Painted Trompe l'oeil French Doors

One of the projects in my book, Mural Magic: Painting Scenes on Furniture and Walls, is to paint closet doors to look like they are French Doors with a view to the outside. I created this theme in my daughters' room and it ended up as a how-to project in my book.



My daughters share a bedroom, so there isn't a lot of wall space by the time you added two beds, two dressers, etc. But they had a couple of sliding closet doors that were flat and perfect for painting!


Here is the other set of doors in the same room. Similar, but with a cat peeking through, waiting to be let in!
Now, here's the cool part. A customer, who bought my book, took on this project herself (just like you're supposed to do when you buy a how-to book!) and sent me the photos! Here are her closet doors, going through the same process as my book. Take a look!

Here are the doors taped off to create the grid lines.

And now she's painting the sky for the outside "view." Just paint right over the tape!

Adding details to the flower pot!


The scene is finished. Looks great! Now for the fun part.....



...pulling off the tape! The white lines that remain serve as the french door grid. You can add shading to the grids to make them seem three-dimensional.


One side removed....


Thanks Amy, for sharing your doors with us! They turned out great!