Painter Girl

Evenfall Restaurant

Yikes, here we are into November!  A lot of news happening here with my business, Paint It!  For the past six months or so, I have been teaming up with a wonderful decorative painter, Susan Siefer, owner of MadPatter Production.  I met Susan briefly, several years ago, at a fund raiser and we reconnected earlier this year when I gave Susan a hand installing a large Modello™ she was doing in a dining room.  We really hit it off and decided to team up on some of our jobs in the future, since it was much more fun working together (and easier!), than working solo. 

Recently, we had the opportunity to join forces and work our magic in the main dining room of Evenfall restaurant.  For those of you local to the Boston area, Evenfall is on the N.Andover/Haverhill line, serves a delicious and creative menu, has a private room for parties,  a fun bar, and frequently offers live music. 

The main dining room formerly had walls in a pale green with blinds adorning the windows,  and doing this trendy restaurant no justice at all.  

Now the walls are a soft, coppery bronze.  The windows were our favorite part of this makeover.  Using Roc-lon, Susan and I fashioned these custom designed stationary window treatments, incorporating some glass etching.  The owners wanted to block the view of the exterior awnings, as well as the traffic visual, but also wanted to let some light flow in.  This solution worked well. 

Two other smaller windows were fitted with full length window coverings. 

Some new tables and booths completed the makeover.  Owners, Spiro and Adrienne Pappadopoulos and staff, report they, as well as their patrons, are just loving the new dining room. 

You can read more about the happenings at Evenfall over at Spiro's blog.

Next, we are moving onto Glory, a sister restaurant in Andover, also owned by this dynamic brother and sister team.

The Wall Is Done

Susan and I were able to wrap this job up over the weekend, when there was much less traffic running through this busy Lobby. See my previous post for the "Before" pics as well as "In Progress" pics.

Here you can see where we have patched, primed and base coated the last 4 panels we have left to do.  We will add a finish to the horizontal brown stripe and finishes to all the light blue panels.

This is just a small area that wraps around a corner. The former finish had lifted off, like wallpaper  (this was the case for most of the repair we are doing).  We patched, primed, and base coated, then did the finish.

 Here you can see the brown striped and the blue panels in progress.

I love this building.  You can go upstairs and walk across a suspended bridge, to look down to the Lobby.  Here you are seeing the finished project.

This is another view from the second floor.

Standing back in the Lobby, this is the bottom left side of The Wall.  All panels along the bottom row were repaired on this wall.

This shot gives you a good idea of the length of this wall.  Again, all panels on the bottom, below the window were repaired, as well as adding the brown stripe above the window, barely visible here.

This was a fun job and great because it was only a 10 minute commute from my house!  Thanks to Susan's input and skills, we were able to work at a leisurely pace and still finish on schedule!

Complex Repair Job

This is a job I've had in the works for many months.  Finally, it has come to fruition and I've enlisted the help of fellow decorative painter, Susan Siefer to take on the challenge to work a little magic on "The Wall".  Neither one of us were involved with "The Wall" when it was originally created 8 years ago.  "The Wall" has suffered a little damage on several of the panels and we have been asked to see what we can do. 

We have seven panels to deal with.  I cannot fit the entire wall into one frame.  It spans two stories in height, but we will be mostly concentrating on the panels below the window and directly above the window.  This wall is the focal point wall in the lobby of a large commercial building that is home to 4 radio stations, a tv station and several offices.  Needless to say, a lot of traffic in this lobby!

I have these panels numbered as part of my proposal, so I could designate what work would be done on each panel.

This is one of the first panels we tackled.  Several of the panels are suffering from this peeling problem.  It looks like the finish was applied directly to the wall without any primer.  Since we have no idea what products were used, we need to proceed with caution.

This same panel also has a few little dings like this.

Here's Susan working on the prep of this panel.

Well, not the most flattering angle of me, but here I am working on the panel above the window.  

More next post........

Window Design Job Completed

Well, as predicted, this WAS one very fun job!  I had some company visiting this week and it was also my daughter's 24th birthday, so I had no spare minutes to post here until now.  I did, however, take some photos during the process.

One of the first pieces of this project to be completed was this mini mural.  This was created to insert behind a real window in the store front, so it looks like the pets are inside the house, looking out.

Here you can see what I am talking about.  You are also seeing part of a fourth of July banner in front of the window.  The dog was free handed, but the cat is an old stencil I had on hand designed by Kari Butler.  The pattern on the curtain is a scroll repeat design by Royal Design Studios.

Under this window, I painted some bushes, using sea sponges.

I stenciled in some shutters, using another  stencil from Andrea Designs, I've had for years.   You can also see a close up of the painted wooden slats. 

There is a full sized door that leads into this little store front window area.  The problem was that the floor for the window area is raised up about 3 feet from the actual floor in the building.  I painted the real door knob black to blend in with the door, added the trompe l'oeil door knob and mail slot, as well as some panel detailing on what once was a plain door.

I forgot to take some shots of the faux step you can barely see in front of the door.  This was a plain box made of wood that I painted to look like a granite step. 

A closer look at the door knob and keyhole.

To give this door a little more height inside this store front area, I added a row of window panes above and to the right of the right of the door. To the far right you can see the large store front window.

Another view of the glass surrounding the door.

The mail slot.

The glare was too distracting to shoot pictures from the outside looking in, so I had to shoot my pictures from within.  Here you can see the completed shutters around the real window, a real trellis leaning against painted clapboards,  indoor/outdoor carpeting for grass with a picnic scene set up. 

The stone walkway was done as a floor cloth in my studio and taped down into place  I cut the grass rug out around the path.  A carpenter created a miniature sign post to hold the For Sale/Sold sign and a local newspaper is thrown on the walkway.

I am going to pick up a few more props for this window over the weekend and will return on Monday to further decorate. 

Everyone here at Prudential Realty were so supportive and enthusiastic of this project.  This store front is on a very busy main street in the center of town.  By changing out the props each month and keeping it interesting and fresh, I hope the window will bring some welcomed attention to this business.

Window Design Fun

Today I am starting what I think will be one very fun assignment!  This photo to the right is looking a bit reflective because if you look closely, you can faintly see me snapping the picture.  I am standing in front of my latest project, a store front window, looking in at the current display.  This window belongs to Prudential Realty in Needham center.  They have hired me to give the window a new look.  The bedroom vignette that you are now seeing, will be gone. 

I will be painting these blue walls to look like facade of a traditional New England cape.  The space is quite small, maybe 8' wide by 4' deep,  7' high.  The weather has been on the cool side here with lots of rain for 2 weeks now.  I almost hate to say this, but I'm hoping it stays cool and cloudy for the next few days while I am working in this small, glassed in spaced!  Stay tuned this week to see the transformation. 

Slipping In A Quick Job

Over the weekend I returned to one of the Learning Zone Child Care Centers to do just a few embellishments on the walls.
This building is the location of the first Learning Zone, so the owner is gradually repainting, replacing carpeting, etc. and giving the place a little face lift. Keeping with the same themes as the new buildings, I did another picket fence, just adapting it slightly for the space.

I love doing these numbers.  Very fun!  I did not, however, like how dark the purple turned out over this blue wall.  I will ask Melissa what she thinks and probably change out that color to a nicer purple next time I am in there to do more work.

I did one room with assorted shapes on all walls.  Again, this is something that goes very quickly and packs a big bank for the buck! :-)

This week I will be back working on the Laundry Room and Back Hall/Mudroom that I started at the end of last week.  I feel like I'm coming down with a cold. :-(

The Last Day Care Center Completed

I was able to finish the last of the Learning Zone Day Care Centers on Friday.  The owner claims she is taking a break now and will not open any new ones, at least for quite a while.  I did remind her that that is what she told me two day care centers ago!

I did the same farm scene I did in a few weeks ago, in the previous Center.  This one is flipped, with the horse coming out of the right corner, vs. left.  I think the pigs and cow are in a little different positions too, but basically, it's the same design concept.
This was a fun wall to put the fence on because of the angle.  It's placed between 2 large windows that look into the adjacent classrooms.

I took another picture of the Numbers Wall which now shows the complete set, 1-10. Because there are so many rooms in this particular Learning Zone Child Care Center, we added a two new themed rooms.  This room has primary colored shapes on each wall.

The second new themed room, was this room with clouds, moon and stars.  This is the Infant Room.  The moon and stars are coated with Glow In The Dark paint. 

A friendly sun in on one wall in this same room.Well, I have to say, I'm a little sad that we have come to the end of this series of day care centers.  It was a fun change of pace to be able to create these spaces for kids.  I am going to return in a week or two for the Open House to see how it all looks furnished.

Learning Zone #5: Day 2

Great progress today. Here's a far shot of the Alphabet Wall, just so you can get an idea of the side of the rooms.  It's very light in here even though many of these rooms do not have actual windows.  The walls stop about one foot from the ceiling and there are windows that look into the adjoining rooms, plus all the doors are half doors, not full.

A closer look at the letters/shapes.  I used to dread doing the A-Z Wall, but now I've got a good system down and it goes pretty quickly.  It does look neat, all lined up on the wall. The kids can find shapes, colors and letters.

I also did a Numbers Wall in the adjacent room. Part of the wall is cut off, but the numbers start at 1 and go to 10, with corresponding number of circles beneath.

To give the illusion of a tree, I painted some branches hanging down from the ceiling.

Here's another view.

Here's a closer look at the Whimsical Flower Wall I did on Day 1.  The baseboard is installed now. 

I hope to finish today, but may have to return a few hours on Friday.  I have the Farm Scene, some clouds, some geometric shapes, and the Picket Fence Scene left to do... 4 rooms, so we'll see how fast my brushes are flying.

Learning Zone #5: Day 1

Ok, here we go again.  Back by popular demand after the carpet fiasco, I am adorning the walls here at the latest Learning Zone Day Care Center.  This one is the largest Center of them all.  It's still under construction, but all the walls in the areas I need to paint have been readied for me.  The painters are still here touching up, doing trim, and painting a few other rooms and hallways.

This room will have just this one wall on whimsical flowers along the baseboard (to be applied). It's the infant room, so the babies can crawl up to the flowers. :-)

I didn't do this wall in the last Center, but did do it in one of the others.  I only had a few hours here today, so I did the easiest rooms.  I finished the office area, using the circles, some plain, some with words.  Also, I was able to start the tree branches hanging down from the top of the wall, in another room.  I'll take better photos when I am there today. 
Since I will be doing all of the same designs once again, some for the 5th time, I think this should go quite fast.  My goal is to see how quickly I can knock off each room, adding a little twist to each design to keep it interesting for me.

Recapping the Day Care Center Job

Sorry for my absence here last week.  I was stretched in too many directions and also had a 24 hour stomach bug one day, so had to limit my computer time. 

To recap the day care center job, which is now finished, here are some pics from each of the areas I did:

In the end, I had to replace a section of the carpet where I had the paint spill. :-(  Because I let the paint dry, the stain could not be removed completely, so the best solution was to just replace this section.  That's why we carry Liability Insurance, right?  I did receive a lot of helpful advice for cleaning solutions, etc.  My mistake was to not act immediately when this accident occurred and just take care of it. Luckily, the issue was all resolved quickly, the new carpet was installed in a matter of days and everyone is happy.  As a matter of fact, I am starting more work in the newest of these day care centers this week.  This latest center is the largest and I will be posting my days work there later this week.