ShopFront: Fantastical castles and magical landscapes are the stock in trade of Dreamscapes, a new company with designs on your children's walls.

Run by Mayo artists Dara Brophy and Fionnuala McKenna, Dreamscapes produces hand-painted canvas wall-hangings for children - a more practical option to painting scenes directly onto walls. While bedrooms and playrooms are the most obvious targets, the company has also made wall hangings for crèches and clinics as well as for schools and libraries.

The brightly painted designs have a distinctly Irish feel and can include castles and round towers, enchanted forests with curious cottages hidden in their depths, or magic lakes and seas.

What they don't include are characters, since the idea is that children can play the characters and make their own stories which go with the backdrop.

Appropriately enough, Dreamscapes is currently run from a cottage between Castlebar and Westport, where the view towards Croagh Patrick provides plenty of inspiration. However, there are plans to display the wall-hangings at the Foxford Woollen Mills in December and meanwhile customers can order by phone. The hangings vary in price according to size, with an average 4ft by 4ft one costing around €400.

Orna Mulcahy

Dreamscapes

Tel 094 9030075 or e-mail imagecompany@eircom.net