Trompe L’oeil carved patterns in seemingly natural surfaces.

27 Oct Trompe L’oeil carved patterns in seemingly natural surfaces.

Whilst being commissioned on a large project which included creating faux finishes on
all the walls in the house along with other decorative artwork, the imagination has to be
used to bring original ideas to all the separate areas.

As a decorative artist and mural painter one builds up an arsenal of ideas, the trick is to
know which combination and when to experiment and on what part of the house with an
eye on the clients’ taste and the budget available.

On this major commission in Istanbul the client had the most amazing suite with a
large wardrobe and dressing area which looked like the inside of a clothes boutique all
in lightly limed oak.

Adjoining the dressing area was a large bathroom with a sunken
bath and power showers all in the typical white and grey veined marble which comes
from a quarry on an island not far from Istanbul and can be found all over the city.

The client offered me the challenge to come up with something special for the cornices.
Happily, it gave me the opportunity to combine two of my favorite faux finishes, faux
marble and faux oak with a Trompe l’eoil pattern.

Firstly we created the specialist finishes in both the dressing room and then the
bathroom faithfully copying the existing oak and marble, and then carefully working out
the pattern to fit neatly into the cornice, we created a pattern that looked like it had been
perfectly carved into the surface.