Paint a Fake Window in a Windowless Room

In my old house we had one bathroom that was in the middle of the house with no windows. It was not so nice spending time in there, as you can imagine. I finally had the idea to paint myself a window to brighten it up and make me smile. You can do it too, you don’t even have to be particularly artistic. This effect is called trompe l'oie (fool the eye) or a faux (false) window.

First decide on what view you want. My husband wanted to look at a tree, and I wanted to look at the ocean. We agreed on a tree by the sea.

Find a picture online or that you’ve taken that you’d like to look at every day as if it were the view out your window. Make it simple if you can. I found a picture that I liked online by doing an image search in Google on “‘tree and sea.” Ideally you’d like the picture to be the shape of the window, so usually in ‘portrait’ rather than landscape.

Print the image on non-photographic paper. If you have graph paper, print the picture on graph paper. If not, it’s okay, just use plain white printer paper. You’ll make your own grid. If you don’t have a computer (how are you reading this?) you can use a real photograph, but using a computer makes this easier.

Draw grid lines on your paper. Let’s say you want your fake window to be 20 inches wide by 30 inches tall (I admit I don’t remember exactly what dimensions I used but it was something like this). For this purpose don’t include the width of the window panes if you want them ‘open’ as in mine. If your printed image is 4 inches by 6 inches (size it that way if you have a graphics software) then you will draw lines one inch apart in both directions. If it’s a little shy on the vertical dimension, you can always fill in with sky at the top.

Clean the wall and draw the outline for your window. If your window is 20 inches wide, and you are planning on two window pane frames that would meet in the middle if they were real, each of them will be ten inches wide. You don’t have to be completely exact because it’s not real, but you want to give the illusion so do measure this. You can also leave a small allowance (one quarter inch each perhaps) for the hinges which would make your outer edges 30.5 inches wide by 30 inches tall. Draw the inner dimension of your window also (20 by 30 in this example).

Notice that my ‘window’ goes in the corner of the room. That was to give a special illusion of one frame being open, and also because that was the kind of space I had. Adjust your drawing around the corner while keeping your measurements correct. In this case the quarter inch hinge plus ten inch frame is on the second wall.

Use a ruler and draw your window panes. Use painter’s tape to mask the areas of the wall that you want to show through your window panes (as if it were glass), this will enhance the illusion. Tape around the outer edges of the entire window area.

Paint the ‘window area’ of the wall with primer as well as the strips of window frame ‘wood’.

Now you’re ready to paint the ‘wooden’ window sills and frames.

Use brown (and feel free to use multiple shades) to paint the window frame wood. I also went back when it was semi-dry and scratched in a wood texture (I used an old barbie brush!). Be as artistic as you want with light and shadow. It will definitely enhance the illusion later. I used a metal straight edge when doing edges, which helped keep the edges sharp.

Draw a grid on your wall in the view part of the window. In this example you will draw lines 5 inches apart in each direction because that’s the ratio to the printed picture (4 times 5 is 20, 6 times 5 is 30).

In the view area, draw an outline in each five inch square according to what is in the corresponding 1 inch square on your printed picture. If five inches is too much, you can make sub-divisions, make sure to keep the ratio correct. Just rough it in first so each square hooks up properly to the adjoining squares. This is why you want to keep your ‘view’ simple!

Once you’ve drawn the outline, feel free to add details. Remember your drawing will be painted over so have fun with it.

Paint your view. Refer to the colors on the print out, but feel free to add your own impressions and embellishments.

Once it’s all painted and dried (it took me weeks to do mine!) carefully remove the painter’s tape. You may find you need to touch up places where the paint bled under the tape.

At last! A room with a view!

Things you need:

• computer (optional)
• Printer (optional)
• graph paper (optional)
• pencil
• wall
• acrylic artist’s paints
• palette
• brushes
• ruler or straight edge
• Painter’s Tape

See more pictures here: http://www.ehow.com/how_4857877_paint-fake-window-windowless-room.html