Could it be that the great Mexican architect Luis Barrigan created a study with an unexpected, roughly-painted rather expressionistic trompe l’oeil window to brighten a windowless space? It LOOKS that way in this image we found at Aqqindex. It got us casting about for abstract optical illusions we might employ at home, the opposite of the usual trompe l’oeil that tries to create the most realistic illusion possible. We found some very cool ideas.
 At the London Design Festival 2015Studio Toogood created an autobiographical “drawing room” filled with furniture, clothing and personal objects that were, literally, drawn onto big swaths of canvas. Although the rendering is rough, the perspective is realistic. There are a lot of elements we love…

Drawn-Room 1 Toogoods Dezeen

…especially, the staircase,  the cracked open casement window and the rug, which appears to be ripped, drawn-on canvas…

Drawn-Room 2 Toogoods Dezeen  

Artist Damien Gilley creates complex optical illusions from strips of colored tape. The illusion below gives something of a blueprint for how we might do it in our own space by just taking one or two elements

Mark Woods Photography
Mark Woods Photography

For years we’ve been mulling creating the illusion of a higher ceiling in our rather low-ceiling space. What if we applied Gilley-esque shapes to the ceiling to open it up…

The rectangular frame around these classic trompe l’oeil clouds would do the trick…

paragondesignonline.com
paragondesignonline.com

…as though we envisioned Barragan’s seemingly-painted window as a skylight…

Damien Gilley image by Mark Woods Photography

If you’ve found illumination, joy, or inspiration in this post, please consider supporting Improvised Life. It only takes a minute to make a secure donation that helps pay our many costs. A little goes a long way towards helping Improvised Life continue to live ad-free in the world.

Support Improvised Life ♥

One thought on “Optical Illusion Interiors Out of Paint or Tape

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *