Painter Girl

Basement Stairwell Makeover

I realize this is far from the most glamorous makeover I've ever posted, but it is a huge improvement for my basement stairwell, the gateway to my studio, aka The Dungeon. I'm a bit embarrassed to admit, but I had never touched this stairwell in the 20+ years I have lived here, safe to sweep the stairs occasionally. I thought I had taken at least one "before" pic, but now cannot locate, so you will just have to take my word for it, that it was truly dark and dingy.

I had a zero budget for this project, so started by mixing a few left over paints together to make a peachy/light orange color.  The walls and slanted ceiling are in very bad condition, so I did the best I could with the prep work and joint compound.  I applied 2 coats of this paint to walls and ceiling.  I had all of these hooks and storage units already, so just cleaned them up and rehung in new locations.  

 

As you can see, only the top portion of the walls are actual walls to paint.  The bottom half is stone block from our foundation on the right, and some miscellaneous wood slats on the left.  I decided to keep this rustic look and not try to glamorize in any way. The ceiling is stenciled with my new favorite stencil from Royal Design Studio, the Large Endless Moorish Circles.  I used this previously for my dining room Roman Shades and am currently stenciling some drapes for my living room with it.  

 

Here's a closer look.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I did find one "before" pic, of my sad door.  I had a cat door here before, and since I no longer have cats and have no intention of acquiring any soon, I decided to remove and board up.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Painting it all Linen White definitely helped to lighten things up in this dark space!

 

 

 

 

 

I've had this Two Bad Ants poster in my basement for years.  My daughter has always been petrified of ants, so her Uncle Chris gave her this book and poster as a child to try to ease her fear a bit.  She is STILL petrified of ants and did not want this poster in her own home, so I decided to hang it here.

 

It's a very clever book and the illustrations are great!

 

 

 

 

Lastly, I painted the stairs with some left over floor paint and added the numbers for a little interest.

I should have done this years ago, because it is so much cheerier going up and down these stairs now to my studio and to do laundry!

 

 

 

Hexagon Floor

This was a really fun floor project that I have been dying to show you.  My client, the very talented, Liz Caan, owner of Liz Caan Interiors commissioned me to paint her kitchen floor.  

It began with an inspiration picture from Liz, and two colors, a deep navy blue and a lighter blue.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After some meticulous measuring and graphing, I sanded and base painted the previously painted wood floor with darkest shade of blue floor paint.  I used Benjamen Moore's Floor and Porch paint for this job.

See how color coordinated I can be?  On this particular day, I just happened to be wearing the same color on my toe nails that matched the tip of my sock that had a hole!

 

 

 

 

 

I had made some cardboard templates from the graphing I had done, and now laid them out on the floor to trace.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This whole process took a good day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next came the taping.  I used a 2" wide tape to mask out the design.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And here it is, all taped out.  I wish I could say I did this ever so effortlessly, but when I got down to the breakfast nook end, I could see my design was off, so had to spend some time figuring out where I went wrong.  Luckily, it was only watercolor pencil lines to correct and a little tape to pull up and realign!  

 

 

 

When I was sure the pattern was correctly taped, I burnished the heck out of it and brushed on two coats of the lighter blue.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My socks were not fairing well on this project!  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nor my feet!  

 

 

 

 

I did have a little bleeding under of the paint in some areas, so I went around with a fine angle brush and evened out where needed.  

 

All in all the tape worked well.  I was trying out a tape line for ECHOtape.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The competed floor, with 2 coats of poly sealer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Liz found the perfect knobs for the cabinets!

 

 

 

 

Inspiration

I love going to museums for inspiration and one of my favorite museums is the Institute of Contemporary Art, here in Boston.  A great exhibit of some of grafitti artist, Barry McGee's work, just opened a few days ago.  Here area  a few photos I took at the opening.

Barry's work is displayed in all the frames, but the wall treatment was also created by him.  I love the way the frames are placed, touching each other, and spanning across two walls.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A closer look at the finish, which was done on canvas and adhered to the walls.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tools of the trade.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I love this wall of rusted iron panels.

I can easily envision panels created with the rusted techniques available for decorative finishes and incorporating some stenciled panels on an accent wall.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There were life sized manequins spray painting on the walls.  Fun!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some smaller, wooden graffiti artists could also be found.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Friends, Marc & Stephen, posing in front of this very colorful wall.

If you are in the Boston area, this exhibit runs through September 2nd.

 

Trees

My love of trees is no secret. 

I have birch trees on the walls in my livingroom.

 

Recently had two jobs, back to back, where I stenciled some trees.  I used two stencils that were new to me, which I had been eager to try.

 

First up, is this beautiful Topiary Tree stencil by Olive Leaf Stencils, done in soft shades of blues over a yellow/gold background.  These trees are stenciled on all walls in this dining room. I love this tree.  You will be seeing it in my own home, shortly!  I'm sure I have a wall somewhere that needs this tree.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next up, is a fun tree from Cutting Edge Stencils, their Large Tree with Birds.

I did this for my daughter's long time friend, Tanya and her husband, Shant, who are expecting their first baby very soon.  Once the baby is born, I will return and add her name in between the two trees.  The crib will be placed in the center.

Back.........

Ugh, here it is, March 19th, the day before the first day of Spring, and we got a good 8" of snow again today.  Will it ever end???  I usually love all the snow, but it has just been such a dark and gloomy Winter here, I am ready for it to all go away.  Last week my daffodils were up and this week they are completely buried under the snow.  I have a lot of jobs to post,  that I have done since I last wrote in January,  so will get on that this week and try to resume a somewhat regular blogging schedule again.  I am officially done with my Masters in Science Education degree that I have been toiling away at for the past two years!  I just received my last grade today, so am posting my "Unofficial Transcript":

I am in the process of looking for a home for a Summer Camp program I have designed for elementary school aged kids that combines art and science.  I'm also working with a committee of an elementary school that wants me to paint some murals in their halls this Summer.  My ideal Summer would be to be able to teach my class a few hrs every day and then go and work on the murals, so keep your fingers and toes crossed for me, please! 

The Contortionist

This back splash I recently stenciled, using the Hourglass Allover design from Cutting Edge Stencils, proved to be quite the challenge!  The stencil itself, is a breeze, but the logistics of getting this large stencil into this very small space, was another thing!  It would have been a bit easier had I decided to cut the stencil, but you KNOW how I feel about cutting my stencils!  It's truly a last resort for me, and this is a young stencil in my fleet of stencils, with many more jobs in its future, so no way was I cutting it!



I started out with the easiest part of the back splash, behind the stove, where there was the most wall space.  I used a metallic bronze/gold paint, which does not always show up as metallic in these photos.

 

 

 

 

Ok, now we are getting to the tricky part!  This is a very small, galley kitchen and this corner was very hard to reach.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The only way I could really reach it was to sit on the edge of the counter and put my feet in the sink.

 

 

 

 

Then, I had to bend my head and contort my neck  and try and stick my hand with stencil brush out at some odd angle to reach the wall and be able to stencil.  It was only about two feet of painful stenciling, but it took me forever to do it.

 

 

 

Once I was out of that corner, I was home free!  You can see all the blue tape I used on this stencil, vs. spray adhesive.  The spray adhesive probably would have been the way to go here, but my nozzle was defective on the can I had with me, and I just did not want to have to go out and get another can, now that I was already here.

The tape ended up working just fine.

 

 

 

 

 

I had only previously used this stencil in a hallway, but I really like it as a back splash!  I do always feel this stencil needs some embellishment, so I add a dot and put a gem in the center where the pattern connects and there is just a blank space. See close up below.

 

 

Right here.  There is just a blank space here on the stencil, so I use a foam applicator that makes these nice little circles, and then apply a gem.

 

 

 

 

 

This small galley kitchen is open to the living room, so this really dressed it up and gave the kitchen some interest!

 

Back to Basics

I recently had a blast from the past, when I able to add  a little something special to a small dressing room and awkward master bath, with two tried and true stencils I've had in my arsenal of stencils for years.  It just goes to show you, a good design, is a good design!

 

 

 

In the dressing room I used Melanie's grape ivy vine, which can't be beat for it's versatility.  This stencil lets you combine four separate vine stencils any way you wish. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sorry for the poor quality of pictures in this post, but the lighting was very bad in both rooms.

 

 

 

 

 

Next, I used one of my all time favorite flower stencils, from the Mad Stencilist, the Trumpet Flower.  This is also a very versatile stencil, with 3 large, separate flowers to arrange as needed.  These multi-overlay stencils have gone the way of the dinosaur for the moment, but I love when I am able to sneak one or two in on occasion.  It's so fun to watch the design develop in front of your eyes as you add each overlay.

 

Quick Fix for Medicine Cabinet

I do not have a before photo of my medicine cabinet, but it was very similar to this one pictured, except the mirror had a small crack in the bottom right hand corner. I looked around and could not find a replacement cabinet that a) would fit in this recessed space and b) that I really could get excited about, so I decided to give mine a little makeover.

 

 

Here is the finished project and a closer look:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I wanted a mirror that would coordinate with the lighting.

 

 

 

 

To make the frame, I used some yardsticks I've had forever in my studio.  I cut them to the lengths needed, lightly sanded, and painted with gray paint.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I cut four smaller pieces to cover the seams in the four corners, sanded and painted.

 

 

 

 

Next, I applied a sizing and some silver foil to all the painted wood pieces and sealed for durability.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I cut four strips of wire mesh, from a sheet of WireForm I bought at an art store.  I then glued these strips onto the four frame lengths with spray adhesive.  As soon as I did this, I decided I did not want the mesh on all four sides of the frame, so pulled off the mesh on the 2 longer frame lengths. This left the impression of the mesh, which I liked!

 

 

I added these cap nuts to each of the 4 corner blocks with glue.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lastly, I used Liquid Nails to adhere the wood pieces to the mirror and gave the entire frame another coat of sealer.   This was a quick and inexpensive fix for this mirror!  The crack is covered by the new frame and the design goes well with the new lighting. 

 

My New Bathroom

I showed you a glimpse of my bathroom upgrade in the last post, where I featured the stenciled window shade, so today I thought I show you everything I did in this small bathroom.  I'll put a before and after shot, side by side (click any photo to enlarge):

   

My tile and tub were in very good condition, so I did not replace.  I replaced the vanity, floor and toilet.

My old toilet had an oblong seat, which often was hit by the door opening!

   

The new toilet has a round seat, so a smaller footprint, and it is "comfort height", like a chair!  Also, that "s" shape is hidden.... you know, where it is very hard to clean?  I now know a little too much about toilets from my research! Eventually, I will replace this traditional door with a barn door style, such as the one featured on the right. Still researching the track and doors.

   

 

Replacing the vanity made a huge difference in this tiny bathroom.  This vanity is from IKEA and is much narrower than my old vanity, but the sink is twice as big!  It is also at a better height.  I tell everyone my new bathroom is my "good posture bathroom" with the chair height toilet and the higher vanity, no more slouching! 

  

 

Replacing the floor made a huge difference.  Although I was not a fan of lamintates, this floor by Mannington won me over.  I just did not want to deal with tile and grout again.

             

There is not a whole lot of wall space in this bathroom.  What little there is, I painted with Ben Moore's "Cinder", which is a deep gray.  Two areas received wide horizontal stripes.  I am looking for a piece of driftwood to mount above the felt baskets, which were also an IKEA purchase.

  

Lastly, I replaced my lighting and added a frame to the medicine cabinet mirror.  I need to look for a "before" shot of the medicine cabinet and when I find one, I will post a tutorial showing how I made this frame.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm loving my new bathroom! :-)

 

Stenciled Bathroom Shade

I have this window in my bathroom that has always been a problem.  It's just a poor design where the window is framed in wood.... in the shower.  Who thought was a good idea?  I've always had an outside mounted window shade in this window, but the wood still gets wet, and eventually the paint cracks and peels right down to the raw wood.  I have come up with an idea that seems to be a good solution.   I added a piece of wood to the top of the window frame extending out about 2" on each side of the frame.

 

I painted it to match the frame, which blends in with the tile.  So far, so good.  The frame and the sill no longer seem to be getting wet.   Of course, then I could not just leave this plain, boring shade as is, so I decided to stencil it.

 

I used a stencil from Cutting Edge Stencils, called Birds on a Branch.  This project probably took all of 15 minutes since I used a small foam roller and only one color of paint.  Once dry, I sprayed the design with a clear, acrylic sealer to waterproof.

 

 

 

When the shade is up, light comes in through the frosted window, and some of the branch design is still visible on the shade.

Next, I'll show you my completed bathroom make over, Phase 1.