Painter Girl

Sweet Dreams...

I just completed a mini makeover of my bedroom, Phase1.  I recently posted some pics of 2 armoires I repainted for the umpteenth time for this room.  Now I have finished putting a new base color paint on the walls and the crowning jewel of this room... the fennel stencil design on my headboard walls.  I extended this design onto the adjacent walls, approximately 3' to really give the feel that I am sleeping in a field of fennel.  It was love at first sight for me, when I first came upon this wonderful design over at Rachael and Helen's blog site, Design Inspiration, Planet Stencil Library.  I actually bought this stencil for 2 upcoming jobs, but both have been delayed so long, that I just had to use it myself!  Plans are also on hold for a commercial job that was scheduled in the Fall using this design.  That job will resume after the first of the year, and I am just keeping my fingers crossed that this portion of the work will not fall under their budgetary ax. 

The stenciling is done all in white.  I thinned my glaze and used a very light touch for the background fennel.  The foreground fennel has a heavier application of the white, and the addition of some pearl highlights.  This shows up better in the next few photos.

Hopefully, the pearl highlighting is showing up on your screen.  The base color for the walls in Benjamin Moore's "Quiet Moments", which is softer than what it appears here.  Very restful!

Here's the fennel next to one of the armoires I recently repainted.

And one final shot, that shows the contrast of the lighter and darker fennel a little better.  I left the remaining walls with just the base color, no fennel, so this would be the focus of the room.

Phase 2 of the mini makeover for this room will be to find a rug to put down for the Winter.  I like the bare floor in the warmer months.  I also would like to change out the duvet cover next Spring, using the fennel stencil and doing something to replicate this design by Amenity Bedding. (click on link to view)

Current Projects

My apologies for missing a few days here.  Lots going on, so little time to sit and post.  The good news is, I finished the 3 black pieces of furniture I had been working on, and my client gave me a 4th piece to do.  She is also contemplating having me design a faux headboard for her bed, to be painted directly on the wall.  I am reaching some options now.  I only took pictures of one of the black bureaus because the many drawers were all out of the 2nd piece for transport and I did not want to put them all back in to photo and then have to take out to put in my car.  I will take a photo of this piece when I return to the client's house next week.

Had I look at this pic before I returned the furniture, I would have noticed that bare wood spot showing to the left of the top drawer...where the drawer does not close flush.  I had the black paint w/me when I returned the furniture, so touched it up on the spot.This piece is only slightly distressed, as the client did not want a lot of the finish to be removed.  I also added a finish coat of wax.

Now... onto a new topic.  Last night I attended a Life Drawing session at my friend, Tasha Cough's studio in Jamaica Plain. (MA for those of you out of state...near Boston). Tasha has been kind enough to keep me on her email list about these monthly sessions for the past several months...even though I had not attended any until last night.  I had not done any Life Drawing since my art school days...back when dinosaurs roamed the earth, so I was a bit hesitant!  Well, I had a great time!  Met some wonderful artists and enjoyed a very relaxed, friendly atmosphere.  It was very enjoyable to do this type of sketching, since it had been so many years!  Tasha is not only a decorative painter, but a wonderful artist.  Please visit her Fancypaints website to view some of her work.  To meet Tasha and see more of her work, Tasha will be part of the annual Jamaica Plain Open Studios, September 29-30th this year.  Thanks Tasha, for a fun evening!

Killing Time...but Productive!

Yay, I finished the furniture for my client!  Nothing too exciting, since it's just black with very little distressing on some edges.  It was nice to be home working though.  While coats of paint were drying, I was able to work on my 2 armoires, and tah-dah... they are done too!

Remember this armoire was a matte black in its' previous life.
The sides are painted white.

                                                                                                                   

Close up of armoire detail.

Now this was my least favorite of the 2 armoires... and now it's my favorite!
I kept the sides and a border the original white of the armoire and just taped off 2 panels on the doors.  First I painted with the tan color and once dry, I did the stencil.  This stencil is called "Classic Overall Repeat", in the large size, from Sheri Hoeger, The Mad Stencillist. This stencil comes w/2 overlays, and is made to use as an all over repeat pattern, to look like wallpaper.  For this application I just used one of the overlays as a random placement.

So, while I am still licking my wounds over the postponement of the Fall commercial job, my spirits are lifted by getting some of my own projects out of the way, while I regroup.

Today Marc and I are meeting to work on some new promo materials and brainstorm our next moves and tomorrow I am off for a 3 day wkend to visit my Mom, brother and sis-in-law, niece and new nephew.

It is too dark in my studio for the 2 pieces of black furniture to photograph well, so when I haul them outside to load in my car, I will take pics.

The Agony of Defeat

Yesterday I learned from Marc that the commercial job we were to begin in September is now post-phoned until the beginning of 2008.  This is not what either of us wanted to hear.  Marc has already done a lot of work with the planning of this job and I was eager to begin samples and get going on this.  We have both been so excited about the whole concept.  This was the job where I was going to use the giant Fennel and Allium designs. The loss of this job for the Fall puts a big hole in my schedule now and also my bank account. (I was planning to finally put replacement windows in my drafty home with some of this income.) So, now it's back to the drawing board to try to fill this gap.  I try not to get too anxious about it all and trust the old saying "when one door closes, another door opens".  Generally, that does happen, but sometimes I sure wish I had a big crystal ball.

Knowing this commercial job would keep me busy for most of the Fall was a nice feeling, but now I will shift into high gear and do a lot of promotional work to drum up some new business.  I want to build up a clientele that will use both Marc and I together, so have decided to work on a photo postcard mailing to my client base and Marc's that introduces each of our services to these clients.  I also know I have to get out there and network and lastly I am working w/Marc to get his blog site up and running.  You will all enjoy reading his blog and seeing how creative he is, I am sure. :-) My new furniture client is a Realtor and I have already spoken to her about Marc and me and the services we could provide for her clients, both buying and selling. I will bring her some promo materials that I have on hand for both of us when I return her furniture.

Current Projects

It seems that every time I do a piece of furniture for a client, I look around my own home and see a table, chair, whatever... of mine, that could use a little makeover.  This week I will be doing, or I should say redoing... 2 armoires.  One of my armoires is on it's 3rd makeover, the other... this will be it's second.  Here they are, in their current and former states:

 

 

From top L to R: Current black state of this armoire; close up of detail;same armoire done with large cabbage roses on yellow background. Bottom row, L to R: Same Armoire painted white w/yellow panels and blue cornflowers.  Last photo on R: Current state of another very plain armoire. Blue tape is on for work in progress.  I will post the finished makeover of these 2 pieces... as soon as I finish!

Now, back to the 2 pieces of furniture I am doing for my client.  I am sorry to say, I forgot to take pics before I began this job.  Both pieces are oak, and were varnished at some time, but all the varnish was worn off by the time I got ahold of them.  I just had to give them a light sand.  Lots of hardware on the corner piece, so it took me quite a while just to get all of that off.  The first layer is a black primer, followed by a low sheen black latex paint and then I will give it a coat or two of wax for the final finish.  Oh... I will also sand back the edges slightly.  The owner of these pieces just wants a little distressing, not as much as I did on that bathroom cabinet project.

Small bureau w/2 drawers, which have been removed and are on the table in the background.

This is the 2nd piece.  It fits in a corner and has a lot of drawers! You are seeing one side of it.

 

Here are all the drawers lined up!

Of course, after putting 2 coats of the black on everything, I found a stool I had stashed under my work table, that also is supposed to be painted black.  Grrr... will do that tomorrow and hopefully finish up this project.

One more piece of furniture in my own house that I am eyeing for a makeover is this desk:                                    

I've had it for a long time w/o painting, but I think its' time has come. ;-o  I really like this table from Anthropologie.  I will try to paste the pic here, but for a better view, go to the link.  Can't you see this desk in stripes???

Bourne Job Completed

I was able to finish up all of the work commission for the Bourne House last Thursday.  While it was fun to work in this beautiful house and to spend some time on the Cape (who could complain about that in August???!), it's great to be back home. ;-)

Here are the pics of the 2nd area I did last week. This is the Kitchen/Breakfast Room/Family Room, which all connect. 

Here is the "Before" Picture of the Breakfast Room Area. The Butler's Pantry will be located between the two walls in the center of the photo.

Well, the finish is hard to see here, but this is it.  Next shot will be a close up of the finish, which consists of 3 glazes, ragged.

This is a section of the wall, which hopefully, shows some detail on your computer.

This is the Family Room.  If you look through the door, you will see a birds nest at the top of the column. This belongs to a Robin, who laid 3 eggs here.

This curved wall, behind the two trash barrels, leads all the way up to the 3rd floor.  No finish will be done in this area, which is off of the hallway.  A sculpture will later replace those lovely barrels, with some lighting hanging down from above.

Today I will begin working on 2 pieces of furniture I picked up from a new client on Friday.  I will go take some before pics now before I begin their transformation. It will be nice to be able to work in my own studio, here at home today!

Pros and Cons

I am into my second week of working in Bourne.  Bourne is about an 1 1/2 hour drive from my home in Watertown.  Now, depending on traffic that particular day... it could take me 1 1/2 hours or 2 hours or more to get there.  Fortunately, I have a wonderful friend who generously lent me the use of her vacation home in Centerville.  This gives me a 22 mile commute each way... much better! 

As you have seen, the Bourne House is in a lovely location, and no matter what room I am working in, I have some pretty spectacular views.  It's very quiet here since I am usually by myself here all day.  The general contractor pops in once, maybe twice every few days to check on me and sometimes a painter shows up to work in painting the window frames and some walls in other areas.  Once a week, Marc comes to visit me and check out the progress and every few days, Judy, the mother of the home owner, pops in.  Judy lives a few houses away, and will be moving into the apartment which is located over the garage, when the house is finished.  So, other than these few people popping in on occasion, it's pretty isolated here.  I have my radio/cd player to keep me sane.  I do get a lot of work done, since I have little to distract me!

The down side is that the homeowners live in CA, so I only have contact via email or phone with them.  I like my clients to see the progress and have input on the finish as I am working.  That way I can make color adjustments if needed.  A good example of this is my problem with the finish in the Kitchen/Breakfast Room/Family Room.  This is all one area, with connecting walls, so it will be done with the same finish.  The finish that was originally selected turned out to be too bold, too overpowering for the walls.  This finish just did not translate well to large expanses of walls.  I had previously done the finish in a small bathroom for another client.  There it worked well because the wall space was minimal, with tile below.  As soon as I got this finish on the wall in the Family Room space, I could see it was too much.

If you look closely, you will see a vertical "line" where the short wall meets the tall part of the wall.  The short wall was were I began.  I felt the finish was too busy, too blotchy looking to be on all of these walls.  It would extend into that area beyond the half wall.  So, to correct this, I softened the technique.  I still did not like this.  It looked too blue.  There are 4 glazes being used in this finish, and one is a slate blue.  That blue was just not working.

This is still the same room, just moving around to more walls.  I then adjusted the glazes, but found these walls too yellow and too dark.  That's when I called Marc and asked him to come down and give his input.  In the meantime, I created some new samples on a wall in the kitchen, that will later have cabinets and tile.

This is the new finish we selected.  I omitted the blue and will use mainly 2 glazes with a touch of a 3rd. I also eliminated the veining, so it is more subtle.  I had the gc, painter, mother, and Marc all give me input.  Marc has met with the clients several times now, so he has a good sense of what they would like.  We kept the homeowners informed and I emailed them some pictures.

This week I am doing this finish in the Kitchen/Breakfast Rm/Family Room.  I will post those pictures when complete.

Without the contents of my studio nearby and familiar stores where I buy the supplies I need, a lot of improvising has to be done when something like this happens.  Luckily, I had the Foyer/Hallway to move to while I was working out the new finish for this area and waiting for approval.

The plus side of working here... after work I was able to go back to the Centerville house, shower, change and walk to the beach to relax.  Not a bad way to end the day!

The Bourne House, Views

Today I thought I'd show you a view shots of the exterior of this home and the view I have when I am working on the ocean side of the house.

This is the back side of the house. The house is stories high, with the cupola extending above the 3rd floor.

Here is a fuller view of the back side of the house.  Obviously, still a lot of landscaping to be done and the dumpster is blocking the main entrance.  There is no road access to the front of the house, since the water is there. 

This is the view from the Family Room.  I took these shots from inside, looking out.  (You are also seeing paint specs and dirt on the windows).

This is looking from the Breakfast Room, out to the ocean.

Tomorrow I will discuss the pros and cons of working away from home.

First Week in Bourne

I just completed my first week at the Bourne House.  I brought my laptop along with me, but ran into a few problems.  First, there was no Internet service at the house I was staying, and no Internet service at the job site.  Second, my battery in my laptop is not long for this world, and only lasts about an hour, then I need to use an adapter and plug the computer in.  To check my email, I would drive to the nearby library in Centerville, park in the lot, and log in.  By the time I got home after work, showered and dressed, the library would be closed, so could not get in.  After my 2nd day, I discovered my adapter was no longer working and my battery was now in the Red Zone, so that put an end to all computer use.  I bought a new adapter when I returned home on Friday and will attempt to take the laptop with me again this week when I return to complete Phase 1 of this job.  As a back up, I've decided to write 4 entries today, and set those to post...1 each day while I am away.  It does kill me not to be able to follow all of my favorite blogs each day!

This past week I was able to finish the Foyer/Hallway area in this house, so thought I'd show you the before and after pics of that.  I apologize for the poor quality of the photos, but there is no lighting installed in this house and no window treatments, and of course, I am not a professional photographer! 

"Before" Picture

This view shows about 1/2 of the long hallway's length.

"Before" Picture

Here you can see that no trim work has been added yet and there is just a sub-floor down.

This is one of the neatest, cleanest job sites I have ever worked on.  There is no dust, no left over coffee cups, etc. from subcontractors, and even the floor grates have been covered with screening, so you don't fall in one and twist your ankle or the leg of the ladder does not fall in. No one ever does this... and I don't why, it's such a great safety precaution.

   
"After" Pic

This is one wall in the foyer area.  The finish is a Limestone Finish.  I have used 2 glazes, a tan and a grey tone.  I apply them together on the wall in about a 3' square, using a chip brush.  Next I blend the 2 colors together with a rag.  Later, I go back and do some "fly specking" with the gray, which leaves tiny dots of grey, randomly spattered on the wall.  I then add the veining.

This is a view from the Foyer/Entry to the Hallway.The first door opening on the right leads to the Living Room, and the 2nd door opening on the right leads to the Dining Room.

This view shows the Living Room on the right. Some of the walls in this house are curved.

Tomorrow I will post some pictures of the exterior of this house and the views I have while I am inside painting. ;-)