Study Room Subtlety
Bringing Beauty & Life to Three Study Rooms
As the San Joaquin Villages Apartment project was in the final stages the HDAE Marketing Team (MarCom) was asked to provide wall graphics for three recreation rooms and three study rooms. The only request was that the recreation rooms be themed in a ‘Gaucho’ athletics look/feel so we partnered with the campus athletics design group and finished those with large image wallpaper and graphic standoffs. The study rooms were open to our interpretation.
Textured Walls Oh My!
From the beginning, our main goal for the study room experience was to provide an inviting and relaxing environment to conduct quiet group interactions and individual study. With that goal in mind, we sought subtle tones and graphics. Ideas ran the gamut from a coffee house look/feel, to textured wall plant hangings, to neon light fixtures. A consistent look and feel was sought to link the three spaces and we knew early on that we wanted a more creative approach than just covering the walls with framed pictures. The biggest initial challenge were the walls themselves. The drywall was heavily textured and with a fixed budget there wasn’t room for smoothing and repainting. Several early attempts with vinyl lettering and decal work resulted in a lot of peeling. A lot of peeling. Even applying heat to strengthen adhesives proved unsuccessful. Finally, a stencil first/roll-on painting technique evolved and we were able to start work.
A Theme Emerges
We eventually settled on a ‘quiet’ nature theme using quotes and color as the tie-ins between each of the three rooms. It offered continuity but still allowed for individuality in each space. Baby blue was the predominant color already chosen by the interior designer so we utilized this in different ways...a blue period on the end of a sentence, blue words or blue flowers. With each successive room we refined the application process and were quite pleased with the final outcome. The first room, Calaveras Court, was a windblown tree and vegetation elements with a large ‘Calaveras’ splashed across a long wall. The second room, Ramona Court Small, had 26’ walls and provided an ideal space for a ‘bamboo’ concept. Using a screened back gray tint, we stenciled and painted bamboo from floor to ceiling. A one word ‘Breathe’ and flying crane standoffs complemented the simplicity of the design and one can feel the calm just standing in the space. Walk through the virtual tour to get a sense of this.
Forget About Your Worries and Your Budget
Feeling confident after completing the first Ramona study room, we set out to capture a ‘jungle’ feel for the last and final room in the Ramona Court. The original concept was to have two levels of screened-back gray leaves trickling down from the ceiling; but it soon became apparent that two sets of decal stencils were going to push us over budget. Obstacles such as this can often force one to dig a little deeper creatively and it pushed us to use the white of the walls as the first ‘color’ and stencil the second layer almost as a negative space. This resulted in a much nicer feel of depth and dimension. On top of the leaves we used the same blue flowers found in the tree and leaves of the the Calaveras room. Standoff geckos and tree frogs rounded out the effect with a quote from the Jungle Book.
Know Your Walls (& Limits!)
With any wall graphic work it's good to know the state of the space from the outset. Texturing drywall is commonplace before painting as it hides blemishes but can be very difficult to work with in graphic application. Knowing what paint was used is also key as oil or anti-graffiti additives can make applying adhesives or vinyl virtually impossible. By our second room we began developing elevation view blueprints to layout the entire room first to get a more cohesive look/feel. That really helped with the flow of the space. The pandemic started not long after these rooms were completed and one (Calaveras) has been turned into a COVID testing site so we'll have to wait to see how effective our work was!
