From textile fragment to painted damask finish; Inspiration is everywhere!
Stencil Painting Inspiration
A textile fragment from the 13th century sparked an idea to use the design as a large-scaled stencil painting to create a custom damask modern wallpaper.
This is how the vision became a reality…
In the summer of 2012, Arteriors painted another of one of our dream projects: a Maxfield Parrish inspired mural for a new luxury condo in an old Victorian in historic Back Bay, Boston.
The inspiration for the Parrish styled mural in our clients’ powder room was a fragment of an old landscape mural on the walls in the lobby of the building. It was, unfortunately, too far damaged to repair and recreate. The contractor simply painted over the remains, thus creating a design vacuum. The lobby’s clean but bland first impression for this multi-million dollar condo building was not matching the luxury homes inside.
And so, a perfect design storm was brewing … When we were asked to come up with ideas for the walls above the paneling, a painted damask pattern based on the brave little lion textile seemed like the perfect answer. Lucky for us the home-owners agreed.
How did this 4 foot image of a lion under a palm tree become the generously scaled damask pattern? Arteriors still uses old-school methods of gridding the original picture of the textile fragment. Then the design was transferred to a cartoon drawing on a scaled grid that was approx. 40” high. The height of the wall and the dimensions of the upper and lower border had to be carefully considered first before determining the height of the main image.
The drawings were then traced onto mylar and the bridges for stenciling were added. We cut 4 stencils of both the lion/tree image, 2 of the leaf border and 2 more of the upside-down bird with a tree branch.
If there was more time available, we would have sent them off to be laser cut – a far easier route that saves fingers from blisters!
The Arteriors system of a custom damask finish is to first apply a metallic paint finish as the background. Then the stencil pattern is painted over all in a complementary color with a flat sheen. We were able to spray paint the stencil pattern this time, which is not always an option, so the rest of the project went quickly.
Much like the original mural, this one-of-kind painted damask custom wallpaper creates a grand and welcoming entrance.
We can’t wait for our next custom damask project! Keep your eyes open because INSPIRATION IS EVERYWHERE. Send your ideas for stencil painting to arteriors@rcn.com and we will create your unique “modern wallpaper” look!
