 | Deb Drager
owner of Drager Design Studio (D2), began her career as a fashion and product illustrator for a department store. Deb became a certified faux artisan in 1993. From decorative finishes to custom murals, D2 has coordinated projects with developers, builders, architects, designers, and homeowners in residential and commercial settings. D2/E2, a division of Drager Design, offers instruction and workshops in applying and achieving distinctive architectural finishes. You can contact Deb at (316) 269-3600, or by E-mail at deb@ddrager.com |
Interior Decorating
2003-06-01 12:47:00
'Faux' painting
: What is 'faux painting' insofar as interior decorating is concerned?
ANSWER: Faux means, "fake" in French, and when applied to the decorative arts, it is a term used to define creating a painted surface to appear like something else. Wood becomes Marble… Metal doors look like Wood… Walls can look like Aged Plaster…Ceilings look like Clouds… Plastic resin appears to be Stone… Concrete looks like Copper Patina…It is the art of illusion. Faux painting is a "catch-all" phrase being used today as a descriptive for a larger category of special effects with paint, or decorative or specialty painting. It encompasses many effects or finishes that include glazing with colors & the appearance of texture to actual 3-dimensional materials that create depth and texture patterns. It's becoming popular to call anything but straight-paint a "faux finish". In Architectural plans, it is specked as a "Special Finish". Examples of these special finishes may be described as such: Faux Marble: with a glazing medium and transparent colors to be executed on fiberglass columns, Venetian Plaster: a material with marble-dust and is troweled on and polished to imitate real marble, over sheet-rock walls, Faux Gold Foil: simulated foil metal sheets / or paint that is applied on a barrel-vault ceiling, Faux Stone: using textural materials to simulate 3-dimensional brick applied on foyer area walls. Using paint to create a wall surface to look like some other texture or material has become very popular in today's decorating schemes. It can hide a multitude of sins on flawed walls, it can create depth and drama and it can be changed as easily as "painting-over-it" when you get tired of it. Trompe L'Oeil, (another French word) is another term used quite often when talking about this genre of painting and means "to fool the eye" and is a term used to describe murals and scenes that create the appearance of windows in solid walls, openings to other architectural dimensions and flowers, lattice, people, statutes, gardens, etc…scenes that are rendered to create an illusion of more going on in a space. These murals are another form of a faux finish applied in decorating. Many of the above finishes can not only be applied in interior situations, but there are several products with today's technology that take this art-form outside to exterior surfaces, patios, porches, decks, terraces and gazebos. Practically any surface that paint can be adhered to can be manipulated by artisans or painters to simulate an illusion of textures, surfaces and realities!
