How to make a room look bigger

Tropical Mural

  • Choose a templateFor the bathroom I got a picture (in this case from the Interior Designer) and I used it as a template;  it was a tropical scene which the client liked a lot.

    Step 2
    Make the draft (design)

You can do a little drawing or use your painting computer programs such as Photoshop. I always take a picture of the blank wall and copy and paste the mural elements into the photograph. For the tropical mural I took some elements of the photo and combined them with other ideas like hibiscus flowers, tropical plants and so on.
I will show you a detailled draft in my next article.

Step 3
Paint the mural
If the mural needs a light coating you would do this first. For the tropical landscape I used a white surface because of the different colors (sky and forest)
Then you do the outlines; I use charcoal – I would not recommend pencil or any other paint.
Fill in hte background colors for the sky and forest, so a foliage green and sky blue which I . Use light colors and systematically add the details. You can do them freehand or project them. For this mural I used the projector only for the plant named bird of paradise in the right corner.

Step 4
The mural’s details would be added at the end, some highlights, deeper tones and little lines here and there. It has to come alive.
After it was finished I sealed the mural with a matt finish to protect it from moisture.

Faux Finishes for any rooms

Faux finish with ornamental drawings
Faux finish with ornamental drawings

Faux Finishes are not out!
If you might have thought that this traditional wall finish is not trendy any more, you must know that it is still an option to bring life into your home.
I have done many faux finishes in homes which were completely white.  All the walls. The hallway, the bathrooms – white, white, white with no contrast at all.  

For a mansion in Bel Air I faux finishes these 3 niches in the hallway and added French style ornamental drawings inside.

Antique Scroll on hand painted papyrus

Antique scroll  Mural

Antique scroll Mural

This is a hand painted antique scroll on papyrus. The paper is not real paper,  I faux finished the texture, so it is all painted! My client gave me some quotes she liked which were rounding up the whole mural.

The mural is in the entry way on a wall which connects kitchen and living room.

African Mural with Giraffe and Zebras

African Mural for a Child's bedroom

African Mural for a Child's bedroom

Before

Before

Panda Bear Mural – Let the Children play

blank wall
the wall was painted with non-toxic paint in a light-green before I applied the mural.
Mural for a NurserylI I did the panda bears for a twins nursery in La Canada on 2 walls.

Take a bath in a tropical setting – Bathroom Mural Porter Ranch

tropical muralTropical Mural

This is London – Mural

In the 50s Miroslav Sasek created awesome books with illustrations about big cities like London or NewYork. His books became very popular because they are easy to read and the pictures are just cute. Nowadays the books are attracting more interest then ever. they have become again very popular for moms or becoming moms.
In 2007 I was asked to do the first mural for a nursery after one of his books “This is London”. My client wanted certain pictures from the book and one feature was to do a window mural with the view on Big Ben and Westminster.

Another feature of the nursery mural was a border above the bed. I took the most out of the book and added some different looks like the Harrods bag or the punk with the guitar.

On the opposite side of the bed I painted a red bus which is so typical of London adn it is a MUST to have one. The girls in the line are wearing a school uniform as it was common (and it still is).

If you want to see more of these kind of murals and other themes go to http://www.boysandgirlsmurals.com/
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