We commissioned local artist, Patrick Kirwin to design and paint a 20×80-foot mural on the outside of our shop.
The idea to paint a mural came from my niece (Tom’s daughter) Sophie, who thought we should do something fun and eye-catching with the outside of the building. Something that would celebrate local craftsmanship and the community we’ve been part of for generations.
Our current shop is in the Birchmere Music Hall building at 3701 Mt Vernon Ave, which is known for its music-influenced murals around the main entrance. We hope our mural will add a little whimsy to the day for anyone who comes our way and sees it.
What Patrick Is Painting
Rust Construction has been working in Alexandria since the 1920s and 1930s and we wanted to pay homage to our history. We’ve had offices and shops in different parts of the city over the years and we built some of the warehouse and industrial spaces that used to be more common in the city.
Patrick is using a technique called trompe-l’œil, which means “deceive the eye” in French to turn our plain looking concrete block shop exterior into something that looks like an Old Town Alexandria brick warehouse. Basically, he’s painting in details for windows, doors and brickwork to make a flat wall look like an old building.
There will be decorative brickwork, a faux loading dock with a view into an imagined warehouse space, an old-style doorway, a faded Rust Construction sign and a couple of carpenters from different periods in Alexandria’s history.
Influenced by WPA murals of the 1930s, one carpenter, from the 1930s, will work in the loading dock on a large belt driven bandsaw and another carpenter will be painted standing on a ladder to hang a sign that says “enter here” for our front door.
Patrick has also been looking at old photos of Alexandria and using details from local buildings, including brickwork, as references for the mural.
September 2026: Wall Prep
To prepare for Patrick to start his mural we had to scrape old loose paint from the concrete block wall of the warehouse and paint primer on the wall. We also patched some holes in the blocks.
Week 1 – (10/5 -10/9): Patrick Starts
Because of some paint material delays, Patrick had to begin with the lower portion of the wall first, including the stone base. Once the paint for the brick background arrived, he was able to start laying in the main wall color across a much larger section and start to add in lines to create the illusion of brick.
It’s been interesting to watch the faux technique and how Patrick layers paints of varying transparency to create the illusion of topography and depth in the wall.
We’ll Keep This Updated
We’ll add more photos and updates here as Patrick works on the mural, and eventually share the finished result.
We thought this would be a nice addition to the building, but the journey, the action of the work, is where the fun is. If you are so inclined, please feel free to drive by our shop (3701B Mt Vernon Ave.) and check is this work of art in process. We’re happy to have Patrick making something that people can enjoy.
You can also follow the progress on our Instagram.
Sam Rust