Painter Girl

Merry Christmas!

Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas!  Back soon.......

Traveling Wunda Size

I love using this water based sizing for leafing and when I use foils. The only problem I seem to have with this product is obtaining it in the Winter months.  It cannot freeze and it is nowhere to be found in the Boston/metro Boston area, so I have to have it shipped from other sources.  That works fine during the warmer months, but now we are into Winter here in Massachusetts and the distributors of Wunda Size cannot guarantee that it will not freeze, even if shipped overnight.  I can't blame them.  Who knows where it will sit during its' travel? 

I have a dining room ceiling to silver leaf the week between Christmas and New Years and I only have a small amount of Wunda Size left. This past weekend I knew I was traveling to New York City, so decided to see where I could obtain Wunda Size there.  I found the best source to be Sepp Leaf Products, which was very close to where I was staying.  I bought 2 gallons, one for the job and one to get me through any other jobs I may have during the Winter months. 

First, let me tell you about Sepp.  It is located in a beautiful building in the heart of NYC and you are buzzed in, like a fine jewelery store.  All the leaf samples are on display, hanging on the walls, like fine pieces of art, and they are truly breath taking.  The staff is very friendly more than happy to answer any and all questions.   I could not linger because the BF was double parked out front, since we were just arriving in the city and had not yet ditched our car in a lot.  I was so thrilled to have these 2 gallons in tow, saving me further aggravation trying to figure out how I would obtain this sizing for my job.  The gallons sat proudly on the bureau in our hotel room throughout the weekend.  

In case you did not hear, there was a blizzard in NYC over the weekend, so by the time we were to depart on Sunday we were faced with some travel challenges.  I was taking the train back to Boston, while the BF was continuing on to Montreal to pick up his daughter at McGill.  Being very protective of my Wunda Size, I decided I would put 1 gallon in my suitcase and the other would travel to Montreal in the car, with strict instructions that it must not be left in the car! I originally packed both of the gallons in my suitcase and was having my clothes go via Montreal, but I could not lift the suitcase with the 2 gallons over my head and knew I would have to do this on the train.  (Even the one gallon in the suitcase was a struggle, but some nice man gave me a hand.)  Due to the storm, I had to wait 4 hrs for my train to leave Penn Station.  Like everyone else in the station, I had to use my suitcase for a seat and found my gallon of Wunda Size made for a sturdy platform!  I was a bit worried that it would open and I'd have one heck of a mess in my suitcase, but I put it in a plastic bag first and luckily, no unhappy incident occurred, other than a permanent dent from my butt sitting on it for so long!

Susan Siefer and I will be on the ceiling job shortly with lots of pics to show. :-)

Decorating My Trees

This year I have made the bold decision NOT to have a big Christmas Tree.  I hate to sound like an old curmudgeon, but I just hate the whole Christmas Tree process.  Typically, the day I choose to go buy my Tree, it is the coldest, blustery, most bitterly cold and snowy day imaginable.  I sift through all the trees and finally find the one I absolutely love or more likely... just grab one because I'm too cold and miserable to endure another minute of the process.  Once home, I have to untie it from my roof rack, lug into the house and struggle with getting it to stand upright in the tree stand.  My front porch, entryway and living room, now covered with pine needles, then beckons me to spend a fair amount of time cleaning up.  I usually put the lights on and leave the ornaments for the next day.  Putting on the lights... that whole process is enough to drive any sane person crazy!  Day two is spent lugging all the boxes of ornaments up from my basement, putting them on the tree, and then carrying all the empty boxes back down to the basement.  More pine needles every where, more time spent cleaning up.  It's just not that Norman Rockwell scene in my home when it comes to The Tree.  My daughter is now 24 and has her own apartment, but I have to say, even when she was living under my roof, her participation in all of this was very limited!  She would hang a few ornaments and then suddenly disappear until the job was done.  When I informed her of my decision not to have a big Tree this year, she was quite disappointed.  I was not buying into her sad looking blue eyes though.  Heck, she has her own apartment and can put up her own tree. 

So, this is what I did.  I bought this cute little live tree at my local Home Depot.  A real steal for $16.99.  There, I also found a strand of lights that only had 5 light bulbs on it.  Surely I could deal with 5 lights. :-)  Once home, I went down to the basement and just pulled out a few ornaments.  The annual 'lugging of the boxes' routine up and down the basement stairs was not an issue.  Very nice.  Ten minutes and I was done!

I then decided that since I already had my Birch Trees painted on my walls, I would hang some bells on them.  I used these removable hooks made by 3M.  It says they will not damage the surface when removed, so I'm giving them a try.  If they do end up taking off a little paint, I can just touch it up.  I'm lovin' these bells!  It gives the Trees a whole new, festive look!

My real Tree does not seem to have much of a scent at all, which is the one thing I really do miss about not having a big Christmas Tree.  I have a Pine scented candle that I light though and that seems to be solving that problem. 

Now typically, next weekend, the weekend right before Christmas, would have been spent in Christmas Tree Hell.   Instead, I will be heading off to NYC with the bf to enjoy a relaxing few days.  I'll return rested and relaxed, ready to welcome and entertain my family and friends.

Repair Work

A few days ago, I gave you a tour of a job I did in 2003.  I was revisiting this condo to do a little repair work.

A crack had developed on this wall and my finish had blistered and cracked.  Luckily, I had kept some good records from this job.  The condo unit had been sold to someone new shortly after I completed the original work and my name and contact info were passed on to the new owner.   The finish was done with LusterStone, which is very easy to repair.

 I scraped and sanded the area and applied some patch compound.  Once dry, I feathered on the original base paint color used under the Lusterstone. 

To speed things up, I used a blow dryer between the layering.

Once the base paint was dry, it was easy to feather in the LusterStone with a small Japan Scraper.

Once done, it all blended quite nicely!

Oh, I almost forgot...

Here's a rare shot of me NOT wearing my painter's overalls while I work!  I knew this job would only take me an hour or less, and was off to do something non-paint related after, so I donned my apron instead!  Of course, I did manage to get some of the Lusterstone on my sweater sleeve :-(, but it washed out.

Don't Miss this Week's Web Chat with Helen Moris

That zanny and talented redhead, Helen Moris, will be inspiring all of us this Thursday, December 10th, with some fabulous wall ideas.  The Web Chat will be held 1 PM (WET) which translates to 8 AM (EST) here in the states.  There is a handy time calculator here to convert this time for your time zone.  House to Home will be hosting this Web Chat.  For more details, click here.  Helen, who took this great photograph of you, so I may credit??? I will be in my car driving to my job site at 8 AM so will not be able to participate but will check in to see how it all went! 

Revisiting an Old Job

Back in 2003, I had the pleasure to do quite a bit of work in a gorgeous 2 bedroom condo.  At that time, I was hired by a gay couple who had just bought this condo, gutted it and spent a good year doing the renovation.  I never took photos of the work I did there because when I finished, the place was still very much under construction and taking photos seemed pointless.  Sadly, the couple split up almost immediately after the renovation was completed and the unit was sold.  I learned all of this from the new owner, my Mystery Client.  My contact information was passed onto this new owner and this is the second time she has called me to come and do some repair work. 

I call her my Mystery Client because we have never met, only emailed and spoken on the phone.  Her main residence is in Brooklyn, NY and this Boston condo is an apartment she uses only occasionally.  She seems like a really fun and great lady, so I hope we do meet in the future.

Before I go into detail about the repair work I performed, I thought I'd take you on a little tour of this fabulous unit.  What you can't see, is the view of Boston from this 18th floor apartment!  This picture shows the entry/foyer area. The ceiling is a floating ceiling with rope lighting all around the perimeter.  I did a galvanized steel finish on the ceiling and a Mother of Pearl finish on the walls. 

The door was done using a brushed silver finish.

The entry opens into a large dining/living space.  Here, the Mother of Pearl finish continues on all walls.  The recessed alcove was done with a CB2 shade of green paint.

 

The same finish continues from the dining/living space into this hallway.  To the right is a small kitchen space and straight ahead is the Master Bedroom. To the left is another small hallway, a 2nd bedroom that is being used as den and a fabulous bathroom.

This is the Master Bedroom where a brown Linen Weave was done on the walls.

I was here to repair some damage in the Den, as well as to repaint the bathroom ceiling because the upstairs neighbor had had a leak.  More about the repairs... next post.

Updated Pics of My Back Hall Project

Well, here we are in December!  As I look around my house, I see many projects that I had hoped to get to this year, but time has just run out.  I am happy to say I was able to finish my Back Hall Makeover though and I think I'll just end the year with that home project.  I'll be moving onto Christmas crafts for the month of December.

Back in October, I began working on this Back Hall, which is MY main entry into my house.  Most guests use my front door, so this area had been sadly neglected.

Here you see the left side of the Hall, with the Before picture on the left:

Work done:

ripped up tile, painted plywood subfloor

put down a thin yoga mat for a runner

painted all woodwork and 2 doors in a charcoal black

painted door to outside, grey and etched window panes

painted a few free form flowers on small wall space

used a texture paint on walls (to hide cracks!) and painted green

The door is steel and had been painted once before, (Left).  Etching the glass allows some light to come in but also gives me a little privacy and I no longer need a window treatment.

A closer look at an etched pane. 

The back side of the door into my kitchen from this Hall was painted with Chalkboard paint.  I have a blank monthly calendar template painted on the top portion of the door and just erase and change monthly. 

  

Glory, Part 2

Today's post will continue with the work Susan Siefer and I recently completed in the Entryway at Glory restaurant in Andover, Massachusetts.

This small space, approximately 5' x 5' with an 8' high ceiling, needed a little pizzaz.  It is the main entrance to this hip restaurant and we wanted to give patrons a glimpse of what other delights wait for them inside.  We only had two full walls to work with, the other 2 have large doors.

The interior door was already painted gold, but was a bit too vibrant.  We toned it down a bit, using Stain & Seal.  This gave the door a rich, antiqued look and highlighted the gorgeous carving.

The walls are rough barn board panels.  They were given a slight texture with Soft Tex and a metallic glaze was added.

We also added some faux screw heads, making the boards look like they are screwed to the wall in small sections, rather than the original long planks. We used some patterned, silver hologram foils on the screws. (thanks Melanie, for this idea concept, which I have adapted and used several times now!)
Now, when patrons open the first exterior door to this tiny entryway, they are greeted with a little sparkle on the softly glazed metallic walls and this magnificently carved door.  It's a small space that packs a lot of punch!

Happy International Overalls Day!

For all you lovers of the bib overall, bibfessor, has rallied a movement around the world, declaring today, November 20th, the very first International Overalls Day!

In honor of this glorious day, I thought I'd show you that I am still sporting my oldest, rattiest, paint splattered overalls.  I just cannot give them up.  They are so easy to throw on, could not be more comfortable, and at this point, are truly broken in. 

You can see, I have yet to fix my broken buckles and misshapen hardware.  Maybe today in honor of International Overalls Day, I will treat my overalls to some new hardware!  As you may recall, I did purchase some new overalls earlier this year, but I must admit, I've worn them rarely.  The material is soft and they come with some great features like removable knee pads and lots of pockets, but they are just not broken in enough to feel really comfortable.  They also shrunk a lot in the length when I washed them, so now will have to remedy that.  For now, I keep throwing them in the wash every time I do laundry, in hopes that some day I can add them to my rotation. 

Whether you paint, garden, farm or just love living in your overalls, I wish all my overall brother and sisters out there a very happy International Overalls Day!

Oh btw, these pictures were taken in my own kitchen.  The stencil used on the wall is from the Stencil Library, Sticky Weed.

Glory Restaurant

Susan Siefer and I have been busy giving Glory, a restaurant in Andover, MA a little makeover.  There are four different spaces within this restaurant that we have designed some fun finishes and eye catching elements.  Two areas have just been completed.  Today I am featuring the alcove space in one of the dining rooms.

This is a view into this dining room from the adjacent dining room space.  We took a damask design and enlarged it to an overscale size. 

 

We put this same design on a little used, emergency exit door too.  the design was stenciled on the wood part of the door and etched onto the glass window.  Here you can see our work in progress.  A masking film was first applied to the window area.  We then traced and cut out the design right on the window.  EtchAll cream was used to etch the glass surface.

Next, I will feature the small entry we did here at Glory!