Trompe Loeil Stencils

Rich wall treatments - from marble finishes to murals - are saturating central ...

From paint to paper, bold is back in wall treatments.

Whether they're punched up with fake finishes, magical murals, striking stripes or popping patterns, central Ohio walls are brimming with color and texture.

"We're finding that people want something personal," said Joy Coulter, a partner in Couture Design & Staging in New Albany. "Rather than just doing traditional paint on the walls, they want to make the room come alive."

Coulter decorated a Parade of Homes model that featured a cityscape painted on a child's bedroom wall; powder room walls with a stenciled suedelike finish; and a bedroom wall finished to resemble marble.

The parade and the season's other major home event, the Decorators' Show House, both were heavily spiced with walls splashed with colors and designs.Most treatments seen at the events are a long way from the roll-on patterns and sponge applications found at hardware and do-it-yourself stores.

"The faux finishing that started in the 1990s took over for a while," said Katie Hixon, owner of Katie Hixon Interiors in Columbus, which decorated two rooms at the show house. "Then it got so saturated that finishers had to get creative and started doing these layered treatments, which the average person can't do."

For one of his walls in Dominion Homes' Parade of Homes model, Dick Eierman applied a base stucco finish, then primed that surface before spreading two coats of metallic paint. Before the second coat dried, he applied a final color wash in a darker metallic shade, leaving a textured copper finish that shimmered with the light.

Eierman, owner of Artcraft Painting & Decorating in Columbus, has been doing more such work as homeowners move away from what he refers to as "contractor colors," running the gamut from eggshell to ivory.

"I can paint regular walls," Eierman said. "But it's much more fun to do this."

Other decorative painters also say their phones have been ringing with clients interested in something beyond beige.

"We've just been crazy busy this year," said Sheri Miller, founder of the Painted Room in Westerville, which added decorative touches to the M/I Homes and Compass Homes models in the parade. "We've had quite a bit of interest in decorative paint finishes."

Antje Zwink, owner of Bellallusions, a Columbus painting company that decorated the Tuckerman Home Group model at the parade, agreed that demand is picking up after some slow years. But, she added, Columbus homeowners continue to walk on the mild side of bold.

Mural Painting: Trompe L'Oeil Murals Using Stencils

With the advent of laser-cut plastic stencils, home decorators and hobbyists can now find hundreds of inexpensive and easy-to-use stencils for creating stunning illusions on walls, floors and ceilings. This guide provides the instruction they need to use these stencils with skill and confidence. Step-by-step, it covers the necessary skills, tools and techniques required to create realistic visual effects in a matter of hours. After learning to combine stencils, shields and tape with simple paint techniques, readers are guided through a series of preliminary tryouts and small scale projects. Readers will learn how to: select projects to match specific rooms, buy the proper equipment; prepare surfaces, manipulate stencils, and apply paint. The final section provides more advanced instruction on layout, planning and perspective for large-scale projects.

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