The Very Best Trompe L'Oeil, Plaster and Faux Painting Finishes

Painted English Bench with Lift Seat

In the late 80's and early 1990's faux finishes were all the rage. Everyone tried it, and some homes just looked hideous. Unnatural colors were paired together, such as the "fantasy faux painted finishes" the public began seeing poor examples of faux finishes from painting books and DIY's that looked just ugly, that faux painting gained a bad reputation.

Notorious Sponge Painting Mistakes

The idea behind faux painting is to create natural finishes that could look realistic to the eye.

Faux painting, was the result of creating stone, marble, precious and rare woods with paint.

Trompe l'oeil painting takes an incredible amount of talent, although it has become much easier these days with overhead projectors. Excellent examples are Jocasta Innes, Mary Douglas Drysdale,Versailles , and my favorite Daniel Rey.

Faux finishes have always been used through centuries to create finishes that were out of the reach for most people.

Faux finishes can produce the stunning plaster walls you find in France, and Italy, and the extravagant furniture and interiors that only the elite can afford.

Check out this wonderful picture by Timothy Corrigan who is hammering up wall frames to create this 18th century interior. The color looks terrific. This shows you the power of glazing. If you look along the edges of the ceiling you can see the base color he used. I never did understand it, until I started using glaze over several of my painted pieces.

David Easton Louis XV Chest

What I learned is the nicer finishes are produced with lighter and brighter base colors.

Adding a glaze to a piece of furniture or a wall is almost a painters best secret to producing some of these faux antique finishes.

This chest which was purchased by David Easton What makes it so appealing is natural aged patina. The blue paint is darker in some areas than others, and the burnt orange paint and white details make this chest one of a kind. The paint finish is absolutely amazing.

David Easton Louis XV 10K

Here is another picture of one of David Easton's chests. The natural wear (what looks to be glaze) really makes this paint finish amazing. Years of dirt pile on the chest and produce a depth to the paint finish. The combination of the three colors, the darker teal, the mint green, the cream and gold make this chest look like a million dollars, even though it is only worth 10 thousand... (joke)

Just how does glaze work?

My best tip is to buy a gallon of glaze that isn't premixed with a color. You would be amazed how long glaze lasts. Unless you plan on doing a huge area like Timothy Corrigan's room above, it makes sense to buy it just in its pure form, which gives you the freedom to mix it with different colors for multiple projects.

When creating a glaze mixture, most people do a cup of glaze to a cup of paint, and both elements are mixed together. I tend to not put in as much paint, and have more glaze to my mixture.

Glaze isn't complicated. There are two approaches I use with glaze.

1. Glaze can be painted on, and then removed for a slight antique effect.

Example 1- A piece of furniture is painted with cream eggshell paint. After it is dry, you can paint on a layer of brown glaze, and within a few minutes, with a damp cotton rag, you can remove it from the furniture, leaving some of the glaze in the corners of your piece. Essentially, your moving the glaze around to create a very thin layer of transparent brown paint which appears to be what a furniture would look like after years of wear and exposure to the environment.

- Tip - You never want a piece of furniture to appear that it has glaze. Sometimes less is more when it comes to glazing. Glazing will always leave behind a slight transparent effect, so using just a little will make a ton of difference.

- Tip - Don't use bright white paint for furniture. That is always a mistake. Consider creams such as the Heirloom White by Rust-oleum

Example 2- A room is painted a light blue. Glaze is rolled on in small sections and then with a sponge, the glaze is moved around the wall to create a slight textured appearance. A damp cotton rag is used, and a faux painters sponge is used to take off the thickness of glaze to produce a textured effect. The overall effect isn't blue, but a slight green. Glaze always changes the color a bit, but gives you a sensational antique effect.

2. Glaze can be painted on with a roller, and NOT removed with a sponge or cloth.

Sponging off paint, or re-creating wood will always show your handy-work to some degree. Your strokes are never going to be perfect. If you have ever tried marble finishes, they are layers and layers of detail.

Corridor in Home of Donatella Versace

Aurélien and Pascale Deleuze's French Home

Miguel Flores-Vianna Photography

Jeffrey Bilhuber's Manhattan Apartment

Today, most people wouldn't have the money to have entire walls made of white carrara marble, but they could have it with a several gallons of cream paint, gloss and stain.

One trick I have learned over the years is the power of translucent finishes. This can be glaze, and it can also be polyshade stains.

If you are creating a plastered wall, or a sponge finish, your final steps should be a coat of tinted glaze. It is sort of like foundation for your skin. It evens everything out, concealing all your imperfections. With some finishes, several layers of glazing is needed.

18th Century Pair of Dutch Side Chairs East and Orient Company

18th Century Pair of Dutch Side Chairs East and Orient Company Real Burl Wood $3600

Macassar Ebony Wood is so stunning to look at, but the chances of coming across it are quite rare. Although if you were to pick up an brighter orange based paint as a base, and working with tinted polyurethane you can have this wood appearance in your home. Here, I created a desk of burl wood using oil burnt umber diluted with paint thinner to create the beautiful swirls of burl wood. After it has dried several weeks, a mixture of walnut and mahogany polyurethane stain is added over the top producing a realistic effect of real wood. The layers of stain are transparent, so every layer conceals your mistakes and blends in creating a wood appearance. See my Bombe chest makeover for a better understanding of this finish

Hand Painted Detailed Furniture Made EASY

Veranda January February 2007

Old World 18th Century Wall Plaster Finishes Decorating Ideas

What makes this photo so wonderful is the extravagant plaster finish on the wall. What attracts me to this photo is the layering of blue, as you see in the painting. Darker shades of the wall color can be seen in the little girls dress. The marble in the console table has a couple shades darker than the wall finish. The black wall sconces with the camel yellow are perfect accents for the blue.