Know Your Faux and Your Faux Finisher

Decorative Enhancements and Accents

Some faux finishes such as marbles and graining, are only successful if they are not recognized as being faux. The viewer needs to remain in the dark for the "faux trick" to be successful. In a trompe l'oeil the "trick of trompe l'oeil" is only accomplished if the viewer becomes aware they have been tricked.

Both a faux finish painting and a piece of trompe l'oeil art are used to create an illusion, that fools or "tricks the eye".

Trompe l'oeil, "trick the eye" in French, is a realistic painting technique often used in murals, and to create architectural details.

Frieze pronounced just like it looks- Freez. Today it's called a "border" but we COULD call "A decorative horizontal band usually placed along the upper end of a wall" a frieze! Also, any sculptured or ornamental band in a building, or on furniture, pottery, etc. .

Grisaille...greez-eye', or griz-eye'... A style of monochromatic painting usually in shades of gray, used especially for the representation of relief sculpture, or to simulate one. Achromatic painting. May refer to a gray under painting, laid in for subsequent color glazing.