Faithful readers will definitely be familiar with fellow 3ringer Joseph Starr’s feelings about drywall. In past posts on Extenzo, Nuno Erin, and Wave, he’s referred to the ubiquitous gypsum board as “odious,” “hateful,” “dust-producing,” “carcinogenic,” and “terrible.” Though I’m not as emotionally-evolved with the product as it seems he is, I can share his exultation at the prospect of yet another elegant alternative to the industry-standard, because this time it falls on me to laud the textural magnificence and visual splendor of Interlam’s Architectural Wall Panels.

Interlam’s Architectural Wall Panels. Interlam’s Booth at #NeoConEast.

Formerly a distributor of high-pressure laminate from Italy, the Virginia-based company now designs and manufactures an impressive selection of some 150+ sculpted, carved, decorative, and ornamental wall panels, any one of which (including the sublime examples at #NeoConEast) will make you forget everything you thought you knew about walls.

The possibilities here are nearly endless, and Interlam isn’t bashful about it. Such is my read, anyway, on the “wall of walls” that showcased any number of their wonderful workings in metal (tin, copper, bronze, or rusted steel); wood (over 50 varieties and shades with both smooth and textured finishes); and “SilTex” (a studio silica finish made of solid aggregates and brilliant colors, creating all sorts of nifty lighting effects). Interlam’s portfolio certainly has something for everyone, and passersby at the exhibit couldn’t help but be drawn to the panels’ textural enticements. The display featured two noteworthy samples from the Art Diffusion Line: one that sports an unusual synthesis of straight lines and hourglass shapes, in aqueous blue, no less, that creates the illusion of oceanic oscillations; and a second resembling a cobblestone path or a walkway of tumbled concrete, whose brick red color is both apropos and a striking visual statement.

But perhaps the most alluring of Interlam’s Products come from the Mirage line of architectural screens. Created by overlaying a thin facing material atop a contrasting core, these panels reproduce photographic images with astonishing clarity. Thus—much in the manner of Pointilist Art—if you step back far enough, what appeared as a beautiful, if chaotic, swirling pattern of silver and black comes alive as a flippant Albert Einstein, tongue extended in an expression of pure joie de vivre; or a burgeoning bouquet of exuberant mushrooms, their fungal forms bursting from the walls and into your third dimension.