Designing a Charleston inspired mural for a home in Brighton

Design by Clara Wilkinson for a home in Brighton

The process of designing a mural often just begins with a few images and a chat with the client. From there ideas need to be distilled and developed into a finished concept.

I use fill up my sketchbooks with drawings, photographs and cuttings, sometimes using reference books for historical research, before bringing together my finished ideas. From there it's a very traditional paint and paper, situation- my desk full of paint pots and samples - creating designs ready to work into a finished piece.

Watercolour designs in my sketch book

For this Brighton mural the brief was inspired by Charleston House in Sussex - home to the Bloomsbury Group - with it's colourful hand painted interiors. There are murals on the walls, doors, bedheads, furniture, fireplace surround - you name it - everything was painted.

For this project, the client wanted the mural to work with the architecture of the house. So I designed panels that gently separate each area and create division where the graphic shapes change energy. I'm really looking forward to sharing the progress photos of this project.

Charleston House doorway hand painted

Charleston House mural inspiration