Use oversize art to fill a tall niche: an interior designer expands her reach by marketing to clients with oversize walls

Art Business News, June, 2003 by Susan Seiling

High ceilings and great rooms used to be reserved for the upper class--people who could hire designers to decorate their rooms with grace and flair. Today, even modest tract homes feature cathedral ceilings, great rooms and oversize walls, presenting an entirely new challenge to home owners: How to decorate oversize rooms with a modest budget. This new market provides a promising opportunity to gallery owners willing to stretch into a different realm.

Donna Quinn, owner of Tall Walls Inc., has built her entire business around this concept. A former interior designer, Quinn noticed the recurring problem of clients buying a home with tall, empty walls then not knowing what to do with them.

"If you can solve someone's problem, that's how you can make yourself worthy. Tall Walls hit me on the head, because no one else was addressing [oversize walls]" Quinn said.

Now in its third year of business, Tall Walls has a 5,000-square-foot showroom in Yardley, Pa., and has become a valuable resource for learning how to decorate these troublesome spaces. As the business continues to grow, it serves as a good indicator of a largely untapped market. And accommodating this new market may be easier than you think.

Grow Your Collection

In order to reach out to this market, galleries can create a collection of oversize art for clients to browse. This may be as simple as grouping larger inventory, or it may involve finding new work. Quinn said once she started marketing large-scale artwork and decor, vendors and artisans sought her out. Finding new artists may be as easy as spreading the word and waiting to see who responds. She also found vendors through trade shows and similar venues where she was able to view a wide variety of artwork within a few days.

A good place to start is with the artists you already represent. Do any of them make large-scale artwork? See if you can obtain a few pieces on consignment. If you represent an artist who traditionally makes very small pieces, ask if they would be interested in creating large pieces for this market.

Expand into Different Media

In addition to paintings and photography, consider selling large sculptures, oversize vases or expansive textiles. Quinn's selection includes all of these, as well as wall-mounted water fountains or artwork created from salvaged windows.

"I look for things that are sculptural or that add some type of acoustic help for a room. Tall walls tend to echo,' Quinn said. "Canvas or some type of metal or resin sculpture work well." Or, choose a few large and dramatic pieces and create a large-scale collage, suggested Quinn. Or place a single dramatic piece in the midst of a large wall for impact.

"Less is more with those spaces," Quinn said. "If you try to get too cutesy and have collections of a lot of little things, it doesn't work. It's better to choose fewer pieces that are more substantial in size."

Quinn tends to stay away from glass. "Glass can be heavy to hang, and it reflects glare," Quinn said. "The one exception to this is a mirror, which works in a positive way to reflect the whole room and show the art in different dimensions."

Quinn reaches a wide variety of customers by offering products from $25 to $50,000. "I get everything from the young college kid who has a loft space and is looking at poster art to the Yuppie professionals to established clientele in their 40s or 50s, who have arrived and want to invest in something nicer," Quinn said.

Think Beyond Artwork

Encourage your clients to think about the room as a whole. There are many painting techniques that bring the lofty ceiling closer to earth, such as painting the top half of the wall a different color. Similarly, painting the ceiling a darker color than the walls tends to create a more intimate feeling.

Another area that is often overlooked is lighting. Good lighting can make the difference between a space that is warm and inviting or overwhelming and hollow. Talk with lighting dealers in your area to learn what types of lighting work best with the artwork you sell. If you find a particularly helpful or knowledgeable dealer, it may be worthwhile to partner with him, referring clients in exchange for a small fee. This provides an easy way to add revenue with little additional work.

A similar arrangement could be made with a woodworker to add creative touches to the room. Adding moulding along the top of the room can help draw the eye down into the room itself instead of letting it float up into the ceiling. Another technique is to add a shelf halfway up the wall and use it for plants, china or pieces of art.

Finding Clients

How do you find clients who need to decorate their oversize rooms? Quinn broke into the business by hosting home parties where the hostess would gather several friends together to look at her wares.

"The parties gave me proof that someone wanted what I was selling. Almost everyone has a tall wall. The reach is actually a lot bigger than I initially thought," Quinn said. From there, word of mouth and ample press coverage have built her business to its current size.