Shea Homes Spec House Murals

Colorful walls for a San Diego oasis

Client: Shea Homes
Location: San Diego, CA
December 2021

Project specs:
Mural: 20’ x 14’
Vinyls: 25’ x 10’ & 35’ x 13’

We rounded out the end of 2021 at home in San Diego with two murals and two vinyls for Shea Homes. A family-owned company since 1881, Shea Homes designs and constructs residential homes across the US, and to date is one of our highest-paying jobs! They reached out to us on a referral from Phoebe’s cousin (thanks Kate!), and we actually have another project coming up with them in May of 2022.

Shea Homes asked us to design and install two murals on the sides of two of their spec houses. Kicking off the design process for these murals was definitely different from our typical project, as we came into the project before anything was constructed… We were working from the ground up, literally. The goal of these murals was to help attract young families to this brand new San Diego neighborhood that was being built. They were essentially trying to create a community out of nothing, and wanted to create a real “oasis” feel - i.e. young, hip, and a place for people to live that would really feel like an escape. 

Very cool premise - but hard to imagine how our murals would fit into the greater aesthetic of this new community based solely on renderings! We had nothing concrete to go off of, so had to get pretty imaginative and ultimately - hope for the best.

While the typical Shea Home build sticks to a more neutral/beige palette, we were asked to create something colorful, geometric, and eye-catching for these murals. Additionally, we were asked to deliver two designs on vinyl. This was nice because after the physical labor of painting two murals, we could do this right on the computer. We designed some floral inspired pieces (vectorized, which means sized-to-scale… pro tip: outsource the vectorizing if you can afford it! It saves a ton of time) and sent over to them to have printed and pasted onto the side of two more buildings. Vinyls are a win-win for both the client and the designer, as they are so much less physically demanding for the painter, and typically much more cost effective for the client.  

After about 14 hours, a few revisions, and some time under the California sun, we wrapped up work on both the murals and the vinyls and the clients loved them! Can’t wait to get started on the next ones.