Painter Girl

Small Changes

Recently, a client sent me this picture of some vines I had done in her kitchen quite a few years ago:

 

 

She had made some changes in her kitchen and now wanted the leaves to be green vs. their current blue-grey.  She also wanted to bring in some wine colored berries.

 

 

While I was up on my ladder working, I came upon a section where I had signed my name and dated and was surprised to learn I had done this work back in July 2000! 

 

 

This was an easy change to make, just overlaying the stencil used and adding some green, and then the berries.

 

Some off white valances are being made and I will add this same vine to those to complete her kitchen make-over.

 

Reviewing 2011, Part Two

May 2011

Etched glass doors for china cabinet

Floorcloth

June 2011

Master Bedroom

July 2011

Family Room

Dressing Room

August 2011

Folding Screen

Front Hall

Family Room

Kitchen

Reviewing 2011, Part One

I love this week after Christmas and before the new year begins.  I always take this time to look back at the jobs I did during the year.  This year I was especially blessed to work with some wonderful repeat clients as well as some new ones. I felt this year was one of my most creative years, filled with opportunities that allowed me to really stretch my thinking and abilities.  As I poured through twelve months of work, each and every job brought a smile to face.  Since I have chronicled all of these jobs here on this blog this year from start to finish, I thought I would just feature one or two final photos from each job. To start, here is January- April 2011.  I hope you enjoy this review!

January 2011

Accent Wall for Attleboro Kitchen &  Bath

Accent Wall in Family Room

February 2011

Accent Wall in Sunroom

Accent Wall in my own dining room

Introduced PetMats with sayings

March 2011

Back Hall

Daycare Center

April 2011

Master Bath 

Foyer

Chris Smith helping out

Windows at daycare center

Tasha Cough and baby Olson lending a hand

Introduced KidsMats

 

Tropical Bathroom-3rd Addition

Susan and I are still working at the same house where I did the horse mural I last featured.  While I was busy doing that mural, Susan was working in the basement level of this house, in the husband's bathroom.  This is his little sanctuary.  In a house inhabited by 5 females (his wife and 4 daughters), he definitely needs his own bathroom!  Over the years, this bathroom has taken on a life of its' own.  I began, several years ago, fulfilling his request for a Tropical Mural on one wall.

He very creatively added this netting!  He also added this funny pink flamingo, which the girls all love:

His name is Frank.  (the Flamingo, that is!)

A few years later, when I returned to do other work in this home, I was asked to extend the mural onto a second wall:

 Then, last year when I was back in this house doing 3 of the girl's bedrooms, I just added this beautiful turquoise color on the sink wall, to make the mirror really pop:

This time, I think we are finally done with this room! I painted the white wall you see above, the same turquoise color.  Susan created this awesome textured finish with raised fossils.  She used Aquastone, glazed with earth/sand tones:

Here's a closer look.

Now, when you enter this long, narrow bathroom, you are greeted by the 2 fossil walls that surround the toilet, then you see the mural that runs the length of the left hand wall.  The other mural is to the right of the shower stall, behind the fossil wall.  Although this bathroom was completed in three stages, it all seems to flow quite nicely!  The new textured walls and the turquoise walls really make you feel like you are in the tropics!
 

Updating Some of My Work

This is my fourteenth year owning and running my decorative painting company, Paint It!  I am happy to be able to say that I have many repeat clients, some who call me every year to do a little something ...or a big something in their home or business.  I bring this up because I am now finding myself painting over and/or freshening up my own work in some of my clients homes.   Decorative painting techniques and colors go in and out of fashion just like clothing styles, appliance colors, fabric selections, etc.  Decorative painting and home decor follow the current trends. 

I have to constantly remind myself of this when I am in a home I that I may have done a finish in many years ago and that room has not been updated since.  Here is a good example:

This unfortunate tassel and rope stencil was a little something I did...maybe eight years ago?  I cringe now when I see it... and there is an identical vignette on the opposite side of the doorway in this dining room. It's done over a glazed tissue paper finish... also done at the same time.  The tissue paper finish has held up very well and the soft, gold tone of the glaze suits this dining room perfectly.  My challenge is to figure out how I can remove this dated stenciling, re-glaze the area and have it all blend inconspicuously.  I'm going to try priming it out, putting the same base color back on, and then blending in the glaze.  I'll let you know how that all goes. 

In the meantime, there is another white elephant in this dining room:

 

The too small ceiling medallion.  Again... I did for this several years ago when there was a much smaller chandelier in place.  The entire ceiling has a soft, metallic gold glaze, which is still working well in this room.  This European Lace Medallion is a stencil from Royal Design Studios.  It worked well with the former chandelier.   The new chandelier is much larger, so the medallion is now the wrong scale.  I've gone over a few options with the homeowners, one being a larger version of this same design.  This design is now available, in a larger size, as a Modello™.  While that is still an option on the table, the homeowners are leaning toward a faux plaster medallion they found at Home Depot.  It's unfinished and I would leaf it.  Again, I'll be getting back to this, once some decisions have been made. 

Repair Work

A few days ago, I gave you a tour of a job I did in 2003.  I was revisiting this condo to do a little repair work.

A crack had developed on this wall and my finish had blistered and cracked.  Luckily, I had kept some good records from this job.  The condo unit had been sold to someone new shortly after I completed the original work and my name and contact info were passed on to the new owner.   The finish was done with LusterStone, which is very easy to repair.

 I scraped and sanded the area and applied some patch compound.  Once dry, I feathered on the original base paint color used under the Lusterstone. 

To speed things up, I used a blow dryer between the layering.

Once the base paint was dry, it was easy to feather in the LusterStone with a small Japan Scraper.

Once done, it all blended quite nicely!

Oh, I almost forgot...

Here's a rare shot of me NOT wearing my painter's overalls while I work!  I knew this job would only take me an hour or less, and was off to do something non-paint related after, so I donned my apron instead!  Of course, I did manage to get some of the Lusterstone on my sweater sleeve :-(, but it washed out.

The Wall Unit: On Site Work

Last week I was in my studio working on the doors for this week's Wall Unit Project.  I originally did a finish on this very same Wall Unit a good 10 years ago!  I was amazed to see just how well it held up, but now it is time for an updated look.  When you see some of the photos from the on site work, take note of the finish on the walls, which is also at least 10 years old.  I'm trying to get the client to let me do a new finish on these walls, but she still loves it and is reluctant to cover it all up.  I may be able to convince her to do an accent wall to keep us both happy!

I found the copy (very faded!) of the blue print given to me when these shelves were being built 10 years ago.

 This is the old finish that I am going over.

And here is the selected finish on a sample board.  It's a very simple rolled on Lusterstone.

The far right side of the Wall Unit has this shelf unit.  I have it primed out and base coated now. 

It's difficult to maneuver around this room, but this shot shows almost all of the Wall unit, except for the shelves seen above.  The four doors that I still have in my studio, cover the open areas that have drawers.  The middle unit has no doors.  It is all primed and partially base coated at this point.  I'm using a Ben Moore Aura color.  I'm using the Aura for two reasons: 1) it dries very quickly and 2) I will only need to do one coat before I apply the Lusterstone.

I will also be doing the same finish on the raised panel portions of these closet doors. 

Here is one of the finished doors. I've added a little silver detailing around the inside edge of the recessed panel.  I will work on this more today and hope to finish up on Wednesday.  In the meantime, I will try to come up with something for the accent wall and a floorcloth idea for the kitchen. :-)

More Samples

When I was working on the samples the other day, trying to match my original finish, I also brought along with me, some new samples for the Laundry Room and Mudroom.  Often, my clients are not home when I am working at their house, so I leave a lot of notes and samples for them to look at when they return.  This system works well for clients I have been working with for several years now.  New clients need a little more hand holding, a little more explanation of how the finishes will work and look, etc.  With Repeat Clients, the trust has been established so there is a lot more freedom.

I taped up a Silver Moss (Lusterstone) sample for the walls in the Mudroom.  The smaller paint chip is the base color for the painter to prep the walls.

This Iridescent Gold Striae sample is for the 5 doors in the Mudroom area.  It will just be used as an accent, not for the entire door.

The Powder Room, which I just completed, is off of this Mudroom.  The electrical is not hooked up in there yet,  and the mirror and toilet need to be installed.  After I finished stenciling the Fennel, I unplugged my light and had already moved it to another area, so I took this picture in the dark.  I am surprised to see that it is pretty true to color!  The vanity in this room is awesome, so once the lighting is installed and everything else goes in, I'll take some more photos.

Next, I left some samples for the new Laundry Room.  Now, first I must say, I was very sad to learn the old Laundry Room was demolished to expand the new kitchen.  This Laundry Room was one of my favorite jobs I ever did.  Here is one photo from that room.  If you would like to see more click here.

This was all done freehand, no stencils.  The clothing replicated her 2 boys clothing, who were about 9 &  10 at the time.  Now they are both in college, so we are moving onto a new theme!

I left the samples all on the washer and dryer, with my cryptic notes! 

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.

A Quick Repair, A Short Day

It's 3 p.m. and I'm happy to report I am back at home with time to spare to get some much needed work done in my office.  This morning I had a quick repair job to do at one of my favorite client's home.  I've mentioned this client on here before, I believe referring to them as the 4 Girl Clients, since this lovely couple has 4 beautiful daughters.  I am always amazed at how organized this Mom is!  She sure has her system down, with lots of baskets and cubbies neatly organized all over this big house.  Plus, and most importantly, she seems to have these girls trained to actually put things away where they belong.  The house is not overly neat, having a warm and inviting feel to it.  The best new addition to the property since I was here last Summer, is a fantastic outdoor pool and jacuzzi, with a small pool house.  The pool is a very appealing shape, not your typical rectangle, plus it has a little waterfall. 

Well, unfortunately, I was there to work, not to swim.  You may remember this fun bath I did last Summer.  All is well with these walls, but across the room, the mirror that was glued to the wall above the double vanity was removed and some new lights were installed.

Well, I think it is going to be hard to see what I am talking about in this picture.  If you look closely, you will see from the ceiling line down to about 2/3rds of the photo, there is a light pink striae.  Then, a horizontal line appears because  this is where the old lights were removed, plastered, the new lights hung.  My task was to make this vanity wall match the 2 adjacent walls that have the pink striae.  To new mirrors will be hung over the 2 sinks, covering most of this wall, but you still have to paint the wall to match the others. 

It was a very straight forward fix.  I just  painted the walls the original base color, let dry, then added the pink glaze, doing a striae technique.  The part that took the longest was removing the glass globes, crystals, and light bulbs from the 2 light fixtures, so i could work better around them.

I took a lot of pictures of this counter top, a counter in another bathroom, plus the kitchen counters because the homeowner is ready to do something with them.  Stacy, whom I often mention on here, and work with frequently, has just taken a course to learn how to resurface such counters.  We are going to get together next week in her studio to make some sample boards.  I mentioned this to the homeowner here, and she is very excited to learn more about this.  I'll be discussing this more in the coming weeks.  Stacy and I will be teaming up to do some counter work, cement floor work, and faux marquetry on wood floors.  We have been seeing a big need for this and already have a good list of customer going that want to see samples.  So... a few days in the studio for us should be time well spent!

While I was at this house, I snapped a few pictures of the 2 story foyer I did about 4, maybe 5, years ago.  This was one of the first jobs that Stacy and I worked on together.  Due to my fear of heights, she did all the top portion on the scaffolding (22' high) solo, while I stayed on the lower levels!  I like this metal wall hanging that has been added.  It's always fun to see how and where my clients add accessories.  Since the walls are still wet when I leave, nothing is hung yet.

Here's the opposite wall, with a nice painting hung!