A hallway doesn’t exactly scream “canvas.” But for Chicago muralist Alyssa Low, a long, blank passageway was an invitation to think bigger. At a luxury apartment building in Lakeview East, an ordinary first-floor hallway now leads residents and their four-legged friends toward the building’s private Pet Park through a colorful, hand-painted landscape.  

Spanning an 18.5-foot-wide by 10-foot-tall main wall, plus a 4-foot-wide wraparound wall, the mural turns a functional passageway into something residents actually want to walk through. And yes, there are dogs. Lots of them. 

The mural was commissioned by the building manager and management company, who originally had several blank walls in mind. But the Pet Park hallway offered the biggest opportunity for transformation. For Alyssa, the function of the space became the starting point for the artwork, which also draws inspiration from the Lakeview neighborhood, its history and the nature surrounding it. The result? A colorful, unexpected destination hiding in plain sight. 

When a Hallway Becomes the Canvas 

Before the mural, the hallway was, in Alyssa’s words, “quite bare.” But instead of seeing that as a limitation, she saw possibility. “The mural in 2950 is in a long hallway leading to the building’s resident pet park,” Alyssa explains. “For a hallway that is quite bare, I saw an opportunity to really liven up the space!” There was another challenge: the architecture itself.

Before

The hallway wraps around without clean breaks between the walls and ceiling, thanks to exposed piping. Rather than forcing a traditional edge-to-edge mural into the space, Alyssa designed the artwork to move with the architecture, leaving areas of visual breathing room. 

The goal was for the mural to feel like it belonged to the hallway, not like a piece of artwork simply placed on top of it. There was also a practical opportunity hiding in the design. Since the Pet Park is only marked by a small sign outside the hallway, Alyssa wanted the mural to act as a kind of visual wayfinding. In other words: follow the dogs.

After

Finding the Right Mural Paint Colors 

For a mural this large, color does a lot of heavy lifting. Alyssa needed a palette that could bring her colorful landscape to life while giving each illustrated element enough definition to stand on its own. She turned to us for a mix of playful brights, grounding neutrals and nature-inspired shades, including: 

Fresh Kicks, Classic, Frozen, Keep It Teal, Before Sunrise, Fire Sign, Golden Hour, Good as Gold, OMGreen, Daily Greens and Blackish. 

Together, the colors create a palette that feels energetic without overwhelming the hallway. For anyone looking for mural paint colors, Alyssa’s approach is a good reminder that a mural palette doesn't have to be complicated. A carefully chosen collection of complementary shades can create plenty of dimension, especially when each color has a specific role within the composition.

And when you're painting at this scale, having colors you can confidently work with matters. “I LOVED painting with Clare,” Alyssa says. “The quality is incredible, and the paint was so easy to work with.” 

From Digital Projection to Brushstroke 

Once the concept and composition were finalized, it was time to get the design onto the wall. 

Alyssa used her Meta Quest to project the design onto the hallway, allowing her to trace the outline directly onto the surface before beginning the painting process.

From there, she used a combination of rollers and brushes—rollers for larger areas and brushwork for edging and details. It’s a technique she regularly uses in her mural practice, allowing her to move efficiently across large sections while still getting the precision needed around smaller elements. 

The entire mural took 23 hours over three days to complete.

That meant three days of watching a blank hallway gradually become a full-scale work of art. 

“There’s a point after a couple of days of painting when the composition really starts to take shape,” Alyssa says. “All of that thinking, planning and plotting suddenly comes together right there on the wall.”

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Why Mural Painting Is About More Than Going Big 

For Alyssa, becoming a muralist wasn't a single lightbulb moment. Her practice grew organically after the pandemic, when local Chicago businesses and organizations began looking for artists to create murals for their spaces.

A friend introduced her to mural-painting tools and techniques, helping make the jump from canvas to wall feel less intimidating. From there, her work grew through social media, word of mouth, and collaborations. Eventually, landing a large-scale mural project became a turning point, showing her that mural painting could become a career. But what keeps her coming back to large-scale work isn't just the size of the wall. It’s the problem-solving. 

“Every project has its own set of constraints, but I don’t see those as a negative,” she says. “I see them as an opportunity to find a way around them.” That mindset feels especially fitting for the Pet Park hallway. The exposed piping, unusual layout and lack of traditional wall breaks could have made the space difficult to work with. Instead, those limitations became part of the creative direction. The mural doesn't fight the architecture. It works with it. 

A Hidden Gem for Humans and Dogs 

The finished mural does more than add color to an otherwise empty hallway. It gives the space a personality and a purpose beyond simply getting from one place to another. While Alyssa hasn't yet had the chance to return and hear what residents think of the finished piece, several people stopped to watch while she was painting and were genuinely excited about the new artwork. 

For Alyssa, public art has a way of doing more than making a space look better. It can make people feel considered, bring personality to unexpected places and show that a business or organization cares about the environment it's creating for its community. And that's exactly what she hopes people experience when they encounter this mural. 

“I want them to feel surprised, like they stumbled upon a hidden gem,” she says. “Because the mural is in an unexpected place in the building it has this hidden component to it.  IYKYK :)” Honestly, that's a pretty perfect description. You don't just walk down the hallway to the Pet Park anymore. You discover it. 

Thinking About a Hallway Mural? 

A blank hallway might not seem like the obvious place for a mural, but that's part of what makes this project so fun. It shows how paint can completely change the experience of a space without changing its function. If you're gathering hallway mural paint ideas, start by looking at the architecture around you. Consider how the artwork can move through the space instead of simply filling it. Think about how color can guide people, create visual moments or give an overlooked area a sense of destination. 

And most importantly, don't be afraid of the weird walls. Sometimes the exposed pipes, awkward corners or long blank stretches are exactly what makes the finished piece interesting. “Sometimes, when something new becomes part of your process and you don’t even notice it, that’s a really good thing, especially when paint is such a huge part of creating a mural,” she says. “The paint felt intuitive and seamless to work with, which allowed me to focus on the painting itself rather than thinking about the materials.” Because when the paint works, you get to focus on the art. And in this case, the art happens to lead straight to the dog park. 

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• Painting a Wall Mural is Easier Than You Think–Here’s Proof! 
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