Since moving into our home, we are constantly craving more color! As previously mentioned, builders often suggest that you wait a year before painting. This allows the house to settle and you won’t have to fix cracks every couple of months. Because of this, our walls are still white for now.
We are in desperate need of color. As we go room by room and slowly decorate we are finally hanging some photos and art on the walls to add color! But, we still have a long way to go.
Our living and dining have been coming together. I have furnished both rooms with items from a variety of places. These two rooms are actually the only rooms in the whole house were absolutely everything is new! Well, except for my random black bookcase that I’ve had forever that I stuck in the corner to hold knickknacks. Everything else I have slowly curated over the past few months. The old living room set is now upstairs in the 2nd floor family room. The old dining room set is now the kitchen/breakfast area table. So, we had to start all over in those rooms.
Because of this, I finally have a place to hang my beautiful Meural Digital Canvas that I received for review! It looks awesome hanging over the console in the dining room. And it adds some much needed color! The location means that it will be one of the first things that catches guest’s eyes when they come in the door.
Installing Your New Meural
They did a great job making installation very simple. The Meural comes with an easy to follow Setup Guide that provides step by step instructions on installation. It comes with a hanging cleat, screws with anchors, and a tiny little level.
We had it installed in only a few minutes. It only need 2 holes in the wall. Although it does come with anchors, I would recommend installing it in a stud if you can.
If you do this, you will have to use different screws (wood screws) and not the ones that come in the box. The reason for this is that the unit is a bit heavy. The anchors are made for drywall, but I just feel better having heavier items installed directly in the studs. Once you have the cleat installed, you just plug in the power and hang the canvas on the cleat.
Setting Up the Meural
To get your Meural going you will have to install the Meural app from the iOS or Android store. From here you create an account, connect your Meural to your local WiFi and browse through the supplied galleries.
Changing the Photos
Once you have the Meural app installed, you can use it to swipe through artwork, add photos from your phone gallery, change the brightness, or put your Meural to sleep. You can also flip from Horizontal to Vertical, and rename your Meural.
You can also control your Meural from the My Meural website. It actually has a lot more options than the app. From the website you can control all settings including whether or not the gallery images should change automatically, number of settings between each change, and add new artwork from the online gallery. You can also upload your own photos.
Control with a Wave of Your Hand!
One of the coolest things about the Meural is that you can control it with a swipe of your palm. There is a sensor on the bottom for horizontal and vertical orientation. Swiping allows you to change to the next photo, browse playlists, access the menu to change settings, or put your canvas to sleep.
I will say that it seems a bit finicky. I probably just need to get used to swiping correctly, just like when you get a new smartphone with Swype. So far, it has taken more than one try.
Technical Specifications
The specs rival that of a decent computer!
- Standard Frame Dimensions – 29”x 19”x 1.6”
- 27” IPS Display with Anti-Glare Technology
- 1920 x 1080 Full HD Resolution
- 300 cd/m2 Brightness
- 1.8 GHz Quad Core ARM Cortex-A17
- 2GB DDR3 RAM (This has been upgraded from the unit that I have which came with 1GB of RAM)
- 8GB Capacity
- 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi (supports 2.4GHz and 5GHz)
The back of the unit also includes a microUSB port, and microSD slot to load up your own images. This would be an easy way to showcase your own photography, wedding photos, family photos, or even your kid’s scanned artwork.
Meural Digital Canvas
Because of the 27″ 1080p IPS Display, the screen is outstanding. And it has anti-glare technology, so even with the lights on in the room you get a clear view of the artwork.
The Meural is available in black, white, or walnut for $595. Although right now it’s available for only $492 on Amazon. Pricey? Yes. But, if you are looking for an easy way to showcase gorgeous art in your home it is worth it. Meural also offers a membership for $39.95/year that gives you unlimited access to the library of artwork, exclusive content, and more. If you do not want the membership, that is fine too. You still have access to a nice library of images.
I am excited about changing up the artwork for the upcoming holidays. I’m even thinking about using it to display slideshows during events. Now I just need to change out the lighting over the dining room table, and the one by the front door before the holidays. And eventually, we will paint! But, until then I’m happy with the colors that the Meural brings to the room.
Disclosure: The Meural Digital Canvas was provided to me in exchange for this review. All opinions are my own.
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