A client referral called upon us to design a theme for a new wine room which involved, faux brick, a mural, and some trompe loeil effects.
Thanks to Dave Moros of Elite Contracting Group for sending the client to the Art-Faux Blog where they were able to find exactly what they were searching for their new renovation.
After discussing with the client of their goal I came up with a design that creates an illusion within an illusion, a double trompe loeil if you dare.
The entrance of the Old World Wine Room will have the feeling of a corridor leading out to an Italian landscape. But upon opening the door a wine vault appears revealing the prized bottles of wine which are nested securely on the racks but will also appear on the faux red brick and plaster walls that you would find in a wine cellar.
The drawing below is a basic sketch of the design to where I am commissioned to complete a faux fresco on the inside of the wine vault which will be seen through the glass of the entry door. Once everything is completed this small room will have the look and feel of a European wine cellar but with a bit of a contemporary feel by using a clean Faux Stone Block around the entry door, staying within the driving demand for the combination of “the old and the new” type of design that is popular with the interior design market.
The entry door will have an iron faux finish applied to work with a trompe loeil iron frame which will appear as if the opening itself is a gated passage into a protected corridor that is open at the other end. By incorporating a faux fresco of an Italian landscape designed from photos that were taken by the clients while in Europe will complete the illusion of the passage way.
On the inside of the wine room I have gone completely “Old World” on the walls and ceiling with a Break Away faux finish.
which will be done using a common faux brick technique using various plaster mediums and glazes.
In combination with the more modern wet bar/wine rack cabinet design, all the elements will work well together in this small area without competing with each other. Above is the sample I worked out for the client of the red brick and plaster faux finish and once completed I will post pictures of the final results.
I started this project a week or so ago and did have a few design delays with the entry door that is to receive an iron faux finish. The door casing was changed to a flat stock because I had to gain as much space as I could to add the stone surround which I will show as we progress with these updates.
I have added a few more photos to this post to show the progress and explain a little bit about the process.
I know when looking at the faux brick most of you are thinking that it must take a lot of time to layout, but it really depends on
the technique you use.
After base painting the walls with a product I use from Faux Effects called Off White Texture Coat, I mask out my grout lines using one inch tape. Before I apply the tape I will tear the two ends in thirds then after applying the tape I will tear each strip and use it for the next grout line. When tearing the strips of tape from the top and the bottom, the piece left in the middle leaves a nice serrated edge. Then what I do is take the remaining two pieces and butt the factory edges together to form another grout line, this way you waste very little of the 3M “Orange core” low tack tape.
There are basically two ways to create a faux brick which both could be categorized as a trompe l’oeil but the difference between the two are one is simply painted and the other is accomplished by using plaster to give the faux brick an authentic look and feel.
The client chose the latter and is the one I prefer myself, either way they both have a pretty convincing end result, but when a person can actually feel a profile when running their hands on an actual peeling plaster over a faux brick it adds a look of amazement to the “wow factor”
I use a couple of different plasters made by Faux Effects which I found that works very well for the faux brick as well as a few other faux stone applications. You may either tint it to a common color of the faux brick or over glaze an untinted application and varying the color with an open palette which is the way I chose to do this particular application.
Weather tinted or untinted both ways have their pros and cons which I won’t go into with this post
I will continue to update this post about the Old World Wine Room with more information as I progress to help others learn and understand the process a little more.
Until then you can sign up for our newsletter or our RSS feed that will let you know when I add an update to this post of the
Faux Brick Wine Room.
Update 3/11/2011
Faux Brick Wine Room
Well as promised I am back to update this little project with a few more pics and more of my not so great writing, but it’s the real me and not someone doing it for me. For some strange reason I just have a problem with someone rewriting my thoughts and words, it’s kind of surreal if you ask me.
Anyway, I added more plaster to the walls over the faux brick, which took two layers because the first had shrunk down and receded into the grout lines. I suppose I could have used drywall compound or even a concrete mix but the reason I chose Faux Effects Texture Fil is because there is no need for priming or painting being that it comes pretinted in Neutral White (off white). If I would have used the drywall compound I would have had to prime and paint and if I chose the concrete mix that contains lime I would have had the ph levels to deal with on top of the priming and painting process.
Using the Texture Fil enabled me to apply two layers of plaster and after the plaster was dry enough I was able to start the distressing by hitting it with my first over glaze all within a 10 hour day, try doing that with drywall compound lol
The whole idea of using the plasters is to achieve the depth and as much realism as possible. Although the use of trompe loeil can give you the same effect visually it can not give you that effect when you actually reach out and feel it. I mean, when you touch the faux brick it really does feel like the real thing because of the plaster that I chose to use for this effect.
In this next photo you can see the depth that the plasters create and because I am working with a 500 watt work light you can see how the plasters are throwing the cast shadows.
Without the work light the cast shadows are not as pronounced as I want them to be especially in this small room so with the use of trompe loeil I will paint the shadows and hi lights according to the light source within the room to intensify the effect which will be the final step, but there is also one more little trick I am going to add to this room that will give an added punch to it but you will have to come back and see what it is on my next update. What? Did you think I was going to tell you everything this time around? After all I haven’t even told you what plaster I used for the faux brick yet, and I bet you thought I forgot didn’t you?
So be sure to sign up for the RSS feed to find out on the next
Faux Brick Wine Room Update
3/16/2011
I am behind on posting because of my busy schedule so the dates are not the actual time it has taken me to get this far, if it were then I should be doing something else for a living.
The Wine Room Entry
was a small area to work with but I think what I had put together utilized the area well enough. Going from my drawing above I did make a couple of changes but all in all it’s still pretty much the same.
I laid out the faux brick on it’s own plane within the half circle and painted it directly on the surface using the existing color of the wall for the grout lines. There really was no need to use the Tru-Tint plaster like I used for the interior because it’s only a visual aspect of the design. However I did use another favorite plaster of mine called Quartzstone, also made by Faux Effects for it’s translucent qualities and versatility.
Using Texture Coat Offwhite as my base before laying in the 1/2″ grout lines using 1/4″ tape.
Note: I couldn’t find anyone who carried the 1/2″ faux tape and I never use the standard white masking tape for anything, especially under plasters. (Again, been there, done that, and it ain’t pretty scenario lol)
Using the QuartzStone I laid in a tight skim coat to lock the tape down and then applied a texture coat over the “scratch coat” as it’s called because I wanted a 100% coverage of the QS for my over glaze.
The color I had to make work with everything around the area especially the granite, so I used a mix of burnt sienna and dark brown Faux Creme Colors with Faux Creme Clear. What I found interesting about the Faux Creme Clear and the QuartzStone was that you can work another layer of QS over top of the wet glaze to get a really nice blended look.
So at this point I will leave with one last picture of where we are as far as updating this post
The mural within the faux brick wine room of an Italian Landscape is also nearly complete which will be installed at the end of the week
6 thoughts on “Faux Brick Wine Room”
Thank you so much, jeeez I have been doing this for years but struggle through the process with paint. Feeling a little badly for my clients. Thanks for the “give back”.
Hi Anne,
I’m glad you thought this was helpful and I plan on doing this more often. I look at it this way, if we all work together on improving and learning from each other then not only do we grow as artists but our market increases by clients who benefit from having a great experience.
I loved reading about this project Art Thanks for the tutorial
Hi Sass,
Your welcome. Thanks for the comment, I know this is basic stuff but together with a few tips that I have learned over the years hopefully everyone will get a little something from it
Good for you ARt, glad to see you being so creative and it’s wonderful how you share with all of us. Who is helping you with this job? I am finally working with some Wood Icing and I’m liking it.
Thanks PJ,
Yes I do try to share as much as I can on the simpler techniques. It’s kind of my way of giving back. I looked into the Wood Icing many years ago and found that it was a very dense product. You can do most anything with it and the quality of it.