Painter Girl

Another Road Trip

My friend and fellow decorative painter, Denise Kilpatrick, passed this part of her job along to me.  Denise preceded me in this Family Room, putting a beautiful, soft glaze on all walls.  The homeowners had sustained some water damage to the walls in this room, which had been previously hand painted by the owner, who was also an artist.  They loved what he did so much, that they wanted it recreated.  Because the job was a few hours north of me, in New Hampshire, Denise took a lot of photos and emailed me so I could see what the job entailed and how to price it.

Here are a two pictures of the original work:

 

 

 

 

 

 

There were three walls, all framed out with these birch branches.  The artist had done a very good job, so I was hoping I would be able to recreate what he did as closely as possible. 

 

With photos taped on all walls, I began by laying it all out and blocking in the color.  This went much quicker than I had expected, so I was able to start the next layer of adding some shading.

 

 

 

 

The view from the Family Room where I was painting.  This was the most idyllic setting to work, by far!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lunch break at the water's edge.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here are two finished walls...

 

and a close up of a corner.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The only thing I was not really crazy about with the previous work, was the way the birch logs were tied together.  It looked drawn on, while the logs looked realistic, so I made a change and painted rawhide ties.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Third wall to kitchen.  I only had three walls to paint because the fourth was a long wall that ran into the dining room, broken up by a lot of windows and sliding doors.

All in all, this was a very fun, relaxing job and I stayed with my friend Rose, who lives right near the ocean in Hampton, NH.  The first night I was there, we sanded the edges of her kitchen counters that were worn and I applied some Stain & Seal that was a great match.  The second night we took a long walk and then had dinner on her deck, overlooking a marsh, with the ocean in the distance.  It was like a working vacation! She's thinking she may want some stenciled stair risers... she's got the perfect stairs for that! 

 

 

 

Road Trips

Yikes, here we are already approaching the second week in July and I have yet to write a post for this month.  I've had the pleasure to have two back to back jobs a few hours away from home during the past few weeks, so will begin to tell you about those.

I'll start out with a job on the Cape (Cape Cod, MA).  Here is the sample board, propped up against the wall where I have already done the glazed background.  For this job I am using a very pretty design by Cutting Edge Stencils, called Poppy Allover.  I had it enlarged 20%. 

A closer look at the sample board, reveals the gold foil applied to the very edges of the flowers.  I used a hologram gold, which really catches the light nicely! 

I stenciled the flowers with a gold metallic paint and the leaves with some leftover green latex paint that was used in the adjoining room.  You can see the handy little level I told you about before, put into good use here.  You can purchase this level through Cutting Edge.  It's really a time saver and keeps everything nice and level without much thought.  I don't even know what to call this room.  The homeowner calls it her dressing room, but it really is not used for that purpose.  There is a large walk-in closed off of this room and it connects the Master Bedroom to the Master Bath.  Normally, there is a beautiful writing desk and chair in here and nothing else.

 

Here's a completed corner, far shot. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another wall.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is my client who is enamoured with the gems, so I added 3, on each stem, just where the stem meets the flower.  Thank God this was a small room, because there are a LOT of flowers in here! 

I did not see the room put together with the furniture and window treatment, so will have to take a finished room pic next time I am back.

 

 

 

Wrapping Up the Cape Job

I see I forgot to post the final pics from the job Susan and I did in Hyannis, so I better do so now and bring you up to date.

The walls were base painted and softly glazed to bring down the height of this room a bit.  A horizontal stripe band was added to bring in the colors of this painting as well as the bedding, shown below.

Here's a little closer look at the stripes.  While I was working in this Master Bedroom, Susan was busy downstairs in the Family Room adding a textured glaze to the fireplace wall.

The woodwork surrounding the fireplace was also glazed to coordinate with the mirror you see to the right.  That mirror will hang above the fireplace.

This photo shows the wall finish and woodwork, close up.

Lastly, Susan added a few shell silhouettes to the chairs to complete our work at this lovely beach condo.

Road Trip

Susan and I are working and staying in Hyannis, MA for a few days this week.  We have two rooms to do, the Family Room and Master Bedroom. 

Our first task is to base paint both rooms.  Not too exciting, but it needs to get done so we can progress on to our finishes.
           

We are working in a condo owned by our clients which they use as a vacation home, so we are also staying here.  The condo is very nicely decorated with lots of amenities, and it's a nice, easy commute... just hop out of bed and we are here! 

Here is "my" room!

And here is a very sunny sitting area:

And... our view from the top deck of the condo: (I'll try to take better pictures today!)

Yesterday it was rainy, cold and dismal here, but today it is bright and sunny so we will have to head to the beach for a nice long walk at some point!  Because it is "off season" here on the Cape, you see many workers fixing up residencies and businesses, and very few tourists here yet.  When we left to go out to dinner last night, there were three men installing new front steps for this condo, so we had to do a little maneuvering to get in and out of the house!  We only have a key to the front door, so had no other option but to use that door. After Memorial Day, the Cape gets busy again with the "Summer People" and is insane with tourists and Summer residents during June, July and August!  I prefer it like it is right now, quiet with no traffic jams.

Ok, unfortunately I can't just sit around, sipping my coffee and looking out at the ocean all day, so I'm off to work.

 

Pros and Cons

I am into my second week of working in Bourne.  Bourne is about an 1 1/2 hour drive from my home in Watertown.  Now, depending on traffic that particular day... it could take me 1 1/2 hours or 2 hours or more to get there.  Fortunately, I have a wonderful friend who generously lent me the use of her vacation home in Centerville.  This gives me a 22 mile commute each way... much better! 

As you have seen, the Bourne House is in a lovely location, and no matter what room I am working in, I have some pretty spectacular views.  It's very quiet here since I am usually by myself here all day.  The general contractor pops in once, maybe twice every few days to check on me and sometimes a painter shows up to work in painting the window frames and some walls in other areas.  Once a week, Marc comes to visit me and check out the progress and every few days, Judy, the mother of the home owner, pops in.  Judy lives a few houses away, and will be moving into the apartment which is located over the garage, when the house is finished.  So, other than these few people popping in on occasion, it's pretty isolated here.  I have my radio/cd player to keep me sane.  I do get a lot of work done, since I have little to distract me!

The down side is that the homeowners live in CA, so I only have contact via email or phone with them.  I like my clients to see the progress and have input on the finish as I am working.  That way I can make color adjustments if needed.  A good example of this is my problem with the finish in the Kitchen/Breakfast Room/Family Room.  This is all one area, with connecting walls, so it will be done with the same finish.  The finish that was originally selected turned out to be too bold, too overpowering for the walls.  This finish just did not translate well to large expanses of walls.  I had previously done the finish in a small bathroom for another client.  There it worked well because the wall space was minimal, with tile below.  As soon as I got this finish on the wall in the Family Room space, I could see it was too much.

If you look closely, you will see a vertical "line" where the short wall meets the tall part of the wall.  The short wall was were I began.  I felt the finish was too busy, too blotchy looking to be on all of these walls.  It would extend into that area beyond the half wall.  So, to correct this, I softened the technique.  I still did not like this.  It looked too blue.  There are 4 glazes being used in this finish, and one is a slate blue.  That blue was just not working.

This is still the same room, just moving around to more walls.  I then adjusted the glazes, but found these walls too yellow and too dark.  That's when I called Marc and asked him to come down and give his input.  In the meantime, I created some new samples on a wall in the kitchen, that will later have cabinets and tile.

This is the new finish we selected.  I omitted the blue and will use mainly 2 glazes with a touch of a 3rd. I also eliminated the veining, so it is more subtle.  I had the gc, painter, mother, and Marc all give me input.  Marc has met with the clients several times now, so he has a good sense of what they would like.  We kept the homeowners informed and I emailed them some pictures.

This week I am doing this finish in the Kitchen/Breakfast Rm/Family Room.  I will post those pictures when complete.

Without the contents of my studio nearby and familiar stores where I buy the supplies I need, a lot of improvising has to be done when something like this happens.  Luckily, I had the Foyer/Hallway to move to while I was working out the new finish for this area and waiting for approval.

The plus side of working here... after work I was able to go back to the Centerville house, shower, change and walk to the beach to relax.  Not a bad way to end the day!

The Bourne House, Views

Today I thought I'd show you a view shots of the exterior of this home and the view I have when I am working on the ocean side of the house.

This is the back side of the house. The house is stories high, with the cupola extending above the 3rd floor.

Here is a fuller view of the back side of the house.  Obviously, still a lot of landscaping to be done and the dumpster is blocking the main entrance.  There is no road access to the front of the house, since the water is there. 

This is the view from the Family Room.  I took these shots from inside, looking out.  (You are also seeing paint specs and dirt on the windows).

This is looking from the Breakfast Room, out to the ocean.

Tomorrow I will discuss the pros and cons of working away from home.

First Week in Bourne

I just completed my first week at the Bourne House.  I brought my laptop along with me, but ran into a few problems.  First, there was no Internet service at the house I was staying, and no Internet service at the job site.  Second, my battery in my laptop is not long for this world, and only lasts about an hour, then I need to use an adapter and plug the computer in.  To check my email, I would drive to the nearby library in Centerville, park in the lot, and log in.  By the time I got home after work, showered and dressed, the library would be closed, so could not get in.  After my 2nd day, I discovered my adapter was no longer working and my battery was now in the Red Zone, so that put an end to all computer use.  I bought a new adapter when I returned home on Friday and will attempt to take the laptop with me again this week when I return to complete Phase 1 of this job.  As a back up, I've decided to write 4 entries today, and set those to post...1 each day while I am away.  It does kill me not to be able to follow all of my favorite blogs each day!

This past week I was able to finish the Foyer/Hallway area in this house, so thought I'd show you the before and after pics of that.  I apologize for the poor quality of the photos, but there is no lighting installed in this house and no window treatments, and of course, I am not a professional photographer! 

"Before" Picture

This view shows about 1/2 of the long hallway's length.

"Before" Picture

Here you can see that no trim work has been added yet and there is just a sub-floor down.

This is one of the neatest, cleanest job sites I have ever worked on.  There is no dust, no left over coffee cups, etc. from subcontractors, and even the floor grates have been covered with screening, so you don't fall in one and twist your ankle or the leg of the ladder does not fall in. No one ever does this... and I don't why, it's such a great safety precaution.

   
"After" Pic

This is one wall in the foyer area.  The finish is a Limestone Finish.  I have used 2 glazes, a tan and a grey tone.  I apply them together on the wall in about a 3' square, using a chip brush.  Next I blend the 2 colors together with a rag.  Later, I go back and do some "fly specking" with the gray, which leaves tiny dots of grey, randomly spattered on the wall.  I then add the veining.

This is a view from the Foyer/Entry to the Hallway.The first door opening on the right leads to the Living Room, and the 2nd door opening on the right leads to the Dining Room.

This view shows the Living Room on the right. Some of the walls in this house are curved.

Tomorrow I will post some pictures of the exterior of this house and the views I have while I am inside painting. ;-)