Painter Girl

Could I Really Be Done?

I will have to take photos again when I return in a few weeks to deliver a folding screen and some lighting I am working on.  Then, the new window treatments will be up and furniture all back in place.  The Accent Wall with the large, foiled Ginkgo leaves really does not look good here, but it will look much better when the room is together!

Three walls look like this.

 

          

Border stencil set:

Oriental Floral Design Elements

Wall stencil:

Hourglass Allover Stencil

Swarovski Rhinestones

Artbeads.com

Metallic Foils:

Prismatic Painting Studio

 

 

This headboard has got to go! I'm trying to convince my client to have it replaced with a fabric headboard.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Close up so you can see the gems.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Corner shot, because I spent a lot of time lining it all up and wishing I had an extra pair of hands and two good eyes.

Will I Ever Get Out of This Room?

Deja vu... here we are, back to Linen White walls! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I brought three new sample boards I had just made for a room I will be doing in their second home on the Cape.  As soon as I saw two of these boards in this Master Bedroom, I could see either of these easily worked with the fabric, the copper foiled border and the accent wall with the Ginkgo leaves.  Luckily, my client could see this too and selected the board on the left.

I already used this Hourglass stencil from Cutting Edge Designs in a back hallway downstairs in this same house.  I don't usually like to repeat a design or finish in the same house, but I am at a loss as to what to put on these remaining walls, and this pattern does fit the bill.  Btw, back about an hundred sample boards ago, I did propose this exact concept, a soft metallic glaze background only I wanted a bamboo trellis allover pattern that would form a diamond pattern.  It was rejected. :-(

In this close up of the sample board you can hopefully see the details that will be added: a thin metallic gold shadow line and some gems!  Now that I look at this board, I see one of the gems (top left) slipped off and up the board. 

 

Here's the stencil in progress.  This design really works up very quickly. It's a large stencil, one overlay. In this photo you see one complete repeat done on the right and one in progress on the left.  This gives you a good idea of the size.

 

 

 

I'm going to be adding a 1" border of the same green paint I am using for the stencil, just below the copper border and above where this stencil pattern begins.  My finger is on the 1" tape...where the green will be painted when I'm done with the stenciling.

 

 

 

 

So, at the end of this day, I've made some good progress. I put a quick, one color pale silk glaze on the three walls and was able to get the pattern on about 75% of the walls.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The eye situation has improved little.

 

Ch-ch-ch-changes...

Did I say I thought I might finish this Master Bedroom last Friday?  I'll be lucky if I finish it by this Friday! I had the three remaining walls done with a light gold metallic striae (on right), but then my client decided she wanted it darker gold with orange.  So, now you see the orange layer going over this.

I decided to do my two additional striae layers using water instead of glaze, so it would dry quickly.  The wall height is only from the border down, so I don't even need to be on the ladder and can therefore move very quickly.  I have the paint, thinned with water on the left and just a container of water on the right.  I keep dipping my brush in the water, then into the thinned painted and then do the striae on the wall.  It's a good aerobic workout!

 

Here's the look I am now going for.  I like it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It goes well with the copper foiled border and the accent wall.  I put these two layers on last Friday, but was still not done.  My client decided she wanted small, randomly placed Ginkgo leaves on top of this.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here's a closer look with the border.  I now have all the gems glued on the flowers. 

Early Monday morning, just as I was getting ready to leave for this house, the homeowner called to say she did not like the orange at all.  So, I spent Monday painting over all of this, but the copper border still remains.

More tomorrow...

 

 

The One Eyed Painter

I have the largest stye under my left eyelid (eye on right in this image).  You can see how swollen my eyelid is.  I went to the eye doctor's Monday to confirm that it was indeed a stye.  I've had it for over a week now and my lid only seems to be getting bigger!  I was told to put warm compresses on it for 5 minutes at a time, at least six times/day... and maybe in a week it will be gone! :-(

 

  To add to this fetching look, I have misplaced my regular glasses and can only find this pair that I use when painting.  They are really a mess, since I never bother to clean the paint, plaster, foil, sizing, etc. off of the rims. So not only do I have one ugly looking, blurry eye, these paint splattered glasses just add to the whole fetching look.

It really does feel better when I stop and apply a compress for a few minutes.  You can see the stencils I am foiling on that border in the background.  Btw, it took four coats of Linen White to cover the side borders of copper foil, but who's counting.

Today I was able to get all of the border flowers foiled, but was too obsessed about my eye and forgot to take pics.  Next,  I will add the Swaroski gems, and hopefully finish all the glazing of the remaining walls.  Then... maybe I can have Friday off! I have to work Saturday, so I'm hoping all goes well and I can have an easy day on Friday.

It's Not All Fun and Games

Guess who is painting over some of that foil?  You know... it's not for lack of doing sample boards, getting them approved, tacking them up with the fabric samples, etc.  In the end, I'm not the one who has to live in this house, so I just try to go with the flow and rework things until everyone is happy.  Btw, I do add on to the final bill every time a major change is made and it causes me to add on additional days, delaying the completion of the job. 

 

 

 

 

 

The top border is staying, but the side borders are going.  It's not going to be a quick fix. 

Foils and Fun

Ok, I'm leaving the Accent Wall for now and showing you the three other walls in this room.  I have framed out each of the three walls with a 12" copper foiled border.  I find using a metallic paint underneath the foil, in a color close to the foil, works best.  Chris Smith came one day and measured this all out and rolled on two coats of copper metallic paint. :-) This pic shows the walls with the foil already applied.

 

 

Here's a close up of the copper foil.

 

For those of you not familiar with foils, here is how it is done:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A sizing is applied over the base coat and allowed to tack up for about 15 minutes.  I like Wunda Size. Once it's ready, I just tear off a piece of foil from the roll, crinkle it up and then flatten it out on the wall, as shown.  I buy most of my foils from Prismatic Painting Studio, owned by Gary Lord. They have a good selection of foils, good prices and they ship very quickly.

Next, I use this stiff brush to press over all the foil.  You are kind of scrubbing the foil to release it onto the sizing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm holding up the foil here so you can see how the copper has come off of the sheet, is now on the wall, leaving the sheet transparent.  Foils do not transfer 100%, which is why the base color is important.  When I'm foiling larger areas, such as this one, I roll on 2 coats of sizing before I begin.  I've heard some people foil twice, but I've run into trouble with that method. 

 

 

 

 

 

Here's one more shot of the foil after most of the copper has been transfered to the wall.

 

This is all I can type right now because I have one huge stye on my left eyelid, which seems to be distorting my vision a bit! Here's hoping the hot compresses work quickly...

 

 

Master Bedroom Accent Wall

There seems to be a lot of indecision about what is going to happen with this room.  I am having discussions daily with my client about the vision for this room and how it will all come together, as a whole, in the end.  I'm constantly taping up the sample boards and fabric to try to further illustrate the concept.  That said, I'm concentrating first on the Accent Wall.

The wall now has a soft peach tone, metallic glaze on it.  I drew an assortment of large Ginkgo leaves on some masking film and cut out the shapes. I then used the cut out shapes on the wall to help decided the placement of the leaves. 

Once I had that determined, I then replaced the cutout with the stencil I made. All of the leaves are going to receive a foil treatment, so I first based each leaf with a coordinating metallic paint.

If you do not want to draw and cut your own Ginkgo leaves, they are available as modellos here.

 

Here's a close up of the copper foil on one of the leaves, edged with celedon green foil.  I'm using copper, green and gold foils.

 

 

 

Once I had the foils on, I added a pattern to each of the leaves, using three different stencils from Royal Design Studios: this small Camel Bone Weave, Scallops, and Oriental Vine Allover.

 

 

 

I had just ordered a set of the new metallic stencil creams from Royal Designs and was dying to try them out.  They come in some very beautiful colors and are a lot of fun to stencil with!

 

 

Here are a few leaves in progress.

 

 

 

 

 

All of the leaves will eventually get some Swarovski gems.  While I am waiting for my lastes shipment to arrive, I used some left over Fire Opal gems I had from the foyer.  I ordered some green and gold toned gems to go with the Fire Opal. 

 

 

Here's a close up of the Scallop pattern with the gems.  I'm loving this Scallop design and think I may have to find a spot for it in my house.  It works really well with the gems.

More to come...

The Master Bedroom Begins

It took me a long time to come up with first, an idea for this room and second, some sample boards that met approval.  This is what I had to work with: French Provencial furniture, and a lot of it; wall to wall yellow and green carpeting, a lot of gold and green pendant lighting, and this new fabric that is being made into window treatments.  I found it very difficult to pull it all together.  Oh, and I also had to tie it into the Master Bath, that I just finished last month.

Here's the "Before" shot, showing some of the pendant lighting, that is staying, and the style of furniture. 

 

 

 

 

 

The carpet and fabric samples...

 

 

 and the Master Bath, just completed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After Day 2, here is the Accent Wall, which is the Headboard Wall, done with layers of metallic green glazes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day 3, here I am priming out my wall.  Don't ask. :-(

 

 

 

 

Same wall, now a Pale Silk (peach tone) Metallic glaze, over Linen White.  Everyone's happy, continuing on. :-)