website).
Typically, a project like Wells’ that spans two rooms (the wallpaper also extends into her kitchen) would cost around $10,000, although the average cost for most custom projects is closer to $6,500. “It’s similar to commissioning original art. It’s not the cheapest option, but it is deeply personal,” Wells says. The expensive part isn’t even the install, but the design itself. If Wells and her family ever move, they can have the wallpaper re-printed and re-hung in a new home. “We can take it with us,” she says—and that brings her great comfort.
Looking for a slightly more inexpensive outlet? There are a handful of wallpaper brands out there such as Rebel Walls, Tempaper & Co., Thatcher, and Spoonflower that offer varying levels of customization based on hi-resolution images.
Don’t Limit Yourself It to One Medium
As Wells and Williams sat down together and sifted through piles of craft projects, they didn’t only consider two-dimensional drawings. They plucked pieces that were clad in colorful strips of tape, Post-It notes with marker sketches, and stamp prints. They even pulled a Minecraft-inspired painting her husband did with one of their sons. “We had to do quite a bit of exploration with the art size and the density of works and found that bigger and more was better,” says Williams.
In most cases, New Hat will send a customer a professional scan kit that you can fill up with all your children’s work and mail back to them. From there, their design team will scale and collage it into a large pattern or mural.
Tweak It to Meld with Your Style
For the first presentation, the New Hat team will put forth a design in two different colorways: the art in full color on a soft cream background or everything in a single, monochrome hue. For Wells, the latter is ideal for a family that prefers contained chaos. “It was very unified and not so loud,” she says. But naturally it was the bolder option that called to her.
Some of the colors in the wallpaper pull directly from the original works; others were tweaked to complement existing shades in the home, like the pastel blue of the window trim and the nearby pink kitchen island. Once approved, it was off to the printer.
Bridge the Gap Between Quiet Decor and Bold Art
The reason this wallpaper feels far from juvenile in Wells’ formal dining room? Balance. There are plenty of moments of restraint in the space, like the simple wood dining table, oat linen curtains, and a crisp white ceiling. Connecting the quiet details and the loud wallpaper are pieces with pops of color, like the bright red dining chairs and whimsical Nordic Knots rug.
Soak It All In
Knicks and scuffs are bound to happen in Wells’ busy household, but that doesn’t bug her. For one thing, New Hat offered her a step above traditional residential wallpaper: her substrate is durable, Class A fire-rated, no-PVC, and low-to-no VOC. Plus, the beauty of a busy print like this is that you’d barely notice if someone accidentally splattered wine on it. One of her kids could take a Sharpie to it and add something new and you’d probably never notice. “It blends into the realities of our life,” says Wells.