Stove-top Mural Painting

It occurred to me tonight that I like to encourage people to paint on their walls, because I have not been allowed to express this part of my creativity at home... as I rent. All the years I painted for other people and came up with cool decor ideas... I could never do the same for myself.  So if you own your walls I say my mantra to you..."do it! It is so easy! It is just paint! If you change your mind, just paint over the paint!" I am showing an example of the type of small area you could paint yourself. This is the area over your cook-top in the kitchen.  If yours is covered in tlle or other non-paintable material, perhaps you have desk or nook area along your counter top you can use instead.  You supply the willingness and some artistic ability. Mine are done with Benjamin Moore latex house paint and latex glazing liquid. Yes it is just house paint!

When I would meet with my clients I always made a point to talk about the things they loved. This gives you a feel for their personal taste and passions. So if you are not sure what to paint just think about the things, places, or objects you enjoy. The owners of this kitchen loved to cook, drink wine and share these things with friends. Now that I think about it, they always had a glass a wine and a great meal for me too! A rather big glass served with laughter!

In love with Tuscany and some fine Italian restaurants, the clients wanted their space to reflect the feeling of cozy old world dining. I wanted them to look out over the Tuscan hills from a wide rough stucco window alcove. The view I painted was from a vacation photo they supplied. You cannot get that with wallpaper. After creating a trompe-l'oeil ledge, I then painted their favorite cookbooks and herbs.  I used brushes and cheesecloth to build up the layers of transparent paint glazes so the walls became old burnished stucco. Then a layer of thin satin finish poly over the finished wall mural above the cooktop to make cleaning up cooking stains easy. Now isn't that window better than a blank wall while you boil that pasta?

This next cook-top alcove actually was made of stucco! The client wanted his view of Brandywine Falls painted right onto that real stucco. Yikes! That is a tricky bit of painting! I would recommend a simpler piece of art than this realistic landscape painting if you have stucco. Since I have painted a man standing on a ladder right onto painted cinder block, and then had people ask him questions... 
I figured I could handle this one. I took lots of photos of the view outside of this modern home with the serene view and chose the one with a composition that fit the shape. I used a furry stucco roller to lay down some primer as you can see in the 'before photo'  below. 

Now check out the view over in the dining room. That is the river! Amazing! Okay back to work. Be sure to cover the area with plastic and tape out your edges where needed. Prep is so very important. The primer smoothed the wall a little, although the stucco texture was still going to be part of the equation.  So I made the rough surface work for me. As you can see in the detail below, rocks and rough texture go together very well. Dry brush over your rock base colors and then slowly build up your shapes. Don't forget to step back from your work every now and then, and check out the big picture too. For the smooth area of the water, I really had to scrub the paint into every porous crevice so you would not see the texture. You can really rip up your brushes this way! Be prepared to buy more brushes.

The shape of the stucco alcove in this kitchen determined the shape of the mural. I am sure once the other contractors set the surrounding tumbled marble tiles and granite molding into the wall the finished river painting looked both soothing and very dramatic. 

You can also paint outlets to match your mural if they are in the area you wish to paint. Prepare first with a light sanding and a good primer and then paint to disguise them. If the outlets or switches are used heavily then leave the hexagon plug, or square push button unpainted, and paint the surrounding cover plate only.

Let's walk into the living room while we are here... Wow! That is one great view. The river is just feet away! I bet the fall leaves are looking fantastic through those windows right now!

For our next cooktop area mural we are painting a trompe-l'oeil alcove with a still life inside. You can create anything you like in an alcove, the client asked for this vase and floral arrangement.

This entire kitchen is painted in a five shade glazed old world finish. The centerpiece painting under the range hood had to be in keeping with the cabinets and the overall french country feel of this room. The satin poly does not reflect the hood lights which is what I prefer. I recommend only one or two thin coats of poly. Unfortunately the flash of my old camera did reflect off the poly at the time of this photo. Still you can see that this still life and the monochromatic color scheme is a different look from the other cook-top murals.

For our final mini-mural in this post here is a very simple little effect done by painting meadow flowers, small birds, nests and butterflies on a plain creamy yellow wall. You cannot see the other vignettes in this photo, so just imagine the other birds and butterflies scattered along the wall above the counter-tops, and perched on the outlets in this kitchen. This would be the easiest solution for you, as you are only painting small little objects, on an already plain painted surface. 

This kitchen was actually painted in semi-gloss paint. I found it a bit too sticky to work with, so on all my future murals I switched to eggshell finish. Clients usually always wanted a washable wall. Eggshell is tough, but all modern latex finishes hold up if you use good paint! It's that awful builders paint that washes off or peals off under painters tape. Yuk! I like Benjamin Moore Paints because you can stand your paint stick up in them, and it stays there. It has a very thick consistency! The Benjamin Moore Latex glazes and my basket of acrylic tubes mixed just fine with the house paint. 

Many of my followers like to do collage work. Why not create a decoupaged piece of art for behind your cook top. You could do it on a framed piece of Masonite or on canvas so it is removable. So think about what you love, start saving some tear sheets for inspiration, and express yourself... you fortunate home owners!