Painter Girl

The Wakefield House: Powder Room

Back in the beginning of March,  I showed you a series of sample boards that were selected for various walls in this house in Wakefield, MA.  With the job now complete, I'm ready to reveal how it all turned out.  First, let me say this was just a very fun and relaxing job. The homeowners were a delight to work with, the commute not my typical Boston traffic nightmare... and a very good bakery just as I would come off the exit ramp!  What more can a girl ask for?  I have to laugh when I think back to my wardrobe during this time frame in March.  I believe I started out wearing turtlenecks, gloves and a winter coat.  The temperatures shot up into the high 80's days later and I was in a tank top!  By the time I finished the project I was back to a T shirt and sweater.  That was some insane March weather.

I'm going to feature the Powder Room today.  Here is the "before" shot.  Bad pic, but it was beigey-tan with a, gasp... wallpaper border. I hate using the "w" word.

 

 

To the right is the sample board, showing the finish.  This is a busy finish, but I like it on an accent wall or in this case, all walls in this small Powder Room.  It's done by just troweling on paint, wet on wet with the colors.  Messy, but quick and easy to do. 

 

 

And here it is done.  The room has a much warmer look now.  For this mini-makeover, the homeowners replaced the faucets, towel bar, lighting and medicine cabinet, all with deep toned fixtures

 

 

 

The interior side of this pocket door was aged, along with the door frame and baseboard.  When I saw the new artwork that was selected, I immediately knew I had the perfect stencil to coordinate, one of the Renaissance Tile Series 1 designs, from Royal Designs Studios. I hate to tell you how many years I have had this stencil, but it certainly has stood the test of time!

 

In this close up, you can see I added a little bling with some Swarovski crystals.  The homeowners tell me they love to hear their guests response when they go into this small room and pull the pocket door closed.  It's always a fun surprise!

Next up... the front hall.

Birch Trees

Birch Trees on walls has been very big this year.  We have seen it done with various expensive wallpapers and wall decals.  They are quick and easy to freehand or stencil and can be customized to fit a particular space. 

 

 

 

 

 

Last year I experimented with some Birch Trees on a wall in my living room.  I love bringing a little piece of the outdoors, right inside my house!

 

 

 

 

 

I did these Birch Trees in a very small Powder Room as part of the Cambridge House Project (see yesterday's post).  I drew the trees on two opposing walls, with a brown watercolor pencil.  I then used a brown water based paint and liner brush to execute the trees.  Some trees were done in a lighter brown, thinning the paint more with water, to achieve some depth.  This is a very, very small room.  You are seeing the entire width of the room here, maybe 4' wide. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A closer look.  Because it is such tight quarters in this room, it was very hard to get a good shot!

 

 

This is the opposite wall.  It looks unfinished in the center because a long mirror will be mounted here, the width of the sink.  The only wall space that will be seen once the mirror is mounted, will be to the left and right of the sink, floor to ceiling.  The base of the mirror will come about 1" above the owls head.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A few days after I completed this project, I got a call from my good friend and fellow decorative painter, Chris Smith, telling me she had a Birch Tree project to do for a client of hers. Here is her beautiful interpretation!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you are not inclined to freehand some trees, Helen Morris over at the Stencil Library has a wonderful Bare Trees stencil design that can be custom ordered to the size you need.

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.

Quick Powder Room Job

While Susan and I are busy working out our finishes for our next project, Glory restaurant, I thought I'd slip in a few posts of recent powder rooms I have completed.  I love doing powder rooms since they typically can be done in a day or two. I forgot to take the "before" picture, but this one previously sported a black and white textured wall paper.  This is a washed Aquastone finish, which is very easy to do.  I based the walls with Ben Moore's Navaho White and then just randomly applied Aquastone.  I use a ratty old chip brush to apply the Aquastone.  Once completely dry (overnight) I just washed it with Earth Brown Aqua Color diluted quite a bit with water.  I use a rag for this and again, it goes quickly.

For the ceiling, I did a galvanized steel look.  This pic was taken before I began the walls, so you are just seeing the walls primed.  The ceiling was in good shape and painted white, so I just rolled on 2 coats of Ben Moore's Metallic Silver.  Using a sea sponge, I dabbed in some metallic bronze to age it a bit.  I added some rivets around the edge.  These were done by dipping my index finger in Dutch Metal Silver, and then onto the ceiling.  With a liner brush and charcoal paint, I added some detailing, as well as some white highlighting on the rivets.