Maps are simply beautiful. They can inspire the imagination, are visually appealing and help us better understand the world we live in and our position on Earth.
One of the reasons we feature maps heavily within our wallpaper collections is because of a life-long passion for maps by one of our creative team. As a young boy from Kidderminster in the West Midlands, Jack used to draw maps copying them from his dad’s old atlas.
“I used to try to hand draw a country’s border as accurately as possible and then plot all the cities with coloured flags, marking each with their total population, and then draw all the rivers and lakes. I then cut around the border of each map and stuck them to my bedroom wall. Gradually I could piece together all my maps to create continents, and Europe became my first completed continent.
“My friends were into lining their bedroom walls with posters of Buzzcocks, Sex Pistols and football players and considered me a little weird. I think my parents were worried, watching their eldest child spending days studying the atlas, drawing irregular borders and filling the walls of his bedroom. Yes, it was a strange passion which in a way, has lived with me ever since.
“For me, maps are fuel for the imagination. Looking at a map isn’t just about seeing lines on a page or wall. You’re looking at a representation of a place that actually exists, and somewhere that you could go visit. Every lake, loch or fjord on a map is a real body of water lined by rolling hills, cliffs, forests and beautiful scenery waiting to be explored. There are people, birds and other wildlife that live there; and I can imagine the cold winds and saltwater smell. It’s like you’ve traveled there without leaving your house. Maps inspire imagination, and for me they are an infinite source of positive energy.”
Map feature wall murals
Getting lost in a world map mural is not just a passion for Jack, its a favourite past-time for many of our customers. If you’re a wannabe interior designer and looking to evoke sophistication, style and provoke comments from your house guests, you can’t go far wrong designing your new space by showcasing a map.
A map mural can offer many things; a sense of adventure, a willingness to learn and study or an eye for great design. Also, depending on your preferred map style, they can be ideal for contemporary or traditional rooms as well as for children too.
The good news is at Marmalade Art we have a huge collection of world maps, transport & road maps, information maps, historical maps and of course wonderful maps for children. If only we had been around when Jack was a boy, we could have saved him a childhood of drawing maps!
To see all our map wallpaper murals visit our map collections here.
If you’re looking for some inspiration for a feature wall, check out these beautiful map wallpaper murals:
