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greyhounds and deer gambol around the walls
in a stylized leafy forest. The piece won her an
Institute of Classical Architecture & Art award,
and she has now been commissioned to paint
a white and gold version for a ballroom in Texas.
As a girl, British decorative painter Lizzi
Porter was already helping her father, a cabinet
maker, stick on gold leaf in places where only
tiny fingers could reach. London-based Porter
is a graduate of the University of Oxford’s Ruskin
School of Art and the Royal College of Art. Her
skills stretch to every style of mural, as well as
wood graining, gilding, and finishes from onyx
to raw amethyst. She is also a wonderful painter
of cloudy skies, and gilvering, a slightly tarnished
silver background, is another much-called-for
“ Recent months have been consumed by projects in Dublin and Zurich,
Porter speciality. “Some people might prefer a
beach, but give me a building site with other
people, some gold leaf, and a bit of paint and we’ll have a great day,” she says.

and painting a wintry seascape mural—including a bewitching white owl—
FLOWERS AND on a German superyacht. “I find painting flowers and animals really easy,”
Le CouCou, photo by Ditte Isager; Courtesy of Ballyfin Hotel, photo by Alun Callender; Courtesy of Birley Bakery.
says Porter. “They fall off the end of my brush.” Robin Birley, owner of some of
Photos: Courtesy of Lucinda Oakes; Courtesy of Anne Harris, photo by William Abramowitz; Courtesy of

ANIMALS FALL London’s most exclusive private clubs, says: “I love working with Lizzi and
always offer her a glass of champagne when she comes to paint.” For his newest
OFF THE END OF opening, Birley Bakery in Chelsea, Porter painted some glorious Chinese red
lacquer walls—one of the few public places where her work can be seen.
Why, when so many lovely, high-quality panoramic wallpapers are readily
MY BRUSH “Specially is the word,” says Wendy Nicholls, designer at Sibyl Colefax & John
” “I have commissioned four murals in recent years and not one of them could
available, do clients still crave images specially painted on their own walls?
Fowler, one of the UK’s oldest and most prestigious interior decorating firms.

have been bought off the peg.” A mural can be “tailored to solve a problem,” she
adds, recalling a large, characterless room, which with clever mural painting,
she made work for cocktail parties, as well as a client’s candlelit dinner à deux
in front of the fire—something no ready-made paper could do. Nicholls is a
great fan of the work of Lucinda Oakes, the highly accomplished daughter of
George Oakes, who painted walls for John Fowler himself. Lucinda’s floral
trellises and gentle grisailles provide a beautiful background for rooms of great
charm across the UK, America, and the Middle East.
Wherever they call home, the clients of all these talented mural painters
have something nobody else can—something created specially for them. 0
Elfreda Pownall is an interiors and gardens writer based in London

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