Painter Girl

Progress and Delays

The Before Picture (left) and where this room is now (right).  Remember, this finish went over some very old paneling. 

This close up shows the finishes much better.  The column will have a gloss sealer. 

This is the hardware that will go on the built-ins in this room.  The base and top of the column detail has a multi-layer metallic finish that matches the hardware.

Now I have pretty much gone as far as I can in this room until the contractor returns and finishes the remaining work.

This curved wall still needs to have the dentil molding repaired and that patch, dead center, is another issue. 

Also, this side of the room is still under construction.

May/June e-Newsletter Finally Out

I finally had some office time on Monday and was able to finish my overdue May/June e-newsletter.  This month focus is on three different glass techniques and sport theme rooms.  It typically takes me about 3 hours from start to finish to pull the newsletter together.  I find it hard to sit at the computer that long so I wander about the house doing a few miscellaneous projects to give myself a break.  My clients do seem to enjoy getting the newsletter in their email boxes and I get some great feedback from them, which keeps me motivated to research topics for more issues.  If you would like to subscribe, you can do so by clicking on the box in the right hand sidebar.

Media Room Progress

With the Kitchen Job on hold for a few days of curing time, I returned to the Media Room Job I began a few weeks ago.  Unfortunately, the contractors did not complete the work that was supposed to be done while I was away working on the Kitchen Job.  I'm not really sure what is going on with the progress, or lack thereof,  on this job by others, but there does seem to be some communication issues going on.

Remember this curved wall?  Well, some issues still exists that prevent me from doing the final striae finish.  One... that outlet hole that has not been repaired and two, the dentil molding still needs repair work.  Waiting......

So, in the meantime I decided I could at least get the bronze color into the "grout" lines between the diamonds.

I brushed on the bronze, let dry, then taped out with this 1/4" tape.

Then I just rolled on two coats of my base coat color.  Next...whenever the repairs are completed... I will do the striae finish.

Here are all the finishes that will be in this room.

The largest sample board, with the couch fabric draped over it, will be applied to all the other walls in this room.  I did complete 2 of the walls, but did not take photos yet.  Two other walls are waiting for more work to be done by the contractor, so I'm at a standstill.

The Kitchen Job: Almost There

Again, I must apologize for my absence here most of last week.  I've been running around in too many directions with work projects during the day, leaving me just too tired to blog at night.  This week I have organized my schedule to be a little less hectic and a lot more productive! 

In the weeks to follow I will be making some changes, for the better I hope, to this blog site.  I feel I have fallen behind with some of the updates that should be made to this blog with some new technology that is now available.  I have vowed to set some time aside each day to read up on ways to improve my blog site.  It's all a bit mind boggling and time consuming.

Last week I returned to the Kitchen Job, adding some additional layers of glazes to the walls:

Wherever you see the blue tape, that is where the new addition begins.  To the right in this photo (left), where the shelf is, is the original finish, untouched by the construction.  The old finish meets the new finish just about dead center on the soffit in this photo.

 

I am close, but not quite there.  This photo to the left, shows what is happening with the lighting in this room.  In the photos above, where the old and new finishes meet, it looks very close.  BUT... in this lighting, you can see that the right side of the room appears lighter than the left.  There are so many light variations going on in this room, with shadows from cabinets, windows, nooks and crannies, that the finish appears light when viewed from one angle and dark when viewed from another.  I decided it was best to just let the glazes sit and cure for a few days and then return to make adjustments as needed.    My client was going out of town for a few days and some additional tiling on a back splash area needed to be completed, so it was a good time for a break.

The Kitchen Job Continues

Sorry I missed a few days of posting, so I will try to get you caught up to where I am on this job, with this post.  This photo shows the next layer of glazes applied over the green glazed layer I had done previously.  You can see the green glazed area below the outlet.  Above the outlet, I have now applied 4 glazes, all at the same time.

Here are my 4 glazes on my ladder, along with my ratty brushes, a Woolie, rag and Neon Leon brush.  I use all of tools to manipulate the glazes.

Here is another view of the same wall...with the 4 glazes applied from the outlet/switch plates up and just the green glaze below.

Now that I have these 4 additional glazes applied, this is what it looks like where the old finish is meeting with the new.  I still have a few more layers to add, so the transition will (hopefully) not be this noticeable.

I let this new layer of 4 glazes dry overnight before I returned and applied another layer of 4 glazes.

This layer uses 2 of the glazes in the previous layer and 2 new glazes, both which are gold tones.

 

The additional 4 glazes have been applied from the ceiling down to the middle of this wall in this photo.  You can see how the wall is now taking on more of a gold tone.  Also, note the missing cabinet doors throughout this kitchen.  My poor client has been waiting almost one year...yes that is one year!, for her doors!!  These cabinets were custom made by a small cabinetmaker.  His work is beautiful, but this job was just way too big for him to handle in a timely way.

See this deep Violet Earth colored glaze?  Well, I forgot it was on the tray of the ladder and started to fold up the ladder to move it out of this narrow space. :-(  The container fell forward, landing on each rung of the ladder and then upside down, thankfully on the drop cloth.  What a mess to clean up.  It also splattered all over me on the way down to the floor. 

This finish has 2 more layers to go.

The Kitchen Job

I have the first layer of color on more than half of the walls now.  To look at the final finish, which you can see to the far right of this picture, it does not look like there is a lot of green happening.  But... this is just the first layer of color. 

Here is one of the sections where the old finish is meeting the new finish.  Oh, now I see I have this photo upside down!  Well, just imagine it reversed. ;-)  The green is coming from the floor up to meet the former finish. 

Here is another area where the old and new finishes will meet.  My goal is to have it be a seamless transition in all areas where old is meeting new. 

More of the green walls. Today I will finish the remaining walls that need this first layer of color and begin the 2nd layer.  I did roll on a clear sealer before I laid down this green layer.  The joint compound needs to be sealed before glazing or else it will absorbed the glaze too quickly and appear blotchy.

Eleventh Hour Change

I had planned to spend this week finishing up the Media Room job, but a phone call from my client late Sunday night had me altering my schedule.  My client decided she wanted to meet with her cabinetmaker before I begin applying the final layers of the finishes that will go in this room.  Those of you in this business, know all too well, how this goes.  Sometimes with new clients, they get a bit nervous and just cannot envision how the completed room will look, no matter how many samples are presented.  They need assurance from someone other than me.  While I'm not thrilled when this happens, especially when there is a change in my schedule so abruptly, I do understand their jitters and try to give them wide berth.    The cabinetmaker could not come until some time on Wednesday, so I had no choice but to abandon this job for the week and return to the Kitchen job, which is now ready for me.  I feel very fortunate that this all worked out and no time/money lost this week!

This Kitchen job, you may recall, is the one where I am going to match my 5 year old finish to the new addition.  It's funny, but this technique is the same technique I'm doing in the Media Room, only the glaze colors will differ.  I haven't done a joint compound based finish in a long time and now I have two, back to back!  So, yesterday I spent the day applying the joint compound to the walls and then applying a ton of moisturizer to my dried out skin!

Today I will begin the first layer of glazes.  I'm excited about the challenges this job will present.

Family Room/Media Room Progress

Last week I finished up most of the prep work in what I was calling the Family Room.  Come to find out, the clients are calling it their Media Room, so that is how I will now refer to this room.  Well, I've pretty much joint compounded and primered myself to death last week, so this week I will start the base coating of the walls. 

I have no texture on the curved wall, just primer.  I had to use 2 coats of an oil based primer on ALL of this wood because the tannin was bleeding through. All moldings had been removed and now as you can see, they are back up.  Some of the teeth are missing on the dentil molding, which is only found on the curved wall.  Another crew is dealing with the installation of the moldings, so they will fix it soon.  I'm a bit worried about this electrical box, which is dead center in the wall.  It will be removed and patched.  I hope there will be no traces of it when I do my glazing.  We'll see what happens there.....

The remaining walls all have the primer and a couple layers of skip troweled joint compound.  Last week when I was driving home, I looked in the rear view mirror and my skin looked like it was about 100 years old.  Working with joint compound all week really dries out your skin and I saw many, many new lines that I am sure were not there before, especially around my eyes!  I went home and soaked in an hot oil bath every night and slathered on tons of moisturizer.  Happy to report, most.... of those lines were NOT visible over the weekend when I was away from this job! :-) 

Now here is something totally unrelated to painting, but I thought I'd share.  I found this cute little vase at Target last week for $1.  It is made of vinyl and comes flat in the package.  As you fill it with water, it expands.  :-)

Lastly, I found this sign, "Don't worry.  Everything is going to be amazing", over at Regina Garay's blog, Fauxology.  I printed it out, laminated and hung in my office.  Thanks, Regina!