Faux marble fireplace mantel/ stenciled wall

Mimi's chairs and tabletop

stripping process

                                                                   


 I picked up these chairs up from

completed finish including a flat varnish top-coat

a long-time customer who was debating what to do with them. They were solid oak but had a heavy spattered paint finish on them. We looked at the other pieces in the room, flooring and countertops. We decided on a simple wash. A flat varnish is an imperative for a washed finish. Varnish does not increase in sheen over time--it dulls.









I stripped them and washed them using wire and plastic bristle brushes. The wire brushes do a better job of removing the old finish from the pores of an open-pore wood like oak and  still not scratching the oak like it might scratch a soft wood like pine .

Pieces in situ w/ fabric sample

  The picture on the below right is of a picture frame I refinished. The original finish wasn't off much but it was off. Based on the rest of the colors in the room ,
I changed the base color and re-glazed the piece.

detail of mirror frame

        

Various colored glazes in umber&ochre.

                                                                                                                                                               

 The top on the left goes on a table in the foyer. The original finish had yellowed quite a bit. I refinished it in a faux travertine to pick up the colors in the space. I topped it off with a water-borne flat varnish that doesn't amber nearly as much as an alkyd finish will.

How to Mix Color

                                      How to Mix Color

You want to paint the dining room walls but you dread picking a color. You know the drill--you have a pillow or vase that you like that "kind of" has the color you're after. You go to a big box store (to "save a few bucks") and they mix a quart of something. It barely resembles the color in the pillow or the vase. Or not at all. You can see how that is going to go. No thanks.
You go to a real paint store (Metro Paint FW, for example) and they match the color with no problem. You put some on the wall but it is not quite what you want. How many trips are you willing to make before you "settle" for something?
Isn't there a better way?
You can mix the color yourself.

                                                 So what do you have to buy?

1 quart of the color(in sheen you want) closest to your target color--color "A"
                             (MUCH easier than starting with untinted paint)
1 quart of the same tint base with NO TINT in can(can be added to too intense color w/o starting            over) 
acrylic colors, 2 oz. tubes- 7 colors would be good (available at arts&crafts stores for not too much)
           red, yellow, blue, green, purple, white and orange, ( "student colors" artist's acrylics or craft      paints are fine.)
(NOTE: You could just get red, yellow and blue but the other colors will save time and probably some frustration.)

3-6 white plastic cups--at least 6 ounce with flat bottoms
stir sticks
poster board --4 square foot(which needs a coat of white latex sealer)
           ( it is usually not best not to put color on wall--could be trouble later)
copy of color wheel for reference ( it is easy to get mixed up if you don't mix a lot of color,
        you can make your own--red across from green, blue opposite orange, etc.)

(Attention color experts: It is true that yellow-reds are more heavily represented in the color
spectrum than blues and greens. You can get a copy of the Munsell color chart if you want more precision but that is not really necessary.)

This endeavor does not require formal evening wear--expect to get paint on whatever it is you are
wearing and keep a clean rag at hand.

           1. Dip a finger into color "A" and rub the color onto the poster board--about 2 inches in
diameter. You can compare your other colors to this color. Dry with hand-held hair dryer. 7 or 8 count on "hot" with nozzle about 10 inches away. Then cool sample with "cool" air. If you get sample too hot then you can wreck your color.
           2.  Pour a couple of tablespoons of "A" into a mixing cup.
           3. Examine your color. Let's say we are mixing a sky blue. You hold your sample up to the wall, the sofa, some artwork, the floor and it is just too bright. You check your color wheel and see that orange will "kill" the brightness of the blue.
  
 <Note: You might be tempted to use black to "kill" a color. Do not succumb. Catastrophe awaits.>
          
           4. Add a few drops of orange to the blue. Stir until it is mixed and then stir some more. You can get streaks of orange if you don't mix throughly. That's bad.
           5. Rub color onto poster board as per step 1. You might not see any difference. That's ok. Until you get the hang of adding color then add less than you think necessary at first. You can put it in but you can't take it out--you start over. This is not the part where you want to go fast. Calm focus is the key. (If you must go fast then go out into the street and do some wind sprints.)
          6. Add some more orange repeating 1. You are, of course, placing these samples in order.

>If you end up getting too much color in your sample then you can add some of the untinted quart to your mix and not have to start over. It is your call.
 
         7. When you get the color you want, get a brush and do a foot square sample. Let it air dry and put down the color. You can go "snow blind" after you have been at it for a while.  It will probably take at least an hour for your sample to dry depending upon the sheen of the product. Flat dries the fastest. Gloss dries the most slowly.
        8. There are five different "lights" throughout the day including electrical illumination at night. In the best of all possible worlds "live" with the color for a few days before you start buying paint. Thus satisfied you can march into your local Benjamin Moore dealer with dried sample in hand and get the color you really want.

         This color-mixing thing can easily get out of hand. Enjoy!

[For a much more thorough treatment of this subject I highly recommend the Marxes' book,
"Professional Painted Finishes". ]

Fort Worth Club--antique mirrors

In November of 2005 I got a call from Gearheart Construction to look at a project at the Ft. Worth Club. There were two mirrors in the Camellia Room that needed repairs and also the walls needed some touch up as well. A local family was going to have a reception there for a wedding and wanted to spruce up the place.
There were a number of pieces broken and missing on the mirrors. The job was to replace those and finish to match the existing work.

Once I had gotten started I realized that I could use some help and called some friends to get the name of a good carver. Dean Cardwell showed up and did his magic. In the second photo you can see the substantial piece in the center that Dean fabricated.

After a lot of gluing, carving, casting, coloring, re-coloring and glazing they were finally done. To the right you can see one of the completed mirrors. Actually both are visible(second one in in reflection of first.) Done in time for wedding. The staff at the Club couldn't have been nicer especially Big Tony. Great experience all around.

Faux polished onyx-bookshelves

The floors had more of a golden ochre color. The walls and trim are all an off-white, probably Ben Moore's Linen White. We went with a terra-cotte glaze for the faux polished stone.

This is a rendering of faux onyx done on

 the back of some bookshelves.

The glazing was topped off with a gloss varnish which does yield the effect of polished stone and the wonderful depth that has.

contemporary dining room near Eagle Mountain Lake

Got a call a few years ago from an aquaintance who had a dining room she wanted to do some work on. The walls had already been hand-textured and had a coat of satin sheened gray on them. The trim had previously been enameled in a neutral off-white. You can see the furnishings that were already in the room. Very smart and confidently executed design. The dining table and chairs are a wonderfully warm, rich brown. The floors have mid-tones of taupe, tan and gray. Classically elegant treatment of a terrific space.

Nikki has very good taste. Easy to do color for her because she can see "it" before "it" is on the wall. Something with a pewter metallic was the obvious first choice for one of the glaze colors. A few sample boards later and we had a wall finish.  This is a two-tone glaze combining the pewter with a slighter darker gray that is was in the base color. Technique was executed with sea sponges and Neon Leons-nylon stipple brushes. I used Faux Effects materials to mix glazes and a semi-gloss latex varnish. Varnish just takes a finish like this to another level. It is not unlike polishing a nice piece of marble. A clear coat gives the finish depth that really makes it sparkle.

Wall fixtures were added after the work was done and such a great fit.

Repairing a Lacquered Top

One of my long time customers had me look at an old lacquered table she had gotten several years ago. It is not an unusually valuable piece but it is, as you can see, charming.

Unfortunately over the years the top has suffered from the effects of coaster-free iced drink glasses.
The problem is to efficiently restore the top to match the existing finish.The very first thing to try is a clean soft cloth dampened with solvent alcohol. This will probably remove the water rings immediately and you are all done. If there is other damage then proceed.
The first thing to do is to clean the top.Test a small area on the table with your cleaner first to ensure that your cleaner will not strip or mar the finish. Liquid sander, PASO brand, is my favorite. Ammonia water or solvent alcohol can also be used. Refrain from the use of lacquer thinner since it will ruin the finish--quickly.
Now that the top is clean it is time to get some good photographs to document the artwork on the top. Digital photos are the way to go since you can check you work immediately and see if you did indeed get some good images. The large image afforded by the monitor is a great help when you need to examine detail.  Once you get some good pics you can break out the artist's acrylics and match the different colors in the top. You will refer to these colors as you re-color the top. You might be wondering why it is necessary to physically match color when you have a perfectly good picture of it. Trust me. If you want accuracy it is not quite the same. You will need to take your color match samples to Metro Paint to get them formulated in an interior latex eggshell finish.
Once you are happy with your matches then you can spray on a coat of dewaxed shellac onto the freshly cleaned top. A couple of thin coats are much better than one thick, globby coat. (And take it out of doors to do the deed. They use methyl chloride for some reason to get it to work out of a spray can. Methyl Chloride is genuinely nasty stuff and is not to be trifled with.)  Be sure that you get "dewaxed" shellac rather than regular shellac. Dewaxed shellac is the universal sealer. Everything sticks to it; it sticks to everything. Also it dries in about 40 minutes. (This is a good time to get your samples matched. The shellac will be dry by the time you return.) This layer of shellac is a "barrier coat".
Once your shellac is dry then you can apply your first of two coats of top coat. One inch blue tape is in order here to keep paint where paint belongs. Take care in pulling tape to avoid lifting fresh paint from top.  Use a good brush-I like Woosters. A cheap brush will ruin the work. Ignore this advice at your peril. Follow directions on label of paint can. Be sure and clean your nice new brush-it will last a while if kept clean. Put dry brush back in stiff paper wrapper(called a "shuck" in the trade.) to keep bristles from deforming.
Once your basecoats have dried then you can begin on copying artwork using artists' brushes or push brooms, if you prefer. Artwork having dried, you can spray more dewaxed shellac onto top. After that dries you can smear on a couple of coats of floor wax and buff that at the appropriate time. I use Trewax (follow directions on can.) which you can also get at Metro. It has carnauba in it and dries very hard indeed. You can re-wax from time to time. Wax gives it such a nice patina. (But you still need coasters.  :)   Hope this helps, Mimi. Blessings to you and Jay.