Painter Girl

March/April Newsletter is Ready

I just finished the March/April Paint It! e-newsletter.  If you would like to receive this e-newsletter, please sign up using the subscribe box in the right hand column here.  I am really enjoying the positive feedback that I am getting from this new venture.  I send the newsletter out to my client list, with some family and friends thrown in the mix.   My clients are reporting that they enjoy seeing some new ideas and it is definitely bringing in more business.  So, all good things! ;-)

As I receive more and more feedback from the readers of the e-newsletter, it is helping me to further define the services I provide.  I often do pieces of furniture for clients, so I just assumed ALL my clients knew this.  Not so.  When some of my clients saw the furniture pieces featured in my first two e-newsletter, they wrote to me, asking if I did furniture and would I consider doing a certain piece that they own.  Another client just wrote to me to ask if I ever travel to the Cape to work,  since they have a vacation home there.  I do, in fact, often take on projects on the Cape, since I have a friend who always allows me to stay at her vacation home, to ease the commute.  I am pretty much willing to travel anywhere for an interesting job!  Sometimes we just assume that our clients know all of the services we provide, but I now see that it is a good idea to not assume this and to state ALL services that I provide.  I will be addressing this in my next May/June issue.  For those of you with small businesses, I highly recommend going the e-newsletter route.  The cost is low, and it is a great way to grow your business.  If you are already sending out an e-newsletter I would love to hear how this experience has been for you.

Kitchen Cabinet Job Completed Today

Today I was able to finish those kitchen cabinets.  I almost finished them yesterday, but because it was so humid here, the glaze on the bottom cabinets just would not dry, so I couldn't seal them.  That meant I had to make the 45 minute trip, each way, one more time today, just to seal those base cabinets. :-(  I really like the way they turned out and this quick fix gives the homeowner a new look at a fraction of what it would cost to replace these cabinets.

The lighting is very poor in this kitchen, so getting good shots was difficult.  The top cabinet panels are done w/a multi-plaster finish and have a gold tinted wax sealer. The bottom cabinet panels have a copper metallic glaze over a black background.  These panels were sealed with an oil based varnish.

More top cabinets.

Here's a close up of the top cabinet panel finish.

Here's a close up of the bottom cabinet panel finish.  Big glare :-(... varnish is still wet and poor lighting.  It looks much nicer in person!  The look is almost a metallic leathery look.

Stripes...same job

I finished up at noon today, which was nice because I had some studio work that I am behind on.  I only had 2 small walls of stripes to do in the hallway off of the bedroom, and some trim work to finish.  I put all the furniture back in place and took some final pics. 

Here you can see how the small hallway connects to the Master Bath.

Remember...the remainder of this house is all white walls, so this tone on tone is actually a big leap for them.  Both the husband and wife told me how much they really love it. ;-)  It's important to me that the rooms I do reflect the home owner's taste and not mine. 

I have 1 piece of furniture I am working on for a client and I also have to do 2 sample boards for another client, so I was able to get a little work done in my studio for a few hours today when I returned home.  Tomorrow I have a good 50-60 minute commute for a job.  I will be doing a multi color plaster finish on the panels of some upper kitchen cabinets and a copper finish on the lower cabinets door panels.  I'll take some pics and post. 

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!

Last Day at this Job

Today I finished up at the Four Little Girls House.  Wait until you see this awesome bathroom for the oldest and girl and one of the other younger ones!

Again, I wish I could take all the creative credit for this design concept, but no can do!  I saw this on one of my favorite blog sites, Design Inspiration, Planet Stencil Library.  (Look under May 2007).  I  did not use the templates you can purchase through the Stencil Planet Library because I wanted to try this new compass I just purchased through Micro-Mark.  The tool was inexpensive, $26 and allows me to make circles up to 6' in diameter.  What I did for this job was make 3 sets of concentric circles, 4 circles to a set.  The sets are small, medium and large.  Using a low tack, repositionable spray adhesive, I placed the sets of circles on the wall where I thought I wanted them.  After a little adjusting, I just traced the outline of each circle on the wall.  I used a good angle brush, like a sash brush and just painted freehand.  All paints, including the background paint, is from Ben Moore's new line of paints called Aura.  This paint line has the very rich, deep tones and covers completely with 2 coat.  This deep red pictured was covered almost completely with 1 coat!  I only had to roll a light 2nd layer on.  The two other walls in this large bath are painted solid.  One walls is the purple you see in the circles and the other is the orange from the center circles. 

There is a very long hallway on the second floor, that connects to the 2 story foyer wall I had done previously.  I did one wall to match the foyer and the long hallway was done in stripes.  The stripes alternate, Sage Green Lusterstone and the 3 color glaze from the foyer. 

Here's a close up of the main wall that is seen from the foyer.

 

 

 

This shot shows the foyer wall I had done previously (on the right), the new wall on the left, and the stripes at the end of the hall. Oops... and there's my ladder, not quite out of site!  The circle bath is at the end of this hall, off to the left. There is one bedroom off to the right of the stripes.

Here's the opposite end of the hall, where there are a lot of stripes!  The hall is about 20' long, with 4 bedrooms and a bath at this end of the house.

This angle really gives you a sense of the length of the hall. 

I had a great time at this house!  I will return again in a few weeks to do 2 of the girls bedrooms, the laundry room and a piece of furniture.  They are off for vacation next week and so I am I!  Stay tuned...

Done!

On Friday I was able to complete all work for the Kitchen/Dining Room job.  It was decided that no olive vines would be added over the 2 remaining doors that were in consideration for this.  The homeowner felt with the addition of the vines on the redone tiles, that was enough.  I am sitting on the fence with this one.  I could see a small branch over the door to the Dining Room, but it will depend on what art work gets hung to the left of the DR door.  It's a good idea to just live with this as is, and add more later if it is felt needed.  Here are the photos from the Dining Room:

Sage Green Lusterstone finish on the top portion of the walls.

Another view.

This view shows both finishes used in this room.  Lusterstone is below the chair rail too, but in a color called Champagne. Both of the these colors are a very close match to the colors that are found in the window treatments that will be hung in this room.

Quick Two Day Job is Done :-)

I was able to finish that Master Bedroom and a little vine over the front entry door yesterday.  The client was always at work when I was there painting, and she is a new client to me, so a few issues did arise.  When this happens, I do keep in mind that their expectations/visualization of the finished work may differ from mine. Also, it's difficult to get to know a client when I only meet them for the consultation and then they are not home at all while I am actually doing the work.  I leave notes and sometimes give them a phone call in the early evening if I feel it is necessary. After a long day at work, and once I get home from enduring rush hour traffic, I have my own life to live and just need some down time, so I know I am not at my best to engage with clients at that time.  Anyway, back to the point here... It is not cost effective for the client to have me do a full color rendering of small jobs.  I do this for murals, but I also do charge for this rendering, since it's quite time consuming.  It doesn't make sense to do this for small jobs.  I always have a lot of reference material that shows the concept, and I do a quick pencil sketch.  For this job, I had an exact picture of the bow and the trumpet vine flowers.  The two were not together, but I did a quick sketch right there when we first met to show the layout/placement.   For the alcove, the client picked out some assorted wildflowers from reference materials I had and showed me where she wanted them painted.  After my first day there, I had completed the one tall wall with the bow, ribbons, trumpet flowers and birds.  The client called me when she got home to tell me she loved it.  I also spent about 1 hour that day sketching in the flowers w/a watercolor pencil in the alcove and painting in 2 of the plants.  The client said she did not like them and decided that because she loved the trumpet vine flowers so much she now wanted those in the alcove vs. the wildflowers.  She said she was going to paint over what I had just done that day so the walls would be ready for me when I return on Monday to finish!   I was a bit taken aback by this since I did spend an hour working on that space.  I wanted her to be happy once the room was done though, so  the loss of an hour of my time, would be written off.  I was still getting to know this client.  Today I received an email stating that she loves her finished bedroom, but the vine over her entry door 'just didn't end up having the effect she was looking for.'  We had discussed this vine quite a bit, and settled on copying a real vine she had tacked up elsewhere in her home, changing out the berry colors and modifying the design a bit.  I emailed her back, expressing my concern over her disappointment, but also explaining I did execute the job as discussed.  I gave her the suggestion that she could add a ribbon that would wrap around this vine to bring in some color if she would like. The explicit instructions for this vine were to keep it light and airy, only a few light green leaves and a few berries, a small nest and trail it down on that one side of the door.  She is now looking for more branches and some suggestions to "improve it".  I was told no dark green leaves, no dark colors, so from a distance, you see little detail.  I explained that in order to get this effect, darks would have to be brought in to contrast with the lights.  Well, we'll see what happens with this one. I will add that I always work with a contract that does spell out the cost, what I will be doing and a lot of other specifics. 

Here are the final pics for that job:

Alcove trumpet flower vines, randomly placed.

More vines in alcove area.

Twig with berry vine over front entry door...nest at end of vine.

Full view of vine.

Final Commercial Job Pictures

Today I went out to the job site where I did that two story foyer, lounge and WiFi library.  Marc Bordet, of Bordet Interiors Design was the wonderful Interior Designer I had the pleasure to work with on this job.  As you will see, Marc selected some awesome furniture, accessories and artwork for the spaces.  I love when I work with Marc on projects.  He is so creative and talented.  A few pieces of artwork are yet to arrive, and the window treatments still need to be installed in the Lounge.

Foyer:  Remember the wave wall?  This is it.  The mirror definitely helps to camouflage the wave factor!
I love these chairs...they would look great in my living room!

View from the 2nd floor, where the Lounge is located.

View from 3rd floor where the WiFi Library is located.

View from Lounge to stairway that leads down to foyer.

The Lounge:  Fireplace wall. Window treatments still need to be installed.

Another view of the Lounge.

Another view of the Lounge.  This view faces the stairwell that leads down to the Foyer and up to the WiFi Library.

The Fireplace wall. Once the window treatments are installed it will look much better!

Lounge leading up to the WiFi Library.

WiFi Library

Another view.

A cozy corner in WiFi room.

Finished at Condo #2, for now...

Yesterday I was able to finish up at Condo #2 at the 55+ complex.  On Friday, I had almost finished the scroll design over the fireplace, but I had not designed the "B" for the center and also wanted to leave early since I was having a lot of company over the long wkend.  When I climbed down off of my ladder I realized that I was just a little off center w/my design. Ugh.  When I returned yesterday, I was able to wash 98% of the design off, using a combination a "Magic Eraser" and a sponge w/Simple Green.  I just used a gentle hand and eventually it came off w/o taking off the base paint.  Because the brown I used in this design is heavily pigmented, a few marks would not come off.  I touched those up carefully w/the base paint.  It was a pretty quick fix, which I was very happy about!  Here's the finished look:

Distant view to see the entire design.  This wall extends up to the 2nd floor.  The height of this design over the arch from the floor is about 12' at the highest point. I wanted the homeowners to do an apricot polished plaster finish inside the recessed area, but they decided against it.  I think it would really make this a more interesting focal point, than the off white base paint.  Sometimes they just need to live with it for a bit! ;-)!

 

Closer view, showing the center scroll w/the "B".  The design is outlined in brown.  The interior has an apricot glaze and a soft gold glaze. You can see this better in the next photo.

Well, the apricot glaze shows up, but you can't see the hint of gold that is also there. The apricot glaze matches two leather chairs w/ottomans that are in this room, on both sides of the fireplace. Oh, I just realized you cannot see the fireplace!  It is below this recessed area. 

Sitting room, hallway, master bath, kitchen

I have finished with the condo job I now refer to as The Flower Condo. Here are the pics for the sitting room/den, master bath, hallway and breakfast room:

Sitting Room/Den

The vine is on three of the four walls.  The wall to the right in this photo, with the valance, does not have the vine.  The window and valance take up almost the entire wall.

Close up of vine. This stencil is another from Royal Design Studios.

Distant view, so you can see the layout, but not the detail.

Flowering vine over doorway to dining room in hall.

The Ivy Vines extend down onto the ledge of each of the 2 openings into the dining room.

In the Master Bath, some additional flowers were painted above the 2 door openings and around the shower area. The homeowner chose to have the one accent wall be the focal point, with the silver glazed background.  The remaining walls were kept white, but the same flowering vines used on the accent wall were repeated here.

 

 

 

 

 

Fruit tree in breakfast area in kitchen.

Close up of wicker basket for  Fruit Tree.  I found this little dog statue in the client's home so placed it by her new tree.

Close up of Fruit Tree w/butterfly.