Painter Girl

Another Repair

Lately, I've been getting an unusual amount of calls for Repair Work, on walls I did quite a few years ago.  I also love returning to a home to see how my finishes have held up over the years.  Recently a client called me to repair a Lusterstone finish in her dining room where a thermostat had been replaced, and a glaze finish in her entryway where some water damage had occurred.  I did this job back in 2005 and had not been back since.  When I pulled my client's file, thankfully, I had kept meticulous notes about the finishes, but I could not recall the house or even doing this job.  I thought when I got to the house, I would surely remember being there.  Well... I did recognize my work, but that is all I recognized!  This was a beautiful Victorian, a very unique house, so I am a bit worried about my lack of memory.  I asked several of my decorative painter friends if this had ever happened to them, and was relieved to hear they all had such similar stories!  Maybe it is because we have all been doing this type of work for so many years and have been in such a variety of homes.  I may up the Ginkgo though. When I checked my photos, I am not finding the dining room repair, but here is the front hall:

Before

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After

 

 

 

Finally Completed 2nd Repair

I returned to this home and base painted over 3 of the walls I tried to repair, unsuccessfully, last week.  I had already done all the patching, so now it was just a matter of base painting over the walls in question, letting them dry, and glazing again.

Here you see the back wall, not damaged, so not touched.  The two adjacent, small walls are base painted and ready to be glazed.

 

 

The left wall re-glazed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This wall to the right of the flat panel tv, was left untouched, but the adjacent walls had to be redone.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All done....yay!

More on Repairs

The second repair I had to do was in this small Family Room.  I did this job about 2 yrs ago.  The curved wall is actually square tiles that are striaed, which you cannot see in this shot.  The problem to fix is the one side of the room where the texture is.

 

        

 

 

 

 

 

 

There was some water damage in this room from a leaky ceiling.  This finish was done using Aquastone. I washed off the streaks and patched the damaged areas.  Luckily, this house is close by because it required several trips, with the drying time. 

 

 

 

 

 

I kept feathering out the Aquastone and then applied the base coat paint, feathering that out.  In the end, after several attempts/methods with the glazing, I could not make it blend without noticing the patching.  I spent so much time on this without success, that I decided it was best to just redo the wall in question, from top to bottom.  The homeowners are submitting my new quote to their insurance company.

Repairs

 

 

This week has been a week of repair work for me.  First, I returned to the house where I recently did the diamond pattern in their Family Room.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A small hole had to be cut into the wall to run the wiring for their flat screen t.v.  The homeowners did the patching themselves, afraid someone else might further damage the finish.  They did a great job!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I based it, applied more Lusterstone and fixed the "grout line".  It was an easy repair. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

While the layers in the Family Room were drying, I worked on this ceiling medallion for the Dining Room.  Here it is, based a light gray.

 

 

And here it is completed... an aged silver.

 

Next, I had a much more difficult repair to make in another home...

Repair Work

I had two small jobs to do, both in the same direction, a good hour's drive south from my home.  The first job, was a repair and I knew it would take me longer to travel there than actually do the work, so I put it off until I could combine it with some other work in that direction.

First up, the repair.  Mainly, this white wall you see on the right hand side of the photo.  Some remodelling recently took place in this house, affecting some work I did a few years ago.  I just needed to reglaze this wall to match the wall you see in the background.

 

Luckily, I keep good records of the finishes I do for each job, so this went quite quickly.  I have no "After" picture, because I forgot to take one!  You'll just have to trust me when I tell you, it matches!

 

 

 

 

 

 

For a little trip down memory lane, I took a pic of this topiary I had previously painted in the hallway.  The topiary stencil is from Lynn Brehm's Natural Accent and the urn, I believe,  is from Royal Design Studios. Considering there are four kids in this house and a dog, this busy hallway has held up remarkably well!  It was sealed, which really made a difference in the wear and tear.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This Powder Room is right off of the hall and the walls have the same finish as the hall, only some faux exposed bricks were added.

 

With my work done here, I moved on to the next project, an accent wall in a soon to open Kitchen and Bath showroom.  More, next post.

 

Don't forget to VOTE today!

Repair Work

I did this job back in May of 2007 and have had to do repair work in this particular room, two times since.  The first time I returned because the counters were installed at the wrong height, after I had done the finish on the walls.  This time I was called in to repair some damage done to one wall and the ceiling when access to some pipes was needed.

 

This job is in a WiFi Library in the clubhouse of an apartment building complex.  The walls and ceiling were very nicely patched, sanded and primed for me by the company.

 

 

 

The ceiling was just straight paint, so an easy fix.  Since I was not the one who originally painted this ceiling, I had no idea what color it was.  Luckily, an almost full can of paint, left over from the job, was in the storage closet...and it was still good!

 

I also was not quite sure what the wall base color was.  I vaguely remember there was a last minute change for this and it was not in my notes!  I found a very (microscopic!) area in the room, where I could hold up a fan deck and try to make a match.

I painted out the wall from the window to the corner.

 

 

 

 

 

I quickly realized that this was a two layer glaze; again...not in my notes!  I had actually kept very detailed notes about this job, since I did a two story foyer and a very large lounge in the same building.  I remember this Library was a room where the finish kept changing, until the last minute, when a final decision was made.

 

 

 

 

The ceiling came out great, and you
cannot even notice the patching.  I credit they guy who did the prep work, whom I never met, but was told he is "the best"!  I agree!

 

Here is the finished room.  The wall on the left is the one that was repaired.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A closer look at where the two walls meets, shows the match! :-)

 

I walked around the building and was happy to see that it looks almost as good as the day I finished this job, back in 2007.  All the wall finishes have really held up well and the management keeps this building spotless, inside and out.

 

This rooms were designed by Marc Bordet, of Bordet Interiors.  He was also happy to hear my report on the condition of the building.

 

 

Silver

Yikes, I see I have not posted in a few weeks!  I will have to do a little updating to bring you up to the current job I am now working on.  But... before I do that, I need to post about the 2 previous jobs.

A while ago, Susan and I did this silver leafed ceiling.  I returned recently to do a silver finish on 2 built-ins in this room and to repair the ceiling, which was damaged when these built-ins were installed.

Here are the two sets of built-ins, completed. 

This was the reference page I was working from.  The cabinets were wood and primed white when I first arrived.  My client wanted them to look metallic, but not as dark as the photo, with a raised star design.

After I did the silver finish, I cut out a star stencil and trowel on some silver tinted plaster.

Then I added the detailing with shading to make it look dimensional.

Here's a little closer look at the upper doors.

And here is a close up of the star.  I was really happy (and so was my client!) with the way the built-ins turned out.  I'm really loving this room with the deep, eggplant walls, white trim, and silver ceiling and built-ins.  I can't wait to see this room all pulled together with the lighting and furniture.  It will be quite elegant!

The big disappointment was the ceiling repair.  Whoever came in to plaster, did a terrible job and all of their mistakes came shining through when I tried to leaf it to repair. :-(  The original ceiling has a slight texture and the new plaster was very smooth and also poorly done.  You could see a deep line where the new and old plaster met, as well as some gouges.  I tried to fill in some of the gouges and the line, but it needs to be replastered.

It may not look too bad in this photo, but trust me... when you enter the room, your eye immediately goes to the edge above both cabinets where it's been "fixed".  I'll return again after the plaster is redone.

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.

Revisiting an Old Job

Back in 2003, I had the pleasure to do quite a bit of work in a gorgeous 2 bedroom condo.  At that time, I was hired by a gay couple who had just bought this condo, gutted it and spent a good year doing the renovation.  I never took photos of the work I did there because when I finished, the place was still very much under construction and taking photos seemed pointless.  Sadly, the couple split up almost immediately after the renovation was completed and the unit was sold.  I learned all of this from the new owner, my Mystery Client.  My contact information was passed onto this new owner and this is the second time she has called me to come and do some repair work. 

I call her my Mystery Client because we have never met, only emailed and spoken on the phone.  Her main residence is in Brooklyn, NY and this Boston condo is an apartment she uses only occasionally.  She seems like a really fun and great lady, so I hope we do meet in the future.

Before I go into detail about the repair work I performed, I thought I'd take you on a little tour of this fabulous unit.  What you can't see, is the view of Boston from this 18th floor apartment!  This picture shows the entry/foyer area. The ceiling is a floating ceiling with rope lighting all around the perimeter.  I did a galvanized steel finish on the ceiling and a Mother of Pearl finish on the walls. 

The door was done using a brushed silver finish.

The entry opens into a large dining/living space.  Here, the Mother of Pearl finish continues on all walls.  The recessed alcove was done with a CB2 shade of green paint.

 

The same finish continues from the dining/living space into this hallway.  To the right is a small kitchen space and straight ahead is the Master Bedroom. To the left is another small hallway, a 2nd bedroom that is being used as den and a fabulous bathroom.

This is the Master Bedroom where a brown Linen Weave was done on the walls.

I was here to repair some damage in the Den, as well as to repaint the bathroom ceiling because the upstairs neighbor had had a leak.  More about the repairs... next post.

Complex Repair Job

This is a job I've had in the works for many months.  Finally, it has come to fruition and I've enlisted the help of fellow decorative painter, Susan Siefer to take on the challenge to work a little magic on "The Wall".  Neither one of us were involved with "The Wall" when it was originally created 8 years ago.  "The Wall" has suffered a little damage on several of the panels and we have been asked to see what we can do. 

We have seven panels to deal with.  I cannot fit the entire wall into one frame.  It spans two stories in height, but we will be mostly concentrating on the panels below the window and directly above the window.  This wall is the focal point wall in the lobby of a large commercial building that is home to 4 radio stations, a tv station and several offices.  Needless to say, a lot of traffic in this lobby!

I have these panels numbered as part of my proposal, so I could designate what work would be done on each panel.

This is one of the first panels we tackled.  Several of the panels are suffering from this peeling problem.  It looks like the finish was applied directly to the wall without any primer.  Since we have no idea what products were used, we need to proceed with caution.

This same panel also has a few little dings like this.

Here's Susan working on the prep of this panel.

Well, not the most flattering angle of me, but here I am working on the panel above the window.  

More next post........