The Story Behind the Murals

If you've ever described Bar Diane to a friend, there's a good chance the murals came up. They get called wallpaper sometimes, honestly, we'll take it. But they're actually hand-painted, floor to ceiling, by the owner, Sami Gaston.

Here's how it happened.

While Bar Diane was being built out, Sami was constantly sketching: floor plans, layout references, mood notes for the architects. She has an illustration background, and the architecture firm picked up on it quickly. They pushed her to put something by her own hand into the space.

After a lot of ideas thrown around, she landed on a motif inspired by Bauhaus design: that classic geometry of overlapping circles and semicircles, slightly off-center, quietly rhythmic. Circles and semicircles were cut from a firm substrate to make stencils, then traced onto the walls in pencil. From there, each shape was filled in by hand. If you look closely at the edges, you can see exactly where the brush was. That's not imperfection. That's the point.

The colors weren't chosen at random either. The pinks and reds were pulled directly from the shades of rosé, lambrusco, and red wine planned for the opening glass list. The walls are, in a way, a wine list in disguise.

When Bar Diane first opened, the mural wall became something of a moment. The spot everyone wanted their photo taken. A passport stamp. It still is.

Next time you're in, take a closer look. There's more in those walls than you might think.

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