Day 41 ~ WALLPAPER-A-DAY "Oz Chinois"

Oz Chinois

This guest post by Lena Fransioli and Brooke Sheldon sheds some light on the Oz Chinois.

We’ve developed an obsession with Pinterest lately and have begun many boards that reflect our love of art and design. As we search the "pinterest-sphere", we often run across a Zoe Design mural that we painted 15 years ago. The photo is often labeled "chinoiserie" by those who pin it and we, for lack of a better term, have done the same. 

We were contracted by the owners of this huge old place on the water in a small seaside town in Massachusetts. They wanted a mural above the wainscoting in a niche off the formal dining room.

The dining room is connected, spatially, to the great hall and the grand staircase. The niche off the dining room has a hidden door that goes into a butlers pantry and on through to the kitchen. Our task, disguise the hidden door and paint the walls in a decorative manner that tied in the colors of main living area.

Looking for inspiration, we decided to pull our colors from some large scale tapestries that were hanging on the walls of the grand staircase. They were mainly teal, forest green, and sepia. So, we had our color palette and the idea of doing something "tapestry-like". Now, we just had to fit it into a short horizontal space on three walls. 

This is where the fun begins. Drawing on our art history backgrounds, we looked through our reference books for ideas. Lena chose 17th century “Indo-Chinese Scenic” tapestries for reference such as “The Concert” found in the Metropolitan Museum’s Collection. We loved the goats, the odd trees and plants, the swans.  Using that idea, we designed a mural with these elements and tied it together with a strong border. The fabric with tassels at the top was a way of dealing with the odd space.

The resulting scenic wallpaper measures 25' 3" long by 8' 2" high.

Day 40 ~ WALLPAPER-A-DAY "Coral-BA1037"

Coral-BA1037

This coral has a maximum repeat of 38”.

Day 39 ~ WALLPAPER-A-DAY "Met"

Met   

This pattern is based on the "Studiolo" wood-inlaid ceiling at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The studiolo was commissioned around 1476 by the duke of Urbino, Federico da Montefeltro. 

Our client wanted a painted representation of this wood inlay between the old beams in their great room in the Palm Springs area of CA. We were able to paint a section and reproduce it as wallpaper. A win for our necks and a win for the client who saved a substantial amount of time and money.

In the images above the repeat is 13.5” and the pattern can be expanded in all directions if you don’t have beams to contain it.

Day 38 ~ WALLPAPER-A-DAY "Woodland"

Woodland (DE5410)

There are two versions of this pattern.

Woodland_2 at 75% has an 11” repeat.

Woodland_3 at 33% has a 4” x 9” repeat.

Day 37 ~ WALLPAPER-A-DAY "Dutch Metal (3x3)"

Dutch Metal (3x3) SB2020

This pattern is from the same acid etched dutch metal leaf (gold) which I featured in yesterday's post, with a twist. It has a smaller repeat and a more graphic look. It is also amazing when printed on mylar and the repeat is 10".

Day 36 ~ WALLPAPER-A-DAY "Dutch Metal (Layered)"

Dutch Metal (Layered) SB2020

This acid etched dutch metal leaf (gold) is available in a max 50” repeat, though we like it best when reproduced so each square of gold is about 7”. It looks especially amazing when printed on mylar.

Detail

Day 35 WALLPAPER-A-DAY "Passion Flower"

Passion Flower (DE2811B & DE2813)

These two patterns were created from a fragment of antique wallpaper found in Stockholm. 

(DE2811B) Detail

The repeat on (DE2811B) is 26.9” x 43.3”

 (DE2813) Detail

The repeat on (DE2813) is 15.4” x 41.3”.