A Walnut Wood Grain Trompe L’oeil Door panel was done for one of my faux finishing home shows.
I make wood graining interesting and fun. By adding a walnut wood grain trompe l’oeil door panel to a faux finishing seminar it springs a surprise on the people who attend my events. The walnut wood graining and trompe loeil really packs a punch. The seminars and demonstrations I have done at the former International Design Center at Estero, now currently named the Miromar Design Center
were always a success in my opinion because of how well people responded to the information that I would share with them.
This is a flat panel done in a walnut wood grain with trompe loeil raised molding. This was a study done for a designer client of mine. You might see a finish like this performed on a cabinets or a door way to give it a sense of depth or uncommon age. You can also go for a more distressed look to match other antique pieces in the room.
A full view of the trompe loeil panel can give the wood graining a convincing appearance and is one of my favorite techniques to use
Although the stiles and rails would be done in a straight grain instead of a heart grain this panel was done to give it more pop and normally I would not go against the rules if this were inside a home.
This trompe loeil faux walnut panel was done this way for more visual effect than anything.
several other wood grain techniques can add to even a rooms appearance as in this Southwestern decor where I had to match the doors and crown moldings to a mahogany wainscoting
Walnut is more on the brown greenish side with more gray and mahogany has a richer reddish almost violet look to it. Of course there are no trompe loeil moldings on this door you can see the raised panels casts its own shadows.
Of course there are many species of mahogany and one that has hit the market pretty hard because it is a bit less expensive is the South American mahogany which has a grain pattern of its own.
This drywall built in entertainment center was faux finshed with this particular wood graining to match the entry door of this home
The doors are real of course and are a bit different as the tradition red mahogany. This species has more of an open grain which meant I had to change the wood graining faux finishing technique that I would normally use for a mahogany wood grain.
The next picture is of the drywall built in which had a knock down drywall texture which I had to smooth out with compound, sand, prime, and of course match a base paint that I could use as a ground color.
So as you can see there can be a bit more to a faux finish wood grain than just writing an article about a Walnut Trompe Loeil Door article. Generally this is the kind of information that I give when I present my seminars and demonstration series to club houses, Interior Designers, my clients and home owners and yes even businesses and builders.
There is a lot to be said about the decorative arts and the versatility of it and how and where it can be applied. It doesn’t matter what your home or business decor or style is weather its contemporary or old world the art of decoration can be applied anywhere and in a lot of cases remedy problem areas which to some just can’t find an answer for.
Well how about asking your local artist? I mean after all isn’t it all about color? And what better person to ask? It seems since the changes into contemporary and modern designs most have forgotten that the best help and assistance they can get are from veteran artists who have a wealth of knowledge and innovative creative experience. Faux finishing, decorative and fine artists can still be a major part in a homes decor to make it unique and bring each owners personality to the home. In my opinion most of the new home designs I have seen lack one major and most important part….. Although beautifully done I feel that some interiors lack warmth and personality. But that’s just my opinion.
7 thoughts on “A Walnut Wood Grain Trompe L’oeil Door”
Dear Arthur,
You are a man of many talents and expertiese.
I would like to know (This is just a rough idea, I am working on refining). There are people would pay to have a session with you on this style of work. I was impress with the work, here and I enjoyed a person;s comments, who was so taking back of its quality (Scott). There are veterans I know who have this skill, however, they would apprecaite an opportunity to enhance their abilitie with these techniques. I will get back to you soon as per this matter. Pardon my spelling, I am a better artist than a speller
Phyllis,
As always you are one artist who is always thinking creatively in more ways than one and there are so very few that can do this. Yes my knowledge is very extensive because like you I have a hunger for learning and expanding creatively and I usually have more than one thing on my plate. Everything I do is all relative in one way or another to my art. When I find an answer for one thing 10 more questions follow in my mind and I can not rest until I find the answers. This is why decorative arts, painting murals, trompe loeil, marbling, graining, landscape painting, portraiture, bas relief, etc is only a small part of my growing list that seems to be endless and this is just my artists list. I have had many who attend my seminars look at me and at first glance I can see the doubt in a lot of those faces because of my appearance and I like it actually, but by the time I run out of time the people are wanting more and that look of doubt is replaced by the glow of wonderment and curiosity. I see the excitement of learning and bringing something new to some while adding more knowledge to others. I guess you could say I have a passion for teaching, and that it’s my purpose in life and why I was put here. It is a very strange feeling for me especially from the kind of life I have lived. However the older I get the stronger the passion becomes. I would have never believed 35 years ago that this was meant to be.
I was browsing the internet for woodworking and accidently clicked on my way somehow to:
http://art-faux.com/faux-painting-wood/a-walnut-wood-grain-trompe-l-oeil-door/
I marveled at what I thought was extraordinary woodworking. I scanned through the webpages trying to discover the masterful techniques of routing and carving that had to be part of this creation. Slowly, it began to dawn on me that this ‘masterpiece’ was a faux. I couldn’t get angry at being duped because it was too good a fake and so good a fake as to deserve appreciation for the artistry required.
Then I began to realize what caused me to want to know more about this particular fake. As a woodworker, it would be nearly impossible to create this artwork as a piece of woodworking. First, the plank or slab is incredibly wide. But, what really intrigued me was that the raised molding would be impossible to create upon the plank, as one piece, without a lifetime of precision carving. Hah, I said, gotcha!
As I ruined my schedule for the next few hours perusing Art’s art, I think there are more examples of impossibilities not unlike Escher. The faux marble columns, though beautiful with their various cracks and fissures, might be a doubtful choice for statuary just because of the potential of catastrophic failure of the material while carving, let alone as structural support.
What really grabbed me about this website and its creator is the unique ability of Art to describe, in the most simple terms, what is required to duplicate his feats. Where this linear unfolding becomes ultimately impossible, Art confesses this to us as a shift in mind set that cannot be gained with different textures or mixtures. This is pure yoga and not faux!
New fan,
Scott
Thank You Scott, This was quite an analogy to say the least and I do appreciate the time you took to write this. I do try to put as much into my posts as possible without trying to bore people lol, Its comments like yours that make it worth the effort. I like to share what I learn when I have the opportunity to basically do what I feel is right for the outcome and love commissions where clients let me be my creative self..
I am looking for a molding very much like the molding on these doors to replace on some of our cabinet doors as I refinish them. The cabinets were made in 1975.
Hi Bob
Thanks for stopping in, What you see is a hand painted panel. The walnut is a wood grain technique and the moldings are created by using trompe loeil by painting light and shadow. In other words the moldings are not real they are painted like the rest of the panel but I will regard this as a compliment lol.