Murals, lettering & gilding · Bracken Wharf harbour quarter
No vinyl. No printed panels. A mural is drawn on the wall it belongs to, in paint that outlives the building’s next three owners, by someone who will stand behind the drawing with a brush in twenty years’ time.
Commissions from $1,400 · shopfront letters from $190 a line · gold leaf by quotation · studio@wrenvale.example
The autumn board holds two mural slots and one shopfront month — drawings are approved at full scale, in chalk, before any paint is opened. (555) 927-5518.
Services
Three commissions we take
Murals & feature walls
Drawn on the wall, scaled from a sketch by grid and by eye, in artist-grade acrylics sealed for scrubbing. Nurseries that grow with the child, dining rooms with a horizon in them, café walls that people photograph before they photograph the food.
Hand-lettered shopfronts
Ghost signs renewed and new ones written the old way: lettering brushed in sign enamel, gold leaf laid on size, and a shadow line no vinyl plotter will ever manage, because ours is a decision made at full size, on the glass, in the light of the street it faces.
Gilding & glass work
Water gilding and oil-size leaf for windows, mirrors and signs that catch the street. Leaf is laid a sheet at a time, burnished or left matt, and backed to last — a gilded letter outlives the shop that commissioned it, which is why harbour streets keep finding ours.
The method
From sketch to sealer
Every commission runs the same rails — the only variable is how long the drawing takes, and the drawing is allowed to take its time.
The brief & the wall
We measure the wall and the light it gets, talk through what the room or the street is for, and leave with a sketch. The sketch is revised until you would frame it.
The cartoon, at full scale
The approved drawing is projected or gridded onto the wall at actual size — the moment to change anything is while it is still only chalk. Nothing is painted until the full-scale line reads right from across the street.
The painting
Backgrounds blocked, colour built in layers, and the fine work brushed by hand over as many days as the detail needs. Sign enamels outside, artist acrylics inside, both pigmented for the decade rather than the deadline.
The seal & the book
Murals sealed in a matte varnish that shrugs off scrubbing, letters checked from every angle of approach, and every commission photographed for the studio book — your wall, in the next edition, whether or not you sign it.
Rates
The commission card
Drawn prices for the commissions we take most; the wall decides the rest, and the quote names the wall. Distances beyond a morning’s drive are on the card, honestly.
Mural, per square metre$210
Designed, drawn at scale, painted and sealed
Nursery or child’s room, fixed$1,400
Design included; a palette that grows with them
Dining or feature wall, fixed$1,900
One wall, one horizon, design included
Shopfront letters, per line$190
Sign enamel, any typeface we can draw better
Gold-leaf letters, per line$340
Laid on size, burnished, backed to last
Ghost-sign renewalfrom $1,600
Traced from what remains, repainted in kind
Window lettering, seasonal$260
Removable gum arabic or permanent enamel
The studio book shootincluded
Your commission documented; one print given
Every wall below was drawn on the wall it lives on — the studio book runs to three editions.
The wall
The studio book, open
Word of mouth
Three walls, three owners
Ottilie drew our nursery mural at full scale in chalk first, and adjusted the whale twice while we watched. Our daughter is seven now and the mural has grown with her exactly as promised — the horizon line is hers to grow into.
The vinyl quotes were cheaper and looked it. The painted letters have shadows you can feel, gold that catches the evening light down the whole street, and three winters on they have outlasted two neighbouring vinyl signs already.
A mural felt like an extravagance until the first guest stopped talking mid-sentence. It is the room now. The sealing has survived two dinner parties and one collie.
The chalk-first clause
Nothing is painted until the full-scale drawing is approved on the wall itself, and the approval is yours, in chalk. If the finished commission departs from the approved drawing in any way that is ours, it is repainted at our cost — a studio that draws at full scale first can afford that promise.
Fair questions
Why painted letters instead of vinyl?
Because vinyl is cut at any size for free and shows it: flat shadow, uniform line, five winters of peeling. Painted lettering is drawn for the wall it faces, in the light of the street, and can be gilded, shaded and repaired. It costs more and looks like it — the harbour quarter keeps voting for it.
What paint survives outside?
Sign enamels and mineral systems with the UV package a harbour street demands, primed to the substrate and sealed against the salt coming off the water. The ghost signs we renew a century on are the argument — good enamel outlives the shop that ordered it.
Can you match an existing mural or sign?
Trace and match, yes: we photograph what survives, reconstruct the drawing from period records where they exist, and repaint in kind. The 1908 Oyster Shed sign was renewed that way, and the conservation officer wrote the approval in one read.
How long does a mural take?
A fixed feature wall is two to four days of painting after a week of drawing; a full room is a fortnight. The chalk stage catches every change cheaply, which is exactly why the painting days are calm ones.
Do you take commissions outside Bracken Wharf?
Within a morning’s drive for murals, anywhere for shopfronts and gilding — letters travel better than walls. Distance is quoted honestly on the card, and the studio book already has walls in four counties.
Open a commission.
Tell us the wall and what it is for. A sketch comes back inside a week, the chalk drawing is approved on the wall itself, and no paint is ordered until you love the line. studio@wrenvale.example