What’s a Wonderwall? Okay, yes, it’s an angsty 1995 ballad from Oasis.
I take my meaning from the original songwriters: a wall in their childhood home where they posted photos & quotes that inspired them. In their case, mostly football (soccer to Americans).
The Women-With-Studios meme shows off some incredibly creative wonderwalls on Instagram and Pinterest.
I don’t have a specific Wonderwall. Yet.
I have access to walls, but this would be a part of my fantasy dream-studio. Have I been (cheaply) assembling a collection of gorgeous and inspiring things to go into my studio?
Hell, yes. Like this Murano vase. 
Or these etched bone and wood bottles. 
I already have an antique Asian medicine chest, plus an 1850s secretary desk and tall armoire (30 years of careful antique shopping.)
One of the most evocative Wonderwalls I’ve seen in person was in Tempe, Arizona in 2019, at the in-home estate sale of a remarkable elderly woman.
For her family’s privacy, I won’t give her name. She died in 2018, after a short illness.
She was a world traveler, fiercely and widely creative. Over half of my glass seed bead inventory comes from her collection.
One entire wall of her dining room was covered in pushpins and tiny single shelves. They held a bewitching multicultural mix of silver Milagros charms, tiny mirrors, beaded flowers, miniature statues, bottles, hanging ceramic plaques, etc.
I didn’t take pictures, because 1) it felt like an invasion of her and her children’s privacy and 2) I was shamefully focused on getting the best estate sale deals possible, without being an asshole.
But oh, I remember her wall and how lovely it was. It was a total spider condo, but worth it for the inspiration.
Here are some Nightcafe renderings of cool Wonderwalls.
I love the layered textures and colors, evoking old apothecary stores, bookshops, and the fantasy lairs of sorceresses and curanderas.
There’s a revolt against the severe minimalist decoration trends of the last decade.
The reverse trend is called ‘maximalist’, and it relies on layers, textures, and visual denseness for a look of cozy, inward focus.