The Rise of Indoor Murals: Bringing Wall Art Back Home

In 2020, Megan Debin acquired a house in Long Beach, California, where she found her backyard’s cinder-block walls dull and uninspiring. An art history professor and content creator, she was captivated by a light blue crab design she discovered on Instagram. She commissioned Tracy Allen, a local muralist, to paint the crab on one of her yard’s walls.

What started as a single mural soon blossomed into five distinct artworks, mostly in shades of blue. Dr. Debin, 45, now views her yard through a new lens. “The space feels vibrant and cheerful, lifting the mood,” she shared, noting that the murals inspired her to develop an outdoor entertaining area among her orange trees.

Historically, murals inside homes were often limited to children’s rooms and followed thematic designs. Today, however, murals have evolved beyond these confines, adorning walls both inside and outside residences.

By definition, a mural is a large-scale artwork created directly on a wall. While contemporary murals are commonly linked to urban streetscapes and popular social media backdrops, they represent one of humanity’s earliest forms of visual storytelling. For example, the Lascaux cave paintings in Dordogne, France, dating back approximately 15,000 to 17,000 years, depict animals such as horses and bison. Similarly, Argentina’s Patagonia region features the “Cueva de las Manos” (“Cave of Hands”), a collection of stenciled human handprints estimated to be at least 9,000 years old.

“Humans have an innate impulse to communicate visually and share experiences,” explained Hailey Widrig, an art historian and founder of Art Partners Advisory in Paris, which consults collectors and evaluates artworks. “Murals are a natural extension of that impulse.”