Painter Girl

Black and White Floor

I know you are all probably thinking I'm taking the Summer off, sunning myself on some beach somewhere, but that is far from my reality!  I'm actually having a very busy working Summer.  The jobs have been fun and I have been able to fit in a little gardening and kayaking in the local river, so it's shaping up to be a great Summer!  Of course, I'm still plugging away with my science related classes, as my program runs 12 months/yr with no break.  Btw... I hung onto my A average, just by the skin of my teeth with that Physics course!  Now, I am half way through a Space course which is much easier.  I definitely prefer sitting on my porch at night gazing at the stars and moon for my assignments vs. calculations!

I recently completely this black and white floor which, lucky for me, was less than a mile from my house!  How often does that happen?  Never.  This was the perfect job for a client who just happened to find me through a search engine.  These floor projects just take a zillion trips back and forth because of the drying time.  That's how I was able to sneak in some gardening and kayaking! :-)  Of course, the week that I did this floor was the hottest and the most humid week we've had so far, so I could only do one layer each day and then leave a fan blowing on the floor until I returned the next day.

Here is the "before" shot.  The homeowner had already had her stairs painted.  The treads are black and the risers white. This is looking in from the front door.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is the very end of the hallway.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The first step was to paint it all white.  I used two coats of white setcoat and 2 coats of a white floor paint and it finally covered 100%.

I had drawn out several layouts of the pattern, to scale, on graph paper for the homeowner.  We ended up going with 15" squares, on a diagonal.

 

This front hallway is quite dark, with just a little light coming from some frosted panes in the front door and the lighting is not very bright inside, so painting the floor really brightened things up.

 

 

 

 

 

This view is from the opposite end of the hall.

 

 

 

Here is the front of the hall, just before the stairs.  I should have put the radiator cover back on before taking the pic, but I didn't want to step on the floor yet, so was shooting pics from adjacent rooms.

 

 

 

 

 

Now, one of the best things about this job was that one day, on my way home, I passed this used furniture shop, and outside on the sidewalk was this adorable blue chair.  I loved shape of it, AND the fact that I did not have to paint it, since someone else already did that!

 

It had only 2 or 3 tiny knicks, but I decided I wanted it to be more distressed, so just took some sandpaper to it.  I got it for $30, it took me less than 5 minutes to do this project, and then it was ready to put in my bedroom. :-)

 

 

 

New Job Begins

I started a new job last week, that I hope to finish by the end of this week.  This is also a new client for me, a young family (husband, wife and 2 yr old boy) who I have never worked with before.  They just bought this house, but are still living in their former house for another 2 weeks, while some work is being done in this new house. 

Typically, I have my breakfast in the car.  This commute is about 40 minutes each way, but can be a little longer or shorter, depending on traffic that day. 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm already loving this route for two reasons:  1) there is a drive up mailbox along the way and right next door, an ATM for my bank, so I can take care of two errands without even getting out of my car.

 

 

 

 

I will be doing an allover repeat pattern on these walls in this kitchen/dining area.

 

 

 

 

 

I'll be using this Alloverscroll design from Royal Design Studio that you see on my sample board here.  I love this pattern.  In fact, I've used it so many times I finally had to break down and order a new set of stencils.  I ordered the large pro size as well as the smaller version.

 

In this Living Room I will be doing two different finishes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This diamond pattern will be done on the top portion of the walls.  I have yet to work out the brown color, which is why you see two tones here.

 

This leather sample shows the finish that will go inside each of the panels.

 

 

Lastly, I will be doing a little something on the ceiling above the island where these two pendants hang.

Wrapping Up 2010

I hope you are all enjoying a little downtime between Christmas and New Year's Day, relaxing, spending time with family, etc.  My time with family was cut short by a day due to the Blizzard of 2010 that began here in the Boston area yesterday.  The family members who were traveling,  wisely decided to get on the road a day earlier to avoid the brunt of the storm.  By noon today, we had 18" of snow here.  It's really very pretty.

 

Here is a view from my living room window, looking out onto my front porch.  Now I have real snowflakes, as well as my stenciled snowflakes on my window!

Over the last two weeks, I've been very fortunate to have a job going on within walking distance from my house.  The homeowners are a delight to work with, and each project I've worked on has been nothing but fun!  What a great way to end 2010.  Over the next few days, I will share each of the 4 projects I worked on in this house.

 

 

Today I will start with my final project completed here... the stairs.  When I first saw this incredible staircase designed by Melanie Royal and executed by her team for Peacock Pavillion, I knew I had to do something like this for a client soon!  The home I am working in is an older, typical Cambridge, MA house, that has been converted into two units,  3 floors and a basement.  My clients have a young family and wanted a contemporary look to this older house,  so they were very instrumental in picking out designs with me, for each of the projects.  The majority of the walls in this home are freshly painted with a bright white.  When I first introduced this stair riser idea, I was thinking it would be done in black and white.  When the homeowners decided to do them in a color, I was thrilled!  I did samples in a Tomato Red and three different shades of yellow.  The bright yellow samples won out.  

The photos really do not give you the fabulous impact that these designs make as you enter the house and are greeted with this cheery collection of patterns.  I used four stencil designs from Royal Designs Moroccan collection: Curved Connection, Eastern Lattice Small, Moorish Fleur de Lis, and Endless Moorish Circle.  By the way, there are actually 2 identical sets of stairs, so I did repeat the same patterns.  This is the set of stairs from the first to the second floor. There is a hallway at the top and a set of stairs from the second to the third floor, so this dramatic effect carries right up through the house.

 

 

 

 

 

A closer look.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here you can see each of the four stencil designs used.

 

More projects in this house tomorrow.  I wish I had stairs in my house!

 

1/10/2011:  Additional notation for this post.

I am very pleased and honored to announce that Melanie Royal did a very nice write up about my stair project on her blog, Designamour.  You can read her post here.

Continuation of An Interesting Week

Last week I was writing about some unexpectedly different opportunities that came my way.  I ended the week with one very fun assignment I need to tell you about!

Jayne Hannah, Director of Corporate Events, at Teambonding®, contacted me for help with a Hands On Mural project.  Teambonding® custom designs team building programs for large corporations, non-profits and universities, meeting and event planners as well as hotel, resorts and conference centers. Take a look at some of their past events here.

There were 130 participants for this particular Teambonding experience.  The Hand Mural was just a small part of their busy day.  The very organized, Jayne Hannah, knew this mural project was going to have to be done quickly and efficiently, so she had it well planned out.  I was allowed to bring an assistant, and Jayne also provided several  helpers where and when needed.  This event was held in the Rose Kennedy Ballroom at the lovely Intercontinental Hotel in Boston.   I could not have had a better team to work with.  Chris Smith happily agreed to join me that day, and Jayne brought along 3 other very competent team members.  As soon as lunch was over and the ballroom empty, the Hand Mural team flew into high gear, readying the room for their return.  We covered the floor beneath the 13 large, round tables with plastic.  More plastic went on the table tops.  Chairs were moved around.  Paint supplies were laid out on all tables.  Chris and I had done a bit of prep work the previous day.  I had pre-cut 150 twelve inch RocLon® fabric squares for the hand prints and Chris hemmed a 10' x 10' piece of canvas.  After a feverish 45 minute transformation of the ballroom, our participants returned.

Jayne explained the project, although they did not know what was going to be done with the hand prints they would be making.  That would be revealed later in the day.  I gave a quick demonstration of how they were to do their hand print.  Each table was given a specific color paint to use.  Using a small, foam roller, they would roll the paint onto one hand and stamp their canvas square with their imprint.  Wet Wipes and paper towels were at each table for clean up.  The Hand Print Team ran around from table to table, assisting where needed.  The hand prints came out great! 

Next, the participants were given an afternoon assignment, which was a Scavenger Hunt through the streets of Boston.  They exited the ballroom in teams of 13, armed with backpacks and GPS's to find clues around the city.  As soon as they were out the door, the Hand Print Team once again, sprang into action.

Chris, armed with her hot glue gun, tacked down a rod pocket on the 10' x 10' canvas.  Other team members cut out the hand shapes, cleaned up the tables, and picked up the plastic.  I sketched out the outline of the shape the hands would form.  We were to have the 130 hands form the shape of the company logo of the client.

The logo was projected onto a screen.  It looks like a giant comma.

Here you can see the hands all laid out.  The center was left blank, for a slogan that would later be placed there.  Because we had a limited time frame to do this project, none of us could stop and take pictures of the actual progress!  Everyone eagerly pitched in, helping Chris and I arrange the hands.  We used a permanent spray adhesive to attach all of these hands, so you can imagine how quickly we were working! Not to mention, how carefully we were working to keep the adhesive from getting everywhere in this ballroom.

This close up shows you how neat all the hands look together!  It was important to have them all touching at some point, a key component of the participants team building experience.

When everyone returned from the Scavenger Hunt, the Hands On Mural was revealed!

After a long day, a happily exhausted Jayne and Chris are ready to go home!  Chris and I thoroughly enjoyed this experience and the opportunity to work with Jayne Hannah and be a part of this Team Building experience.  We look forward to future assignments!

Interesting Week

I am having a rather interesting week with some new opportunities coming my way.  I am definitely ready for a change of pace and something a little bit different. 

Over the weekend, I met with a young man who hired me to select paint colors and draw up a floor plan for his living room and dining room remodel.  He did not want to pay the high price of an experienced Interior Designer, so he thought he'd go a different route.  Here is the plan I did. 

For furniture, he has a red couch, ottoman and love seat that is almost new, so wants to use those pieces.  Also there are a few miscellaneous lights and accessories.  The floor will be replaced with some new wood and some recessed lighting is being installed in the living room.  At this stage, he is not looking for specific furnishings, but just wants an idea of what he should buy to pull the two rooms together.  I put a little Resource Packet together for him with pictures of furnishings I'd like him to think about.  He may do the shopping himself or he may end up hiring me to do some of it.  This has really been a fun assignment!

Of course, I had to throw in a few decorative finish options!  Although he is not quite sold on decorative finishes, I am certainly seeing a place for them in his home! :-)  I have picked shades of grays for his walls and ceilings in both the living and dining rooms.  Since the couches are red in the living room, that will be his main color, along with black accents.  In the dining room he has a nice black table with glass inserts.  The six chairs have a colorful, turquoise printed fabric seats.  For this room, I would love to see a turquoise 15" wide horizontal stripe, done with StucoLux, all around the room on gray walls.   The ceiling would look great with a silver, metallic finish and maybe a border of some of these giant screw heads, done in silver.   I'm meeting with him tomorrow evening, so will let you know what he thinks of all this.

Two Bathrooms Completed

Susan and I recently completed two small bathroom jobs, so today I will feature the first one.

              

Here are a few before shots.  The walls have been painted a light shade of beige/tan.

The sample board we created is in the middle, between the granite counter top and a floor tile that will be installed when we finish.

The shower area is now completed with the first part of this finish.  We used some Faux Effects Softex, then applied a glaze over that.

Next, we placed our stencil motifs around the room, where we felt they looked good.  If you follow this blog, this is a design we have been using quite a bit lately.  It's just a nice, simple leaf motif that seems to lend itself to this type of room. 

 

Lastly, we troweled some a special mix of Palette Deco through the stencils and we were done!  Pretty simple, yet elegant and serene looking.  This is a new client for us, and they were a joy to work with.  Next, I will feature the second bathroom we did at this home.

Revisting a few issues

This week I have been working at a new client's home and revisiting two old dilemmas.  One is being faced with a huge house with ALL white walls.  When I first entered this lovely home, I was a bit taken aback by these white walls because my client dresses very colorful, has very contemporary tastes with her furniture, rugs and accessories, and clearly has no fear of bold colors and interesting textures.  She and her husband have lived in this house for six years.  They are both ready for some change and very open to the idea of bringing in some color, but non-the-less, there is a lot of hand holding here during this first stage!

The first floor is large and open.  As you enter the front door, you stand in a very open two story foyer.  From here you can see the dining room, living room and kitchen.  These are the areas I am concentrating on this week. 

I started off by applying a Lusterstone finish to the fireplace wall in the Living Room.  This is the largest wall in the room and very visible from the foyer and the back hall entrance, which the homeowners use, coming in from the garage.  It's a mess because of me, not because they are messy homeowners! Look at that great chandelier in the foreground.  That is over a small kitchen table. There are a lot of such accents in this house, which led me to believe some color on the walls would not be too hard to sell.

Here's a closer look at the finish.  The color is Tequila Sunrise and in this shot you can see how it shimmers and has highs and lows.  The finish is smooth, but appears textured and has a lot of depth.  That fireplace has got to go.  I will be tackling that later!  I don't know what these builders are thinking when they put up a 15' high wall and then stick such a tiny fireplace in the middle of it.  Something on a much grander scale would have been a better fit for this large room.  But, it is what it is, so I will try to make it work a little better in this space. 

Now, this wall, being 15' is a bit out of my comfort zone when it comes to heights.  For many of you who do this type of work, you are probably laughing, but it is no laughing matter when you are afraid of heights and have to get right up to that ceiling line with the base color, plus 3 layers of the finish.  Per usual, I thought I'd be fine with this, but when it came to working around the fireplace, that's when I called it quits.  I was on an A frame ladder, for most of this wall, but then had to switch to an extension ladder to reach the wall with the hearth jutting out at the floor level.  I spent a fair amount of time agonizing about it all, tried going up and down the extension ladder a few times, then got on the phone and begged Stacy to come and do this top section! Luckily, she lives nearby this job, so came over to rescue me. :-)

With the Lusterstone wall out of the way, I moved on to the opposite and adjacent walls to do a simple one color soft rag finish.  The wall opposite the fireplace also goes up to 15' for most of it, then slopes down to a more manageable height.  This wall I actually could do myself, because I did not have to straddle a fireplace hearth.  Still, it was an uncomfortable height for me and you can bet I was gripping the wall for dear life all the while I was up here.  One of my tricks to get the very top portion of the wall and not have to step higher than the third run from the top, is to duct tape a wooden stirrer stick to my brush handle for an extension.  You may laugh, but it works!

This shows a corner of the Living Room, where the one color rag finish meets the Lusterstone wall.

Next week I will be featuring the Dining Room and Kitchen/Hall spaces that adjoin this room.  In the photo above, you can see I have already base coated the formerly white Dining Room walls, purple.  That is just a base color. A deeper tone, in Lusterstone will be applied to those walls.

I've made a new furry friend here.  She is loving her new perch, atop the overturned hassock on the chair.

Quick Kitchen

On Friday I completed this small kitchen job.  There were really only 2 walls to glaze and a very small section around the kitchen window and above the back door.  This was the job I had to run out and buy new chip brushes for! 

This finishes uses 4 glazes all applied at the same time, randomly with chip brushes.  I then just use a rag to blend the colors. 

This 2nd photo is a close up look, which also shows the veining that is added last.  The true colors of the walls is closer to this second photo. I like this finish because it looks different throughout the day, as the light changes. 

This was a new client for me, a fun, young couple with 2 small children.  I took some photos of their dining and living rooms, which we will discuss more after the first of the new year.  They were having a Christmas party the very next night after I finishes on Friday, so I just sneaked this little job in under the wire! 

Health Insurance

Most of what little computer time I have available to lately, has been taken up with researching Health Insurance Plans.  This is a task I undertake yearly, since the cost of Health Insurance only increases each year.  I rank this task right up there with getting my finances in order to file my taxes. 

In Massachusetts, effective  January 1, 2009, individuals must be enrolled in plans that meet the minimum creditable requirements or be hit with fines that can exceed $900. Added to the minimum creditable requirements is mandatory prescription drug coverage.  The cost of my health insurance is almost as much as my monthly mortgage payment.  With this mandatory prescription coverage my monthly premium will be increased by $40.  This is enough to make me endure hours of researching new health coverage and several phone calls to help me navigate the confusion on all of these websites.  I have a headache just thinking about it all.  The kicker is, once you actually figure out the website and get to the correct page, none of them will list any prices for the various plans offered.  For actual pricing, you then have to get on the phone and sift through their complex phone systems!  I was able to get a very helpful woman on the phone last week, from Blue Cross/Blue Shield,  who immediately sent me several PDF's to open, all with pricing information.  I'm afraid to open them, so am waiting another day or so when hope I will feel more up for all of this.    All of the insurance companies want to price out coverage two ways, one as an individual seeking coverage and the other as a business owner.  So, great... double the amount of reading to sift through.

On a happier note, I begin a new job today and am also meeting a new client for a quick consult.  More on both tomorrow.

Quick Job

I had a very quick job to do this week, so I called Stacy and asked if she would like to join me, so we could get it done even faster.  The owner will be putting her lovely condo on the market for sale soon, so was eager to get this ceiling fixed.  Her upstairs neighbor had some water problems (twice!), so this is the 3 rd time this ceiling is getting the same finish.  Someone else originally did the decorative painting in this condo, but they were unavailable to return any time soon.  I personally, never quite understand why you would not cater to your existing clients.  I did some checking to be sure there were no real problems with the client and found none.  The client is actually a very nice young woman who works some long hours and just wants this ceiling done so she can show the place to perspective buyers!  This picture shows where the water damage occurred.  It was already patched when we arrived, so we just sanded lightly and primed.  It's hard to see because the lighting is very poor in this room, but the entire room...walls, ceiling, trim and built-ins are all done using a metallic strie. 

Because the technique was done in metallics, it could not really be repaired without being very noticeable.  We rolled on 2 layers of the base coat over the entire ceiling, up to this soffit area over the bed.  Today we will be doing the strie, which should only take a few hours.

When we first arrived, I was a bit nervous at the site of all of these paint cans in the dining room!  The homeowner had already given me the colors used, so I thought we were all set on that front.  She was just nervous that she was given the wrong information, but I did a sample on some poster board and all was fine.  It turned out that whoever did the 2nd repaint of the ceiling did not use the exact glazes that were on the walls, etc.  It was a little off.  Now we have the right match. Oh, I see my coffee got in the picture. :-)

The timing was right for me with this job, because I can really only work an half day today since I have to go home and get ready for the opening of the Holiday Tables event in Newport tonight.  Why is it that when I have to go to an event after work I always seem to be doing a ceiling, where I am sure to get paint in my hair? And of course, this had to be metallic paint to boot, so I'll probably find a big glob of it on my arm somewhere this evening!  Well, at least it is a festive silver shade.  I'll report back next week about the Holiday Tables.   Have a good weekend!