Painter Girl

Catching Up

I hope you have missed me.  On the home front, I've been busy painting my dining room floor (yes, again), and on the business end of things, I'm working on yet another folding screen and a few other fun projects.  I'll start with my floor.

This will be the third time since I've lived in this house that I've painted this particular floor.  I will add, the paint has held up extremely well in all cases, I just like a little change now and then.  In this photo, the squares in the foreground were from the first time I painted this floor.  I alternated green, off white and rust squares on a diagonal, with a smaller black square at the points.  Here, I've decided to change the floor to black and white with an orange and green border. 

And here it is finished.  I've had this floor for a few years now and because I am still obsessed with my favorite color, Benjamen Moore's Silhouette, I thought I'd go for an all black floor. Silhouette is a nice soft, grey black.  But then I decided I really did not want to give up my diamonds, so I was going to paint the entire floor with Silhouette and poly every other square, so there would be matte and gloss alternating black diamonds.  But... then I got the bright insane idea to use a pattern on every other square and stencil that pattern with the poly.

I'm calling it my Shadow Floor.  I appologize for the very terrible pictures, but I have tried to photograph this floor for several days now, in all types of light, with a poor success rate.  Just look closely!  For the pattern, I used a wonderful stencil from Cutting Edge Stencils called Rabat Allover.  And here is why I chose this design...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A while ago, I etched my china cabinet doors with a very similar pattern that I had found for free online. I wrote about this back in May and no, I have not been able to get the second door hung properly yet!  My handyman seems to have fallen off the face of the earth. 

I thought it would look like the doors were casting a shadow onto my squares on the floor, hence my name "Shadow Floor".

 

 

 

 

 

Here are two more bad pictures, just to torture you.

What can I say? It's difficult to see it in person and even more difficult to try to photograph.  All in all, it was a lot of work taping and retaping and it the constrast is not as high as I thought it would be.  I used a high gloss poly, but I wonder what else I should have used for more contrast.  Feel free to chime in if you have a suggestion. I may muster up some enthusiasm to revisit this at some point.  For now, I'm just leaving it because I have other fish to fry. Also... this paint is taking forever to cure so I'm not able to put my furniture back yet and I have to gingerly tiptoe across it with socks on.  I'm so done with this floor!  I am putting a yellow area rug under the table, so once this room is together, and if this floor every really dries, I'll try to get better photos. 

My Front Hall Makeover

I've had this ongoing Front Hall Makeover Project in progress for about 2 months now and am finally making some real progress this week.  I'm slipping in a few hours here and there while I'm home working in my studio on another folding screen for a client.  I'll be posting about that project next.

My front hall is sadly in need of updating.  I'll show you a series of "before" pics first, so you will see what I mean.  This accent wall... I could live with, but I'm tired of it.  It was done with Lusterstone.  The mirror was an etching project I did some time ago.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It's the opposite wall that is quite dated, with this trompe l'oeil shelf and jar...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

... and this niche with flowers in vase.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This closet door has some peeling paint issues going on, as does most of the woodwork in this small front hall.

 

The ceiling is blah with an oh-so- ugly light fixture.

 

 

 

 

I just spent a lot of money on 2 ceiling fans for my kitchen and dining room, so my lighting budget was limited.  The electrician was coming to install the fans, so a quick trip to IKEA netted this fun little pendant.  I rolled and troweled a few layers of Lusterstone in Snowflake White on the ceiling, and then applied these circles cut out of contact paper.  You can see a hint of my new accent wall in the background, which I 'll get to later!

I troweled on another layer of the Lusterstone over the circles, pulled them off and here is the result.  You have to look closely to see the circles, but that is the look I want.  It's just a subtle pattern on the ceiling.  The accent wall is going to have a lot of pattern, so this ceiling finish is just an alternative to painting it a solid color.  I like how it changes with the light throughout the day.  More progress today and I will post again!

 

Revisiting My Floorcloth

You may remember the floorcloth I recently painted for my kitchen.  Once I got it down on my very old kitchen floor, I quickly saw how the white stripes made my once white and black floor tiles, look even worse!

 

So, I decided to change the white stripe to gray.

 

I did like the look of the black and white with yellow dots better, just not on this particular floor!

 

Ok, I put a close up of each side by side:

 

Front Yard and Porch Project Completed

I have been able to cross off a few items on my lengthy "to do list".  My front porch is now completed.  Remember, my sanding of the floor?   I gave the glider another coat of black, restained and sealed the little table and painted that wicker chair yellow.

I also was able to get my act together and make up my hanging baskets. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This outdoor rug is from Target and guess what?  I didn't have to stencil it! Yay!  It already came with this great pattern on it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The new Ben Moore Arborcoat opaque stain I used on the floor really worked great! Two coats covered that mess I had and it went on like silk!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Still waiting for the steps and walkway to be done, but you can see my front garden from here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I don't have a lot of space, so just put in two cherry tomato plants (in cages in foreground).  Here you can see my new little cherry tree!  The big accomplishment was getting all the soaker hoses replaced, connected and then mulching.  I'm having huge issues with the soaker hoses this year, which I have yet to resolve.  The water pressure just is not reaching to the front and since I know it did before, I'm wondering what is going on and how I am going to fix this.  In the meantime, the back of the garden and side garden is getting watered, but I'm dragging the hose out to get everything in the front wet.

 

 

Another view of my little tree!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Portulaca in foreground. One of the earliest bloomers in my garden.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oregano (front left), thyme (front right) and Russian Sage in background.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I still have the backyard beds to tackle, but did manage to get this planter near my back porch done.  Try to ignore the foundation which should be painted.  I put Gerber Daisies in the background and Potato vines in the foreground.

 

 

 

 

 

I love Gerber Daisies and it's nice to be greeted by these every day!

 

Catching Up

Well, I've made absolutely no progress with my Home Projects Gone Awry. We've had a LOT of rain here, so I have yet to paint the porch floor.  It still remains in it's ugly sanded stage.  The stairs and railings are awaiting a carpenter.  One door still remains off on my newly painted and etched china cabinet and I've lost all interest in trying to get it to hang and close properly.  I think I'll wait until the carpenter comes and see if he can fix it.  I've had no time to put the gray stripes on my too white floor cloth and the can of paint I bought to repaint my dining room floor remains unopened in my back hall.  The good news is... a three day weekend is coming up and I'm hopeful about crossing some of these things off of my list.

Now to bring you up to date with work I actually get paid for.  I helped my friend Denise Kilpatrick with a ceiling project she was working on for a client in southern NH.  The medallion was not installed when I left, so I have no pictures of that ceiling yet.  When Denise returns to do a little more work, she will take some pics and I will post. 

Here's a sneak preview of part of the ceiling medallion.  Denise did all of the painting and glazing.  I just added the gems.

The job we were working on lies behind those elaborate doors!  Beyond the doors is a huge home theater and lobby.  The ceilings we worked on are in there.  This diamond wall was a last minute add-on I did.  Like the wall in Milton, it also has the gems glued on where the points meet. The lighting was poor in this space, just some rope lighting shining on the wall from the ceiling molding.  The sconces were not hooked up or in place yet.  Maybe Denise will be able to get another picture of this too.

 

 

 

Home Projects Gone Awry

Three weekends ago I decided to tackle my front porch and steps.  They are in dire need of painting... again.  I rented this mother of a sander from Home Depot and went to town.  Except for the fact that it weighs a ton, so is not so fun to lug up the stairs onto the porch, it was very easy to use.  I was hoping to be able to sand ALL of the paint off, right down to the wood, but no such luck.  There are a LOT of layers of paint on this porch... mostly thanks to me and my need to change the color and design on an almost yearly basis.  That green you are seeing was the color of the porch and stairs when we bought this house about 20 yrs ago.  I won't even begin to tell you how many different colors and patterns I've painted on this porch since we moved in.

The stairs and railings are going to be replaced.  My brother and I have hired someone to do that and the ugly, patched cement is going away too!  I'll post some "after" pics when all that happens.

 

 

I know it doesn't look quite ready, but the floor is actually really smooth now and ready for some primer.  Unfortunately, it has rained almost every single day since I finished sanding.  It's going to rain all of this week too, so who knows when I'll be able to finish this floor.  I would like to be able to put the furniture back out here soon!  Of course, it's only about 45 degrees here, so I'm not exactly ready to sit on the porch.

 

Since I could not work outside, I moved onto a few indoor projects.  I painted my china cabinet and etched the glass doors.  I stripped all the paint off the hinges thinking it would make it easier to open and close the doors and look better.  Unfortunately, I am now not able to get the two doors to line up and shut flush to the frame!  What's with that???  Wouldn't you think with clean hinges this would be fairly easy to do?  I've tried using shims behind the hinges, recessing them more, switching the hinge placement, and a million other options.  The doors are still not closing properly.  So, one is up and one sits on the floor tormenting me daily.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next, I moved on to recycling the floor cloth I had in my living room.  My living room is the coldest room in my house in the Winter, so I've decided I'm going to leave the floor bare for the Summer and then buy a colorful, wool rug to keep my feet warm in the Fall.  My kitchen floor is old and tired. A kitchen makeover is not in my budget at the moment, but a floor cloth makeover is.

This was the previous design on this floorcloth.  I had to cut it down a little to fit in the kitchen.

 

This is the new design.

Well, this was not without problems either.  Once I got the floor cloth down on my floor, I quickly saw that the white stripes on the floor cloth just highlight the fact that my once black and white kitchen floor, is now really an off-white and black floor. :-(  I'm going to add some gray stripes where the white is.  I held up a small sample of gray and it does seem to help. 

Hopefully I will resolve all these little problems and be able to post some new pics soon!

 

 

Do I dare start working on my front hall???

Who Knew I Was So Trendy?

 

 I recently came upon a post on Apartment Therapy, one of my favorite blogs.  The post features what they refer to as "Gallery Style Walls".  Apparently I've done just that in my own little dining room.

A while ago, I painted this lime green horizontal stripe around the room, about 1/3rd down the height of the wall.  A few months ago, I added the black/brown row of beading at the bottom.  I like the way the stripe showcases my small plate collection. If they were just on the plain, off-white paint found above and below the stripe, they would not show up nearly as well.

 

This framed chalkboard is a project I created for my dining room a few years ago.  I had a soft, metallic orange finish behind it for some time, but of course, could not leave well enough alone.  Last week I added these stripes, just because I have not been doing enough stripes lately?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I like to change this blackboard each month.  I've decided to start practicing my Italian again, and after two different friends of mine sent me this wonderful quote attributed to Michalangelo in his 87th year,  I decided it should be my Febbraio inspiration.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here's what the chalkboard looked like with the metallic orange background.  Not bad, but I like the stripes much better!

 

 

 

 

You can see the "metallic" a little better in this photo, which also shows the start of my taping.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The inspiration for these stripes came from this mobile which hangs in my Living Room and is very visible from the Dining Room. 

 

A Quick and Easy DIY Project

I keep seeing these "dipped in paint" containers in all of the home magazines so since I just happened to have an opened gallon of paint I was working with, I quickly grabbed an old galvanized steel container I had and gave it a dip.

 

I really took the lazy way out when I did this project.  I opened the gallon of yellow paint and just dipped the container right in. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was in my kitchen when I got the idea to do this.  I had been touching up some yellow on my previously painted stools.  Once I dipped, I realized I had not exactly thought this process through... where would I hang it to dry and drip? For the moment,  I was just holding it and letting it drip back into the can.  I had some foil out on the counter so grabbed that to put under the container as I hung it on the toe of this metal chicken sculpture I have on a shelf in the kitchen.

 

 

 

 

 

 

It made the perfect hook!  So, if you do attempt this project at home, unlike me, think ahead.  You need a place to hang it to drip and dry!

 

 

 

Voila!  This last picture is actually true to color.  The ones above look a little pale and I could not adjust the color acurately.  Here you see the bar stool that is painted the same yellow.

I thought I would check and see if my favorite Queen of Crafts, Martha Stewart, has done such a project on her site.   Indeed she has, and she did it in a way I would not have thought of.  She turned it upside down, taped it out, and brushed on the paint.  Hmmm... interesting.  I guess I'm conserving tape, since I just came off of the striping job where I used a zillion rolls!

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas!

Yes, I am very behind on my posts here, but the good news is, I've been very, very busy!  I just finished doing three local craft shows with my PetMats and am happy to report that they were well received.  Of course, as soon as I got that venture off the ground, I got three new wall jobs.  The wall work is now consuming all of the my time, so I will not be able to add any new PetMat designs or get my KidMat designs out until early in the new year.  I am excited about the mats and want to be sure I can devout the time needed to these. 

More about the new wall work jobs in upcoming posts.

I did take a few minutes to start getting my house ready for the holidays.  Using one of my favorite stencils from Royal Design Studios, Kimono OverAll, I stenciled my windows with Glass Wax.  Remember Glass Wax?  It's hard to find, but I did find some at my local Ben Franklin's. Melanie is running a web special for snowflake stencils at the moment.  I did place an order earlier this week for some Moroccan stencils, so will be receiving my new, free, snowflake stencils shortly!  I used the Kimono OverAll stencil for the Holiday Cat PetMat above.

 

Next, I tackled my chalkboard backsplash.  For this, I just cut out a template, traced and colored in. 

While I was doing all of this, I made myself a latte, adding a snowflake design with the Stencil Library's snowflake pattern. :-)  They have some great Holiday stencils on this site, so be sure to pop over there for a look!

 

 

I also trotted out my favorite little Grinch for Holidays!

 

 

Floorcloth Makeover

How many lives can a floorcloth have?  Well, this one is beginning life #3.  I first created this floorcloth in 2008 while taking a wonderful stencil class taught by Helen Morris of the Stencil Library.   I use it in my bathroom.  Last year, I decided I wanted a little more color in this floorcloth, so I added some lime green to the design.  I thought I had a photo is this, but cannot find one now.  The lime green gave it a little more interest and went well with my shower curtain.

Last week, I decided I would switch out my shower curtain (shown right)  with one I had made and used a few years ago (shown below).  I still love the colorful one, so will keep it to use again later.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Because this shower curtain is black and off-white, I thought the floorcloth would look better with a little more color, so out came my paints and brushes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This stencil is a two overlay stencil.  I painted the entire floorcloth with a soft black, let dry, then put the second overlay down and added the color.  It's sealed with a few coats of polyurethane for durability.

 

 

                                                                   Here is the completed look.  I have some lime green towels that complete the look and maybe will add some turquoise towels too.