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Ford Enters the Man Cave
by Michael Collins

One of the recent trends in home decorating is the Man Cave, a room, garage or basement area dedicated to the age-old tradition of male bonding. Man Cave essentials usually include big screen TV's, bars, pool tables and sports memorabilia.  

For ambiance, while some guys might consider a picture of dogs playing poker as the perfect artistic accent, others are discovering a newly created series of Ford-themed large scale graphics from a Cleveland, Ohio based company called 4 Walls.

"The 4 Walls products are turning out to be a huge success and we couldn't be happier," said Regina Watson, product licensing manager for Ford Global Brand Licensing, the office that negotiates the use of Ford brand images by outside companies. "People are literally taking our brand into their homes and living with it in a very large format."

Available online at www.4walls.com, the images, which are generally three feet by four feet, are more like murals. They feature a range of Ford symbols, logos, prints and vehicles including classic Mustang's, Thunderbirds, F-150s and Ford GTs.

"The Ford wall hangings are coming along at the perfect time," said Frank Fontana, host of the HGTV cable series Design on a Dime. "For the most part home decorating has always been left to women so there hasn't been much space designated for men in the family. But now they are starting to claim some of those areas and the term Man Cave is getting very popular." 

Fontana suggests using the Ford images as a centerpiece for generating various looks and environments.  

"I particularly like the pieces that feature nostalgic elements” he said. “The Woodstock Farm image featuring an F-100 for instance, kind of reminds me of an old country gas station."

For a more modern look, Fontana suggests the 2006 Ford GT print and then pulling some of the colors for other areas and themes in the room. 

"I would use the gray's in that image and add a lot of stainless steel and high tech lighting," he said. "It's all about using the Ford images as inspiration for the kind of look and feel you're trying to create."

The 3-D like images of Ford vehicles bursting through the wall are perfect for a kid’s room, Fontana said.

"I've been a car fanatic all my life. When I was a kid I had a racing bed and I would have loved to have that image of a Mustang crashing through the wall hanging over it," he said. 

Another reason for the popularity of the 4 Walls graphics is the versatility that comes from being able to remove or reposition the murals without damaging the wall. According to 4 Walls president Dave Ruel, the hangings feature a new kind of peel-and-stick adhesive that allows the graphics to hang securely and be removed without leaving so much as a residue on the surface.

“They’re very easy to use and offer a great look,” said Ruel. “Ford products have a tremendous heritage, and we wanted to capture as much of that as we possibly could.” 

To see the complete line of officially licensed Ford graphics, murals and wall borders go to www.4walls.com and click on "Ford Collection." 
 

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