Luster Stone Faux Fresco
was the ground for this trompe l’oeil mural project in a Grey Oaks Country Club home in Naples Fl. Only this mural project has a bit of a twist.
Earlier this year (2013) a repeat client of mine in Grey Oaks Country Club had several wall art panels installed using wood casings matching the existing trim profiles throughout the home. I was asked to complete a faux finish to compliment the rest of the interiors decor for the inside of the wall art panels as a back ground for hanging wall art. I remembered an old sample I did some years ago the last time contemporary/modern decor made it’s appearance in our area of Southwest Florida. I had used the Luster Stone product made by Faux Effects International for a design I created I called a modern day “Luster Stone faux fresco” and knew that it would work as a back ground which actually combines the old and the new kind of “transitional” decor that is becoming more popular these days. Although the contemporary/modern interior designs are still trending by popularity, I am seeing more of my clients leaning away from it and heading back into the more traditional styles. What’s interesting about Luster Stone is how versatile it can be. It can be utilized in both types of interior designs and does not appear “dated.” It works very well as a back ground to accentuate any kind of wall art, fine art and yes even in mural projects or in this case a trompe loeil wall art mural. Upon the clients approval we repeated the Luster Stone finish in all the panels in the common areas throughout the home where it worked with not only the art work that hung in the panels but also with the homes interior design.
Below is the sample of the
Luster Stone Faux Fresco Panel
I wanted to explain this part before moving on to the next part of this post so you would understand where I was going with this and how I arrived with this mural project of a Distressed Faux Wood Finish at this Gray Oaks Country Club home.
When the client wanted to continue the Luster Stone Faux Fresco Finish onto the stairwell panels there were issues that came up about how difficult this area would be to execute the faux fresco finish which actually lead to the distressed faux wood finish as a mural project.
Rather than executing this finish directly on the wall itself I suggested we paint it on canvas for few reasons,
- The staircase is a main traffic area for the home and would make it difficult to reach the higher panels by ladders which meant a platform would have to be assembled with scaffolding to be able to access the panels to work comfortably and safely.
- The time it would take to paint this directly into the wall art panels would have been an inconvenience to the client and any guests that would happen to visit.
- The costs of having to get the scaffold set up would have been expensive because there are not many scaffold suppliers that no longer provide the service because of liability issues and of how hard insurance companies are hitting them and rental companies in their premiums that the service is rarely available in the area any longer. The closest one I found was in Sarasota, Fl!
- By suggesting to paint the finish on canvas it would be better and save money to paint the Luster Stone Faux Fresco Finish on canvas pieces (12) and then install them the same as wallpaper after words which could be installed in a day or two without tying up the stairwell for any length of time.
- I suggested we incorporate some art work onto the canvas ( Distressed Faux Wood Finish) along with the back ground (Luster Stone Faux Fresco Finish) This would eliminate the costs of finding and hanging wall art pieces in the panels, thus killing two birds with one stone.
However there is a bit of twist to the panels which I hope will make them unique. In my years of decorative painting I have learned that in order to stay in demand you must separate yourself from what everyone else is doing and many who follow me on Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, Twitter and others know that I can be very different without a doubt.
Some would even say I am out in left field with some of the stuff I have painted which is why I have not revealed what the twist is at this point, because I want you to sign up for my newsletter and follow my posts in the coming days of my,