Painter Girl

My Week Ahead

I've been busy meeting with clients and working up sample boards and proposals this past week.  Here are some of the finishes that will be used in an upcoming project:

for the kitchen-

a lightly textured glaze with aged vines

 

 

 

 

 

for the foyer-

a faded Damask allover repeat pattern over a soft glaze

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

for the family room-

same slightly textured multi color glaze as kitchen, minus the vines, plus an accent wall with a gold toned polished plaster

 

for the powder room-

a faux multi-colored plaster done with paint, stencils design on door

for the basement family room

two half walls done with this Moorish Trellis design over a solid background, no glaze

 

I also am in the process of creating another folding screen that will have a seahorse theme, as it will reside in a house on Cape Cod. I wish I could say I have the sample boards all worked out, but I'm actually struggling with them a bit.  I finally worked out my background finishes though, so am able to make a little progress with these panels!  I hope to finish these panels by the end of the week and deliver them on Saturday.

Last week I spent a fair amount of time working on 2 sample boards for my client who wanted me to do her little boy's room while they are away on vacation starting March 9th.  Unfortunately, my phone calls, emails and text messages have gone unanswered, so the sample boards remain in my possession, unseen.  I finally had to book that time slot with another job or lose those billable days.  I don't know why people cannot just send off a quick email or leave a message saying they are postphoning or whatever.  I know people complain that a lot of contractors do not return their phone calls or show up for schedule appointments, but I am not among those.  I feel everyone's time is valuable and I try my best to accomodate schedules.  In return, I only expect to be treated the same.  If I had known this job was to be postphoned, I would have used my already stretched studio time to work on other projects and I would not have to juggle my March schedule around to fill in the time slot held for this job.  Ok, enough complaining.  This is a long time client of mine, so I will just suck it up and move on.  It just feel good to vent a little bit! ;-)

Lastly, I created two fun sample boards for a powder room and kitchen.  One features an overscaled damask repeat pattern, white on deep blue.  The other is a plaid, for an accent wall and backsplash.  I had intended to photograph them before I brought them over to my client, but forgot to do that and now they are gone.  I'll have them back shortly and will show you later.

 

Thinking About the Master Bedroom

While my clients are off vacationing, I have a few weeks to think about what I want to do with this room.  The Master Bedroom is a fairly good size, but there is only one wall that is not broken up with windows and doors.  There is also a fair amount of furniture in this room. 

I have already decided that the full wall, which is the headboard wall, will be the accent wall.  I will carry in this Celedon Green Foil background, from the adjacent Master Bath, on that wall, but am still searching for ideas for the pattern and the remaining three walls.

 

 

 

Here are the rug and fabric samples.  There is a lot of rug.  It's wall to wall.  The fabric will be on four window valences and some pillows on the bed. 

 

A close up of the fabric.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More of the fabric.

I also have a large, folding screen to play with, which should be a lot of fun!  What's throwing me is the fact that all of the furniture in the room is French Provincial, but my client does not want to go in that direction.  I am thinking the panels of the bureaus may need some of the same foil treatment. 

Well, I'll let you know what I come up with...

Happy Easter

Off to my Mom's in the Berkshires for the weekend to celebrate Easter (and my upcoming birthday!) with my family. Lots of fun projects in the works for April and May.  Will begin reporting in about a horse mural and 2 vanity makeovers next week. 

Foyer 1 Begins

Susan Siefer and I have two large residential foyer jobs in the works right now, which we are very excited about.  The behind the scenes work has been grueling.  Lots of research, design work, samples, client consultations, pricing and proposal writing.  One of the two foyers is finally ready to begin so I will start to chronicle Foyer #1 today for you. 

This foyer is two stories high, approximately 17' tall.  It is one large room that is divided into two areas: the entry and a sitting room.  Susan and I will be doing a Portofino plaster finish on the walls, but the piece de resistance will be six large panels done on canvas.  We are creating these panels in Susan's studio.  After we do the plaster finish on the foyer walls, we will transport our canvases to the foyer and adhere to the walls.  The panels will then have some custom molding installed around them to frame them out.  This last step will be done by an outside contractor. 

Susan created this sample sized panel (approximately 15" x 3') to show the homeowners what one of the six panels proposed might look like.  When the concept was approved, we custom ordered two of the six Modellos™ we would use.  Our homeowners wanted to see the first two completed to get a better idea of how they would look in the actual size.

When the first set of Modellos™ arrived, Susan quickly went to work creating the two panels.  The color was adjusted from the smaller sample originally done.  The lighter background works better, making the raised, foiled design pop.  These are just tacked and taped up to the studio wall.  Remember, they will be framed out in the clients' foyer.  Now I will take you through the process as we create four more panels. 

We cut our canvas pieces to the sizes we needed.  We used RocLon because of the weight and clean edge that is left when it is cut.  No hemming needed.  These are our 2 narrowest panels, side by side of the work table getting a base coat of latex paint.

Lucky for us, the studio space right next door to Susan's is vacant, so we are using the additional floor space to stash our canvases while they are in various stages of drying. These are are two largest panels on the floor.

The next layer is a Portofino plaster layer that is troweled on and then gone over with some Stain and Seal when dry.

We are quickly becoming creative with finding space to put our large panels while in progress.

Yay, the remaining 4 Modellos™ that we need arrive!  Susan displays the designs.  Next post we will move on to applying the Modellos™ and troweling some Palette Deco through them to create the design.

Traveling Wunda Size

I love using this water based sizing for leafing and when I use foils. The only problem I seem to have with this product is obtaining it in the Winter months.  It cannot freeze and it is nowhere to be found in the Boston/metro Boston area, so I have to have it shipped from other sources.  That works fine during the warmer months, but now we are into Winter here in Massachusetts and the distributors of Wunda Size cannot guarantee that it will not freeze, even if shipped overnight.  I can't blame them.  Who knows where it will sit during its' travel? 

I have a dining room ceiling to silver leaf the week between Christmas and New Years and I only have a small amount of Wunda Size left. This past weekend I knew I was traveling to New York City, so decided to see where I could obtain Wunda Size there.  I found the best source to be Sepp Leaf Products, which was very close to where I was staying.  I bought 2 gallons, one for the job and one to get me through any other jobs I may have during the Winter months. 

First, let me tell you about Sepp.  It is located in a beautiful building in the heart of NYC and you are buzzed in, like a fine jewelery store.  All the leaf samples are on display, hanging on the walls, like fine pieces of art, and they are truly breath taking.  The staff is very friendly more than happy to answer any and all questions.   I could not linger because the BF was double parked out front, since we were just arriving in the city and had not yet ditched our car in a lot.  I was so thrilled to have these 2 gallons in tow, saving me further aggravation trying to figure out how I would obtain this sizing for my job.  The gallons sat proudly on the bureau in our hotel room throughout the weekend.  

In case you did not hear, there was a blizzard in NYC over the weekend, so by the time we were to depart on Sunday we were faced with some travel challenges.  I was taking the train back to Boston, while the BF was continuing on to Montreal to pick up his daughter at McGill.  Being very protective of my Wunda Size, I decided I would put 1 gallon in my suitcase and the other would travel to Montreal in the car, with strict instructions that it must not be left in the car! I originally packed both of the gallons in my suitcase and was having my clothes go via Montreal, but I could not lift the suitcase with the 2 gallons over my head and knew I would have to do this on the train.  (Even the one gallon in the suitcase was a struggle, but some nice man gave me a hand.)  Due to the storm, I had to wait 4 hrs for my train to leave Penn Station.  Like everyone else in the station, I had to use my suitcase for a seat and found my gallon of Wunda Size made for a sturdy platform!  I was a bit worried that it would open and I'd have one heck of a mess in my suitcase, but I put it in a plastic bag first and luckily, no unhappy incident occurred, other than a permanent dent from my butt sitting on it for so long!

Susan Siefer and I will be on the ceiling job shortly with lots of pics to show. :-)

Jobs In the Works

I still have a delay with one of my jobs.  I was waiting for several months and I mean several, for the kitchen cabinets to be installed in this particular house so I could do the finish on the walls.  The cabinets are finally in, but now the delay is the painter who needs to do some prep work and base painting before I can get in there.  So... I'm waiting. 

Recently I visited two new job sites and am currently working on the proposals for both.  One is a residential makeover of a Family Room.  The room is small by Family Room standards, but has some unique components to it.  One being, a nice curved wall.  There is also one wall that has three archways cut into it, from chair rail height up, that opens into a formal Living Room.  The down side is that all walls have old paneling that is going to remain.  The curved wall I can deal with because it is panels of wood, about 15" square, lined up to form diamonds on the diagonal.  That will be the accent wall.  More about this job later.

The second site I visited is a commercial site where I did some repair work,  maybe 1 1/2-2 years ago.  I have no idea who did the original finishes, but they do not seem to want whoever did those finishes to return.  I find the management company easy and pleasant to work for, so I'm asking no questions.  There is one, very large wall, in the lobby that has quite a bit of damage.  The wall is done with multiple glazed finishes, in panels, very abstract.  It's a great design concept.  Unfortunately, it appears that the prep work was just not done correctly and is causing the glazed layers to chip and peel.  Some panels can be salvaged and just restored, but others will have to be completely redone.

Should this job materialize, I will post more photos and discuss what will be repaired vs. completely redone.  I love this type of work, so I hope it's a go.

Rounding Out the Week

We had another snow storm yesterday, so I stayed inside most of the day, cleaning up the piles on my desk.  I wish I could say I am making great progress with getting my Tax Prep work done, but that is not going so well, so far.  I will make an honest attempt to work on that today.   I have been catching up on some of my favorite blogs, shoveling more snow, and talking with clients about their upcoming jobs.

February's projects are shaping up and looking like a lot of fun.  On deck, I have a ceiling in a Master Bath I've been dying to do; some new themes to add to the addition that is being completed at one of the Learning Zone Day Care Centers; the kitchen project that has been on hold forever (waiting for cabinet maker!), a laundry room, mudroom and maybe a kitchen cabinet job.  That should keep me busy enough and give me more interesting topics to write about than office work and snow shoveling!

My sample boards are done and approved for the kitchen, laundry and mudroom.  I need to go pick up my samples for that Master Bath and tweak them a bit.  I also need to spend some time doing a few rough sketches for the day care center, so that's how I will be spending my time for the remainder of this week.  I hope to get out to see the kitchen cabinet job Friday morning so I can determine what's going on there. 

Today I also did some research about getting Commercial plates on my vehicle.  Since I have to change my license plate I decided I might as well get one that means something to me, so I may go for a Vanity Plate!  I've never had one of those before.  I want it to be work related, so am exploring a few options.  Here in Massachusetts you can only have 6 letters on the plate.  You can use numbers, but only at the end of the letter configuration.  The plate has to begin with a minimum of two letters and you can't put a number in the middle of the letters like: pay8tr, which would have worked great! :-(  I'll let you know what I end up with. 

Dining Room complete, moving on

I thought I would not get to this until next week, but I was able to finish this dining room yesterday.  This room is open to the Living Room I just completed with the Tequila Sunrise Lusterstone accent wall, and Burnt Sienna glazed adjacent walls.  I did put a glaze on that off white fireplace in the background, so it looks better now.  I took this photo before I did the glaze.

I've used a lot of the Lusterstone colors, but this is the first time I have tried this color, Deep Periwinkle.  In some light it appears blue, other a deep purple.  It's a great color!

The Dining Room also opens to the Kitchen.  These walls still remain white and now look very out of place.  I will be returning to this home a little later.  The walls will be base painted a very light tan and the same Deep Periwinkle Lusterstone will be done in a horizontal stripe around the room and down a connecting hallway.  The stripe will be in the back splash area and then carry around the room at that height. 

Back to Work

Well, here we are in 2009!  I hope you all had a Happy New Year.  I have caught up on all of my sleep and am ready to pick up the paint brushes again. 

I will be spending part of today back at my client's home where I just completed the Powder Room before New Year's.  I have a few touch ups to do in that room, but will mainly be working on some on-site samples to try to duplicate the finish I did 5 years ago.  As you may recall, I will be carrying this finish into the new kitchen space.  I have some good records of the steps I did for that finish, but I also remember struggling with several layers of that finish, so just want to try to work it all out before I actually start this portion of the work in a few weeks.  I am also presenting some finishes for the new mudroom and laundry room. 

I have been working in this particular house for 11 years now so I thought I'd share some of my past work with you.

This is a bathroom that is located in the basement level of the home.  The homeowner has a dog and cat and this bathroom is often used for grooming the pets.  I did this mural in 2003.  You know, I'm not even sure the dog is still in this home.  I didn't see him when I was there last.  He does rotate between this house and the ex-spouse, so I'm hoping he was just away, but will try to remember to check on that.

Here's a close up of the bandanna.  I did this so long ago, that I cannot remember who's stencils I used.  I believe some of the stencils may no longer be available.  I know the hooks and leash were stencils, but the grooming tool and bandanna were done freehand.  The paisley design on the bandanna is from Royal Design Studio.

I will feature more rooms from this home throughout the next few weeks.

Finishing Up for 2008

I returned to work yesterday, but had no time to post.  Just before Christmas, you may remember my streaky mess in this small Powder Room?
I primed with Kilz, sanded and applied 2 new coats of the blue base on the 2 walls that looked so horrid. 

Happily, I was able to easily convince the homeowner to go with striae stripes, vs. all walls done as a striae.  The result was a much nicer look, lighter look for this tiny room!

With this house complete, I have moved on to a client I have had for a good 10 years now.  The homeowner recently gutted the Kitchen, expanded this area and relocated the Powder and Laundry Rooms that were off of the former kitchen.  There is also a new side entry and nice Mudroom. 

My task, should I accept, and of course I will!... is to match a finish I did about 5 years and continue it into the new kitchen and expanded Breakfast Room.  Work is still being done in the kitchen, so I will start this part of the work late January.  Here you can see a false wall that has been erected while the construction is still in progress.  This wall will come down next week.  You can also see some of the finish I did 5 yrs ago, that I will try to recreate.

On the other side of this false wall is the Family Room, where the finish is still in tact.

Here's a sneak peak into the new kitchen space. 

 In the meantime, the new Powder Room is ready for me, so I am working in there.  I have base coated the walls and will be adding ....drum roll please... the Fennel stencil!  If the Stencil Library ever awards a prize for the most jobs sold with this design, I think I might have a good chance at winning. ;-)  I have used this design on a large commercial project, and 5 residential jobs, including my own bedroom.  It's an easy sell and works great for narrow spaces that are difficult or impossible to place furniture.

I will be posting more about this job later in January.  I'll take the Powder Room pics then, because there is no lighting or fixtures installed in there yet and it is kind of boring looking at the moment.

Over the years, I've done a lot of fun finishes in this house, so I also thought it might be nice to give you all a little tour of the various rooms I have done here.  I will begin posting those when I return on January 5th.  Have a Happy New Year!