Painted by hand, on your wall, once
Not wallpaper, not a decal, not a print in a frame. Paint on plaster, drawn and painted freehand in the room it belongs to.
This is where ABK Interior started. Koby Hyde has painted more than 75 murals freehand, indoors and out, across the country. Nurseries, stairwells, dining rooms, businesses. Every one of them is measured against the room it lives in, so the composition works from the doorway and from the sofa, not just in a mock-up.
It also explains the rest of this site. A person who paints freehand for a living has a steadier hand on a ceiling line and a stronger opinion about color than a painting contractor does — which is why the interior painting work here looks the way it does.
Priced by the square foot
- $12 per sq ft
- $15 per sq ft
- $20 per sq ft
Three rates, and which one applies comes down to complexity. Measure the wall, multiply, and you have the number — no hourly billing and no surprises at the end.
What pushes a piece up the scale: the number of distinct elements, how much fine detail sits at eye level, whether faces or lettering are involved, how many colors have to be blended rather than laid flat, and whether the surface is smooth drywall or something rougher that fights the brush. Tell us the wall and the idea and you will be told which rate it is before any work is booked.
Rooms that earn a hand-painted wall
Nurseries and kids' rooms
The most common request, and the one where paint beats a decal outright — it can be gentle enough for a newborn's room and still hold up for a nine-year-old, instead of being peeled off in two years.
Stairwells and hallways
Tall, awkward, usually blank, and the wall your guests spend the most time looking at. A hallway is also the one place a bold piece cannot overwhelm the furniture, because there isn't any.
Dining rooms and bars
Rooms used mostly in the evening, under lamplight, where a deeper palette and hand-blended color do something a flat wall cannot. Also where a lot of Knoxville houses have a wall doing nothing at all.
Why trust a wall to this hand
- 75+ murals completed, freehand, indoors and outdoors, across the country.
- Featured by Knox TN Today and listed as a Dogwood Arts KnoxWalls artist.
- Profiled on Book An Artist, where commissions are booked directly.
- Ranked second in Austin for “muralist” across five years there, before moving home to Knoxville.
- A Knoxville native. This is not a portfolio built somewhere else and imported — it came home with him.
The full mural and fine-art portfolio lives on its own site: Art by Koby. If what you want is a smaller designed wall rather than a full mural, accent walls is the page for that.
Hand-painted wall questions
How is a hand-painted wall priced?
By the square foot, at one of three rates depending on complexity: $12, $15 or $20 per square foot. You measure the wall, multiply by the rate, and that is the price — there is no hourly billing. Complexity is driven by the number of distinct elements, how much fine detail sits at eye level, whether faces or lettering are involved, how many colors need blending rather than laying flat, and how rough the surface is. You are told which rate applies before anything is booked.
Can you paint from a photo or a reference I found?
Yes, and that is the normal starting point. A reference image, a color palette, or even a rough description is enough to work from. What does not transfer directly is scale — an image that works as a square print often has to be recomposed to sit on a wall with a light switch and a door frame in it. That redrawing is part of the job, not an extra.
Will a mural date badly or hurt resale?
It is paint, so the honest answer is that it is the most reversible thing in your house — it primes and paints over in a day if a future buyer wants a plain wall. That is worth knowing before you talk yourself out of it. Where it does pay to be careful is subject matter: a landscape or an abstract in a considered palette ages very differently from a licensed character or a dated slogan.
Do you do murals for businesses as well as homes?
Yes. Commercial and exterior work has been most of the 75+ pieces to date. Those commissions are handled under Art by Koby rather than ABK Interior, but it is the same person and the same hand — say what you have in mind and it will be pointed to the right side of the business.