Custom Paintings for Persian Homes: Gardens, Pomegranates, Miniature-Inspired Scenes

PaletteMomento is a hand-painting studio in Dafen Art Village, Shenzhen. We paint Persian subjects by hand, to order: pomegranates, cypress trees, garden scenes, Isfahan tile geometry, miniature-inspired figures, and poetry letterforms taken from a verse you send us. Nothing is printed. There is no minimum order, we paint any size, and we photograph the finished canvas for your approval before it ships. Most of these paintings go to Iranian homes in Los Angeles, Toronto, London, Dubai and Germany.

Persian rooms abroad start with the rug

In most Persian homes we paint for, the rug came first. Turquoise, saffron and gold, pomegranate red, deep indigo, cream. Then there is a big empty wall above the sofa, and nothing in a furniture shop looks right above that rug.

That is the gap we fill: a تابلو نقاشی that is actually painted, in your colors, at the size your wall needs. Printed Persian canvases usually stop around 24 by 36 inches. Our standard sizes run to 80 by 60 inches, and larger single canvases are quoted case by case.

Poetry painted from your verse: Hafez, Rumi, Saadi, Khayyam

نقاشیخط, poetry turned into painting, is the Persian commission we are asked for most. We are painters, not calligraphers, and nobody in the studio reads Persian. You send the exact lines, already laid out, as a photo, a scan or your calligrapher’s design. We paint that artwork onto canvas as letterforms, in the colors, texture and scale you choose. Because we cannot read the text, you check it.

1. Send the verse The exact lines and layout you want, as an image or file.
2. Agree the look Background color, letter color, flat paint or thick texture, canvas size.
3. Check the proof We photograph the drawn letterforms. You confirm every word before we paint.
4. Approve the painting We photograph it. Nothing ships until you say yes.

Hafez, Rumi, Saadi, Khayyam, Ferdowsi, Nezami and Attar are in the public domain, so those verses are straightforward. Modern Iranian poets are usually still in copyright, so tell us first if your line is from a twentieth century poet. We keep our letterform work to poetry and names.

Pomegranates, cypress trees, and the باغ ایرانی garden

The انار is what people ask for after poetry, usually for a dining room. Split fruit, dark seeds, a brass tray, a warm ground, and a red that picks up the rug.

The سرو, the cypress, does the same job on a narrow hallway wall. Above a sofa we often paint the four-part garden: a straight water channel, cypress and blossom on both sides, a pavilion at the end. That is a wide subject, so a horizontal canvas or a set of two or three panels beats a square.

Rose and nightingale, گل و بلبل, is the third classic and the easiest to modernize. Painted loose and thick with a palette knife, it sits with a modern sofa. Browse our floral and botanical collection to see how our painters handle petals and light, then tell us what to change.

Miniature-inspired scenes, painted at wall scale

A Persian miniature is a small object. Blown up to 48 by 36 inches it stops being a miniature, so we paint an inspired composition, not an enlargement. Garden feasts, a polo game, Shahnameh heroes, birds and blossom borders. We keep the flat space, the layered figures and the pattern at living room scale. For a metallic or leafed border, ask us first.

Two rules we do not bend. We work from public domain historical sources, mainly Safavid and Qajar painting, or from a reference you own and approve. Museum photographs of those manuscripts can carry rights of their own, so we never copy a photograph line for line. And we never copy a living or recently deceased artist, which includes the modern miniature masters you find on Pinterest. Send that work as a mood reference instead.

Isfahan and Shiraz tile geometry, matched to your rug

Tile geometry is the quiet option. An eight-point star field, a band of blue and white pattern, the interlaced lines of a Shiraz doorway, painted as a flat field of color. It reads as pattern from across the room and never fights the rug.

This is where color matching earns its keep. Send a photo of the rug in daylight, plus a paint chip, fabric swatch or paint code. We mix the color, photograph it under daylight and send you that photo to approve before we paint. See our color-matched paintings page and our geometric and pattern collection. The same approach makes a good abstract: turquoise and saffron on cream with a little pomegranate red belongs to the room without being a picture of anything.

Sizes and sets, from a Toronto condo to a Dubai villa

A condo living room in Los Angeles or Toronto usually takes a single 40 by 30 or 48 by 36 above the sofa. A Dubai villa with a double height wall is where sets of two and three earn their place. Any size outside the standard list is painted to your measurements at the same rate.

نوروز, weddings and housewarming gifts: when to order

Nowruz falls around 20 or 21 March, so work backwards from that date. One piece takes 7 to 10 business days to paint, then 5 to 10 business days by FedEx or DHL, which makes six weeks ahead a comfortable order date. Weddings work the same way. Couples order a painted backdrop for the sofreh aghd, or a pair of canvases for a new home, and the safe window is two to three months.

One painting is a normal order for us. Trade pricing starts at a single piece, improves at 6 pieces and again at 21, and mixed designs count together, which matters for a Persian restaurant fitting out a dining room. For a large project we paint a sample first, and the sample cost is credited back on orders of 10 pieces or more. If you want to see what goes into a number before you write to us, read how we quote.

Where we ship, how you pay, and an honest note about Iran

We ship worldwide from Shenzhen. Delivery is EXW our studio and freight is quoted separately at cost. Express by FedEx or DHL takes 5 to 10 business days to Los Angeles, Toronto, London, Dubai and Germany. CIF and DDP are available on request. Payment is usually a 50 percent deposit, with the balance before release, by wire transfer, PayPal or card.

Paintings executed entirely by hand fall under HTS 9701, which carries a free base rate of duty into the United States. Other China-origin measures can apply, so confirm with a customs broker. For Canada, the UK and the UAE we do not quote duty or import tax, because those rules change.

About Iran: we do not have a confirmed answer on shipping there, and we would rather say so than promise something a carrier may refuse. Sanctions make delivery and payment unreliable both ways. Ask us before you order and we will tell you plainly what we can confirm.

Did not find what you like? Send us what you like and we paint it

Our catalog holds 286 designs, and none of them is a Persian subject. Almost every Persian piece we make starts as something a customer sends us. The catalog shows you how our painters handle color, light and texture.

Send any of these and we will paint from it: a photo you took, an old family photograph from Tehran or Shiraz, a Pinterest board, a rug photo, a fabric sample, a paint chip or an AI-generated image. We can combine photos into one composition, recolor a catalog design, and add elements that matter to your family. Our photo to painting page explains that process.

For a mixed household, our page on art for Turkish homes covers tulip and Iznik tile subjects that sit happily beside Persian ones.