Heritage Faux Finishes

Artists would apprentice for 10 years or more with a master faux painter before working on their own. Great recognition was awarded to artists who could actually trick viewers into believing their work was the real thing. Faux painting has continued to be popular throughout the ages, but experienced major resurgences in the neoclassical revival of the nineteenth century and the Art Deco styles of the 1920s. During the recent history of decorative painting, faux finishing has been mainly used in commercial and public spaces, but is also in demand for traditional heritage homes.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, faux finishing saw another major revival, as wallpaper began to fall out of fashion. At this point, faux painting became extremely popular in home environments, with high-end homes leading the trend. While it can be quite expensive to hire a professional faux finisher, many faux painting methods are thought to be simple enough for a home owner to create with a little instruction, However, they fail to take important details like corners into consideration and end up with a do-it-yourself looking job. The finishes we use are as simple as oil glaze, oil-based paint, penetrol or as complicated as applications with peacock feathers and four different colours applied using four different techniques.

Many people are attracted to the simplicity of changing a faux (fake) finish, as it can be easily painted over compared with the trouble of removing wallpaper. The trouble with removing wallpaper came when people who had no formal training did not follow proper procedures during preparation such as priming with an oil-based primer and following that with another product which makes the paper come off relatively easy.