Dining room wall stencil// living room glazed mantel

This is a dining room I finished using a stencil on the upper walls. I skim-coated the upper walls to afford a smooth surface for the stencil.Off-white base coat, mottled stencil work in silver. Topped off with a van dyke glaze sponged and stippled over the entire wall to dirty up the finish. The wall trim was a simple dry brush technique over an off white base coat.

This fireplace was originally painted off white. Finish was several years old. I basecoated in an off-white. Rarely is white a good base color for a glazed finish--it is just too bright. I did four layers of different hues of red using different effects with each color. I picked out some of the molding in gold and then applied a van dyke glaze to keep from having the gold look too "sharp". I varnished with a gloss given the formal nature of the setting. I also refinished the tiles which were worn. I picked the  wall color to accentuate the color of the mantel. The woodwork is finished in the same glaze color as in the above dining room.

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.