DECORATIVE MINI MURALS YOU CAN PAINT

Trompe l'oeil gives that realistic 'wow' effect. Murals can brighten any room in your home, yet tackling a whole wall can be an intimidating prospect. For a quick and easy solution, start small with one of these ten down-to-size projects. Paint a quaint one-room schoolhouse on a notebook cover, dress up a plain window shade with summer garden blossoms complete with fake handle at the bottom, surprise your friends with a beautiful Siamese cat perched above a window frame, paint an artistic scene on top of a box, or choose a hat box with heavy cardboard construction to produce a Tuscan scene complete with lilies, ionic columns, Italian stucco by mixing glaze and sand, a decorative frieze and sculpture against a green Tuscan landscape. For each stage there is very careful painting instructions, templates and patterns that may be hand-traced or copied with details of whether enlarging to 200% or in the case of a stunning bottle green grandfather clock with decorative face and a tiny mouse on top, enlarge a further 200% and a third time at 128% to bring them up to full size. One of our favourites is the trompe l'oeil wall shelf, a decorative blue and white plate, clear glass vase with yellow flowers and two lemons all atop a realistic looking green bookshelf. Bunnies and kingfishers, a goldfinch photograph frame and a shaker clock are among the other projects with everything about materials and techniques covered. 144pp in extra large softback, colour illus., tips and mini demos.