Thursday, August 27, 2009

Grisaille Murals & Wallpapers

OK, all I can say about the entry in one of Martha Stewart's homes (above) is LOVE LOVE LOVE. I've been attracted to large-scale murals & etchings & toiles lately as you can see here.



Grisaille is a term for painting executed entirely in monochrome, usually in shades of gray or brown, particularly used in decoration to represent objects in relief. (I'm not going to lie, until I heard this term I always called them toile-like scenic murals ;) The 7 feet by 4 feet blown up Durer print on fabric that we're going with in our dining area (above) is my way of getting the look of a handpainted wall mural on a budget. (With the feel of a tapestry).



I thought I'd share with you a few beauties I've found along the way.... The image below from http://www.michaeldute.com/images_chinoiserie.htm:



This one below from House Beautiful has been floating around a lot lately biut I just can't get over it. I love the shades of green against the warm, rich browns of the furniture. perfection.



Here's one found in a restaurant by frenchbutchic.blogspot.com:


And of course, we needc to include some hand-painted wallpaper from de Gournay:

SO GORGEOUS!!!! Here's another one, below:

The image below from http://charlottesullivan.com/portfolio/murals/index.htm and I love how soft it is, receeding in the background:
Remember this one??? More of a large scale toile but I'm in love anyway. I contacted the company about this handpainted paper but never heard back. (Just as well, I'm pretty sure it's just a smidge out of our price range. ;)

The warm-toned Chinoisserie mural below is from http://kathleendeyo.wordpress.com/2008/11/ :

And here's just one more from de Gournay... Maybe one day I can replace my "tapestry" with the real deal???? Oh just so beautiful....











Hope you enjoyed these beauties. As soon as I get my "tapestry" up I'll post pics!!!

xoxo,

lauren

ps- If you didn't get a chance to weigh-in on the question in the previous post (below), I'd love to hear your thoughts!!!