A wild restroom mural and a welcome break in Upstate New York

If you’re going to go wild with one room in your house- why not add a little spice to the bathroom? I love this mentality- I think you should have fun with your home! This is part of the reason I was so pleased when I received the email about this mural project, I could see from the first call that the client was excited to do something extraordinary with this often unloved space- the downstairs toilet.

How the project came about

A year before, I painted a fun, quick bathroom mural in Upstate New York, who then recommended me to her friend. The friend was the mum of a very creative, hyena-loving family- they wanted to create a colorful custom powder room design, full of each family members favorite animals and flowers.

The first Upstate bathroom mural- and one of my first murals stateside!

The custom bathroom wall mural mood board

It seems to me, most people know what they like and dislike, and it’s much easier to explain this with visual examples (for me included!). So I created the below mood board to get a better idea of what would work well for this family.

Moodboard for Bathroom Mural

Designing the restroom mural

After listening to the families feedback on the mood board I started brainstorming with my paints and a piece of paper. I don’t want the computer to make decisions for me and love to get stuck in working things out by hand. A major challenge of the project was how to make different animals from across the world work in a coherent design. I did this by using a limited, warm colour scheme.

My rough workings out

From here, I created a more refined design, finding copyright-free images of the animals and combining them with my illustrations of flowers. I roughly re-colored the image to create a cohesive color scheme; this is where I ideally like to leave a design; with a good clear direction, but still space to have fun and add some creativity on the wall.

The design developed in Photoshop, approved by the client

Painting the restroom mural in Upstate New York

Loaded up with all my supplies, I jumped on two trains before arriving in Katonah. I called an Uber and watched the landscape pass by- Upstate New York is beautiful, it’s green and quiet, there’s lots of beautiful houses and it reminds me a little of home.

Finally, I arrived, past a beautiful wild flower meadow, up to a huge, white house- something straight out of an Americana postcard. We were really in the sticks now, with chickens and no phone signal. I knocked on the door, and nobody answered. I knocked again, still no answer.

Honestly, I had such a good vibe from the place I just waved the driver away and sat and waited, I didn’t quite dare to check if the door was unlocked and walk straight in (as I used to do back in the sticks growing up!). Finally, a friendly older lady and gentleman came to the door- the grandma and grandad. I think they’d been reading to their granddaughter on the other side of the house, who also popped down because she wanted to meet me. It was really nice to be in a family home, as a young professional living abroad my husband & I are mainly in our own bubble with people our own age and it felt very wholesome to be there!

After months of New York City, it was so quiet and peaceful, and felt like a holiday. I loved reconnecting with nature on my lunchtime walks, and the family was so kind - I was even treated to delicious food and wine!

Hand-painting the interior

The design itself was fairly complex in terms of the quantity of animals, wild flowers and easter eggs (like the hidden beaver watching you wash your hands!) and also wrapped around the whole room. Because of this, and the fact I had three days to turn the design around, I kept everything loose and painterly, and allowed a lot of creativity to happen on the wall.

Including finding an opportunity to get the youngest daughter painting part of the mural- she was in charge of putting the dots of the poppies! It’s very cool to have kids involved and nice to see them feeling proud of creating that bit of a big design. Grandma then got inspired and asked if she could also add a bee (as they keep bees) and added this lovely little touch.

The mural came together very naturally and easily in this case, I was loving it!

The final floral bathroom design

You can see the botanical, animal-inspired bathroom below, or check out the full project here. The client was thrilled and I received this message, “This is awesome!!! I love it all!!!!”, which was a great end to a satisfying project.

The botanical and animal inspired artwork

A lion, horse, fox, sparrow and turtle are seen between wildflowers

If you’d like to collaborate to create something completely unique for your NYC bathroom (or further afield!) click the button below and fill out the form and I’ll get back to you shortly. I’d be happy to have a quick chat to see how we can make your vision come to life!