Benefits of Decorating With Large Tapestries

Many homeowners looking to decorate their walls have been neglecting tapestries. Most just look at paintings, photographs, and other artifacts. That is a shame because tapestries are one of the most unique and elegant wall decoration items that one can possibly find.

For starters, tapestries come in many sizes. Depending on the size of your walls, there will be something that is suitable. But what are the differences between a piece of tapestry and a traditional wall painting? And what are the benefits? Why should a homeowner choose a tapestry over a painting? Let's explore some benefits.

Wall tapestries are woven from different types of textiles such as cotton, wool or linen. Sometimes, artists may even use gold, silver or silk. When higher quality materials are used, the tapestries appear more luxurious and elegant. This effect cannot be achieved by paintings.

Historically, tapestries were only used by affluent families to decorate their homes. Since affluent families live in huge houses like manors and castles, the tapestries were also unusually large as well.

Large tapestries are ideal center pieces for wall decoration. If there is any gold, silver or silk used in the tapestry, the image will reflect light and the glitter will attract attention. It is not uncommon to see guests walking into a large hall and upon seeing the large tapestry, a soft gasp escaped the lips as the guests look on with awe and wonder. Such is the powerful effect of a large wall tapestry.

Another main difference is that since tapestries are woven, they can include intricate patterns that can only be achieved with embroidery methods. A large tapestry allows the artist to add as many details as possible to the artwork.

To accomplish this, a lot of skills and patience is required. However, the end result is always more than satisfying. A lot of time can be spent admiring the fine details that are included in a piece of large tapestry. This gives another reason for the homeowner to consider having a large tapestry as a center display.

Finally, a large painting is cumbersome to move around because of its weight and size. Usually, once a large painting is fixed to the wall, it is very troublesome to take down. In contrast, the large tapestry is portable as it is much lighter and can be rolled up.

This is useful for two reasons. One, the tapestry can be taken down easily any time to be stored away. Two, if the homeowner so desires the tapestry to be changed or rotated with other tapestries, this can be achieved easily as well.

Given the many benefits of large tapestries, it is a shame if any homeowner fails to consider them as center wall decoration pieces. Many of them even come at more affordable prices than large wall paintings!

For more information on Large Wall Tapestries please visit our website: European Tapestry Decor

Large Wall Tapestries For a Grand Impression

Unlike paintings, wall tapestries can be voluminous works of art, taking up much as 80% of a wall. They were designed with this in mind, serving as wall coverings for the otherwise stark walls of castles. They not only added color and visual impact to a room, but helped deaden the sound of the room. As you can imagine, without wall art tapestries, a cavernous castle can be a pretty loud place to live.

Even though modern homes are much quieter, the beauty of large wall tapestries is hard to duplicate. Outside of painting a large wall mural, the wall tapestry stands alone in the art world as a grand statement of style and beauty.

Wall tapestries create an impact regardless of size. But the grandure of large wall tapestries will create a lot of visual impact in your larger living spaces, such as a great room, a room with vaulted ceilings or a room that is open to the floor above it.

Because of their popularity, there are plenty of large tapestries and wall hangings to choose from. Following are a few tips to help you when shopping for a large size tapestry for your home.

Establishing a Mood

The size of large art tapestries means they will set the mood of the room rather than complement it. As a result, you want to select a tapestry that speaks the message you want heard. If you want a romantic setting in the room, perhaps for a bedroom, you should select a tapestry that exudes romance, such as one with a soft floral design or possibly a lover's scene.

Use as a Backdrop

If you have a theme to a room in your home, a tapestry may be the way to set the theme and be a backdrop for the other decor items that you are going to use to accent it. For example, if you want a world traveler theme, which is very popular these days, you may wish to choose a tapestry of beautiful old-world maps. This large tapestry of maps will be the backdrop for the items you have collected along your path of world travels.

Use as Art for Beauty

Sometimes you don't really need a good reason to have a wall tapestry in place in your home, you can do it just because. When you choose a piece of art that you are in love with and have to have it, do you stop to think about if it will fit with the rest of your decor?

Not likely. Art is special. Art can be it's own entity and will create it's own place in your home. Many wall tapestries are literally works of art. These have been hand crafted thread by thread to create a design or picture that speaks to you in the same way a painting or sculpture might.

No matter your style, decor preferences or home space, there is always room for an art wall tapestry to brighten up the environment, set the mood you want in play, or just to be a thing of beauty that can be admired by all who see it.

Tom Matherson writes for Worldwide Tapestries which offers a wide online collection of Belgian, Italian and unique wall decor art tapestries to enhance any home. See the latest range of wall decor including a fine selection of large European tapestries to transform any room or home setting.

How to Hang Your Wall Tapestry When You Have Choices

One of my favorite ways to decorate a room is to grace one or more walls with a tapestry. These woven beauties are the perfect addition to a room with almost any decorating theme or style. The choices of size and shape and theme are endless.

So if a tapestry is something you have been thinking about for one or more rooms of your home or office, it's a good idea to know what your options are in respect to the way you will be hanging this art on your wall.

Depending on how you purchase your tapestry (brick and mortar store or online), there might be some basic preparation involved. Most of the time when you purchase your wall hanging for delivery to your home or office, there will be at least one fold in the tapestry that was necessary for packing your purchase for delivery.

When you open your delivered wall hanging there might be a fold line or 2 in your tapestry. Don't fear. Here is a safe way to remove any unwanted fold lines in your tapestry.

To remove any fold lines in your tapestry, use a steam iron and iron the back side of the wall hanging until the fold lines are gone. Otherwise, if you don't have a steam iron, take a regular electric iron and with a damp clean cloth (cloth that the color won't bleed) and place the clean damp cloth over the front of the tapestry where the fold line is and iron at a moderate heat (NOT HOT) until the fold line is gone. These are the safest ways to remove fold lines without damaging your artwork.

All tapestry wall hangings have a basic construction in order to be able to hang them properly on a wall. Just so you understand their construction, they are all lined on the back side and have either a rod pocket or several loops at the top in which you can insert a decorative hanging rod. Some tapestries also have a bottom pocket to insert heavy metal rods in order for the wall hanging to hang straight from top to bottom.

Most tapestries are hung with a decorative rod. These rods, that are usually sold separately, come in a large variety of shapes, styles and colors. Tassels are also available in a large assortment and may be hung from the rod ends along the left and right sides of the wall hanging for a more dramatic effect.

A word of caution if you are buying a tapestry for the first time. You might want to go with a wall tapestry that has a hanging pocket instead of hanging loops. The reason for this is if the construction of the loop hanging tapestry is not done correctly, after time you might see slight curves inward between the loops of your tapestry.

A more economical way to hang your hanging pocket tapestry is to insert a wooden board approximately 1/4 inch thick by 2.5 inches tall. Cut the length of the board so that the ends will not be seen protruding from the hanging pocket at the top of the tapestry.

Once you have the length of the board cut to the proper length, drill screw hole evenly along the length of the board. The amount of screw holes will be determined by the size and weight of the tapestry.

Larger wall hangings will, of course, will need more support and more screws than smaller wall hangings. Once you have evenly spaced screw hole in the board, take the board, hold it up to the wall at the location the board will be when the tapestry is hung.

With a pencil, mark a dot on the wall through each hole to mark where the screws will be driven into the wall to hang the tapestry.

Next, drill a small hole into the wall for each of the pencil dots you have made. It is a good idea to use screw anchors for stronger support, so after you drill the screw holes insert screw anchors into each hole.

Once you have all your holes drilled and all your anchors inserted into the holes, insert the board into the hanging pocket of your tapestry and hold the tapestry up to the wall and with the proper size screw for your anchors insert each screw. This method of hanging a tapestry will mount your wall hanging flush to the wall.

If your situation calls for mounting your tapestry on a curved wall then use Velcro®. You can find Velcro tape. This form of Velcro has an adhesive backing and can be applied directly to the back side of your tapestry.

You can apply Velcro tape directly on your wall, but to avoid the tearing of your wall, should you want to remove the Velcro on a future date, screw a few thin strips of wood on your wall to form a frame. Then Velcro the wooden strips instead of the wall. If the time comes to remove the tapestry, all you have are a few screw holes to patch up.

You now have several ways in which to mount your tapestry to the wall. All you have to do now is find a tapestry to match the theme of the room you wish to hang it in. Whether you choose one large wall tapestry or a series of several small tapestries with a similar theme, hung together, you will have a most enjoyable eye-pleasing atmosphere for many years to come.

Author Bio: After growing up as the apprentice of his father who was a master of all trades, Joe Tobiasz, Owner/Webmaster: http://www.wall-decor-concepts.com explored the idea of a career in interior decorating and design over 25 years ago.

Since then he has never looked back. He has both volunteered and consulted for many friends and associates over the years offering his natural talent for decorating and remodeling in both interior and exterior applications.

When it come to his website, his unusual way of presenting information in the form of short stories has him the talk of both webmasters and the online community.