Painter Girl

Family Room: Wakefield

Monday, I showed you the Kitchen in this house, which is open into the Family Room.  I carried the background finish into this room on two walls, and did an accent wall with a Venetian Plaster.  The stenciled leaves were done only in the kitchen.

The wall on the right, is the VP wall, the left is the same multi-glazed finish that is carried into the adjacent kitchen.  New furniture and window treatments have been ordered for this room, so I will have to go back and get better photos when it is all delivered.

 

 

This Dimensional Basecoat is the first layer of the glazed walls.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It is rolled on and then smoothed out with a spatula.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is what it looks like while it is wet, before smoothed out with the spatula.  You have the option of how textured you want it to be.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is a close up of the accent wall. So sorry, for another not so great picture! It really looks much better in person!

 

 

 

 

 

 

The last piece of this room is the fireplace surround.  I glazed it and added some stenciling.  I used one of my favorite stencils from Royal Design Studio, Florentine Grille.

Next up... the basement Family Room.

Small Bathroom Project

Two weeks ago, I met a new client who inspired me to create three new sample boards for her new bathroom wall finish.  The bathroom was just being freshened up, not a major remodel.  Only the existing vanity would be replaced with a pedestal sink.  The pale yellow tile, although old, was in great shape and a neutral color to work with.  This room is narrow, but quite tall, with a slanted skylight in the ceiling.  Here are two "before" pics:

 

 

 

 

My inspiration was a print she wanted to hang on one of the walls, which of course, I totally forgot to take a picture of!  Here are the three sample boards I created:

 

 

    sample #1

 

 

sample #2

 

 

sample #3

 

 

I was very happy with all three samples, and really did not care which one she chose.  Sample #1, was the winner.  The stencil I used is from Cutting Edge Stencils and is a large, single oversized damask. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The finish is comprised of a few quick layers: a grey StucoLux plaster, Snowflake White Lusterstone and a pale yellow paint.  All layers are troweled on randomly, so it goes very fast.  This shows the Lusterstone over the grey plaster.  After that, I apparently lost interest in photographing the steps because I see I only have pictures of the completed room.

 

 

 

 

I loved the way this room turned out and luckily, so did my new client!  I am now working on some samples for her first floor powder room and and kitchen. :-)

 

Tape, Tape and More Tape

Sometimes even I can't believe how much tape I go through for one job!  For this Family Room I began by taping out all of the panels and the diamonds.

I have to say, I slacked off a bit with my picture taking while on this job.  I kept forgetting to pack my camera because I have been taking most of my photos with my iPhone lately.  But... for this job, I was using my iPhone for my source of music on a portable docking system and everytime I took it off to take a pic, I had to set it all up again, which was a pain, plus I was getting too much paint all over everything. 

Sifting through the photos I do have of this job, apparently I did not take any when I was taping out the diamonds.

I did manage to take some finished pics of this room though.  For the diamonds I used Snowflake White Lusterstone.  I rolled on two coats, then taped out for the diamonds, and skip troweled one more coat. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I shaded on both sides of the grout lines before pulling the tape, then added the brass tacks.

The color is off in this photo and I cannot adjust, but the above photo is more true to color.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This close up shows the brass tack, but the photo is washed out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ah, finally, a true to color photo. 

 

 

 

 

 

Here's a close up of the leather panel.  I used Blue Pearl Shimmered Suede in Red Sable, followed by layers of Stain and Seal Antique Cherry and Van Dyke Brown.  I love doing the leather finishes.  They are easy and really do look like leather!

 

 

iPhone and Lusterstone

A few months ago, I told you how happy I was that I finally made the leap from my antiquated cell phone to an iPhone.  Gee, I'm still in the honeymoon stage with this wonderful little piece of technology and what do I do?  I drop in right into an almost full gallon of Snowflake White Lusterstone!  For those of you unfamiliar with this product, it is a synthetic plaster-like material that can be troweled and rolled on surfaces.  Tomorrow, I'll feature the job where I used the Lusterstone and had this little mishap.

Lucky for me and my iPhone, I practice safe iPhoning and had my beloved well protected with this great case you may recall I purchased from Incipio.  I also had a screen protector over the front glass.  As soon as I could compose myself after seeing my iPhone slightly sinking into the vat of Lusterstone, I plucked it out and started performing mouth to mouth quickly began wiping it off.   I was shocked and amazed to see how covered in Lusterstone it was.  I gently wiped it off and then removed the case to clean further.  This little episode was inevitable and my worst fear, which is why I held off on buying a good cell phone for such a long time. 

Let me tell you what a great little phone this iPhone is!  It cleaned up 100% and instantly worked without a hitch.  It's the perfect phone for anyone who has a messy job and needs to answer the phone with less than pristine hands.  Since the screen is flat, there are no keys or buttons to collect paint, plaster, whatever.  There are very few "openings" where anything can get in.  Once home, I cleaned both the phone and cover again... and it looks just like new!

The case comes in two parts.  The back has this sturdy plastic piece that snaps right on and protects the four corners, as well as cushions the phone when it is dropped.  And yes, I have dropped it a few times already... from my ladder, getting out of the car, from the shelf I keep it on in my kitchen, etc.  This case has definitely helped to prolong my iPhone's life!  And no, Icipio does not pay me to endorse their products, nor do they give me any free products.  Of course, if they happen to be reading this and want to send me a little "thank you" gift, I'd love this case in another color. ;-)

The Milton House Foyer/Upstairs Hall Completed

In the end, I was really happy (and so were my clients!) with how this all turned out.

 

This view is from the second floor hallway, looking down to the landing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can see some of the crystals on the flowers in this photo.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The second floor hallway.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is the diamond wall, before the furniture is placed back.  I have about 8 layers of various gold products on this wall!  I wanted to do it using just Gold StucoLux, but it was soooo thin and watery that the layers would not build up and it did not burnish.  After four unsuccessful layers, I added layers of gold glaze mixes to get the color and sheen I was looking for with the StucoLux. I have used non-metallic colors of StucoLux before with great success, so was quite disappointed with this gold and would not recommend it.

 

 

 

 

The same crystals, in a larger size, are placed at the corners where the points of the diamonds meet (hard to see here).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This wall does have a nice glow to it now and works well with the stripes and adjacent back hall.

 

Thanks Chris, for all your help and hard work! 

 

The Game Room - Continued

I began the ceiling project by taping out the border.  Here you also see the walls base painted a gold tone, in prep for a StucoLux™ finish.

As I mentioned in my last post, Todd Cranor from Stencils By Design, cut and shipped us out this great wrought iron, one time use stencil. Again, I give full credit to Tim Haas and Linda Cassels-Hofmann of Art Effects.  I saw the exquisite ceiling they created and adapted the design for my client's ceiling.  There is a wrought iron table and chair set in this room, that works so well with this design concept.  Plus, I knew it would look fabulous with the goldenrod colored StucoLux™ finish going on the walls.  Here you see Susan pretending she is having fun working in such an awkward position. :-)  She is burnishing part of the stencil design.

Now I have the design partially stenciled, with only one piece of the stencil remaining on the ceiling.

Voila!  All stenciled, shaded and highlighted.

A further shot shows some of the foliage stenciled along the outside border of the ceiling.

A closer look at the detailing of the center stencil... before I cleaned up some of the jagged edges!

While I was working on the ceiling, Susan was working on the StucoLux™ finish on the walls.  She rolled the first coat, and troweled the next two.  If you are not familiar with this product, it burnishes very easily.  She used a sanding block, followed by a trowel to burnish.  It comes to a high shine very quickly, unlike most plasters.

Here are two of the corners.  I just used a variety of leaves to fill in around the border.

I will have to get some photos of the walls and the table in this room from Susan and post next time.

Slipped In a Bathroom Job

Susan and I are having some issues with the scaffolding we need to begin two foyer jobs.  The company we contacted to look at the job and give our clients quotes have come in extremely high with their pricing.  While our clients negotiate with them and seek out other options, we will begin in one the homes and work on areas that we can reach on our ladders and a small scaffold that I own.  The need for some high and complicated set up of the scaffolding in both homes has been a pain for both us and the home owners.  Hopefully all that will be resolved this week.

In the meantime, we decided to fit in a quick job and did this small bathroom for another client.  

Here is the "Before" shot, where the bathroom walls have just been base coated in this rich wine color.  This job was made even easier for us because there was nothing in the bathroom.  The vanity and toilet have yet to be installed, giving us a lot of room to move around freely.

The toilet was actually in the bathroom, but lying in the tub, well out of our way!

We used a Portofino plaster on the walls, which has a nice metallic sheen.  When dry, we taped up our leaf designs to determine placement.  This simple leaf pattern is something Susan designed and drew on a low tack, adhesive vinyl.  Once we liked the positioning, we removed the backing, burnished onto the wall, and troweled a gold mix through the design.

 
 
Here you see the finished look.

This close up shows the color very well and how it compliments the tile border and tile squares.

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.

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.

Multi-layered Bathroom Room Walls

Here is another quick bathroom I completed recently.  The wall space was minimal, so this went very quickly, even with all the layers.  I started glazing the ceiling with Golden's Silver Metallic glaze.  It is showing darker than it actually appears in person, here in the photo.  The walls were based with a medium blue.  I used a heavy application of Portofino plaster in Sugar Cane from the ceiling line down about 1/3rd of the way.  After that, I just skipped troweled it, lightly and randomly.  Once dry, I added a little Aquastone, randomly, for some texture.  Next, I glazed with yellow-ocher, a lighter gold toned glaze mix and some linen white.  Once dry, I went over the entire wall space once more with a very thinned Linen White glaze mix to tone it all down.

This photo shows the wall color a little more accurately.  The tile, toilet, tub and sink are all a pale yellow, so this softly glazed plaster finish brought in a little interest.