KELLY'S NEWLY REMODELED & NEWLY PAINTED POWDER ROOM & HALL BATH

KELLY'S NEWLY REMODELED & NEWLY PAINTED POWDER ROOM & HALL BATH

Kelly remodeled her hall bath and powder room.
She asked me to paint the cabinets, walls, ceiling and woodwork trim.
I like that she wanted white ceilings with the gray walls.

She got new granite counter tops, new flooring, new everything.

A carpenter built new cabinets for both rooms.

This is Buffy.  Sweet doggie.  The whole time I was painting she slept in the hallway nearby.

The tile people installed two new transition pieces between new tile and existing wood flooring.
They were unfinished.  I used two different gel stains to match the existing wood.
Then, sealed with three coats of clear sealer.

This is how the hall bath and powder room looked "before".  Really dark colors.
Kelly was ready for changes to a lighter decor.
Mirrors were changed to stainless silver frames.
Looks so nice now with all of the different shades of gray and white ceilings and white trim.

HAYLEY REDECORATING LITTLE GIRL BEDROOM ~ PAINTING A WOOD WALL & NATURE BABY WALLPAPER

HAYLEY REDECORATING LITTLE GIRL BEDROOM ~ PAINTING A WOOD WALL & NATURE BABY WALLPAPER

Hayley was redecorating June's bedroom and found this wonderful wallpaper.

Isn't it the sweetest!

The one wall had very dark boards that were glued on.
 She asked me to paint the boards to match the other pink walls.
I painted on and wiped off with a rag, making the color uneven.
Hayley liked it.

Love the wallpaper!

UPDATING HAYLEY'S STAIRWELL FROM VERTICAL WHITE SPINDLES TO PAINTED BLACK HORIZONTAL IRON RODS

UPDATING HAYLEY'S STAIRWELL FROM VERTICAL  WHITE SPINDLES TO PAINTED BLACK HORIZONTAL IRON RODS

Hayley has such good ideas for decorating her home.
She wanted something different for her stairwell.
It had white spindles, oak handrails and finials on the posts.  (picture below)

She wanted a horizontal design, so she asked her carpenter to remove the existing wooden vertical white spindles and install these iron rods.

Doesn't it look wonderful, now!!

Hayley asked the carpenter to remove the finials.

Then, she asked me to paint the new iron rods, oak handrail and top of posts to black.
To get any oil residue off of the new, unpainted iron rods the paint store told me to use alcohol with a rag and clean them really well before painting.

Hayley is very happy with her new look.  I think it looks great, too!

The carpenter removed the vertical spindles then he drilled alllll of those square holes for the new iron pieces.  That was a lot of measuring, leveling and drilling.  He did a great job.

"Before" looked nice, but it's updated and young again.

REPAIRING A WINDOW MURAL FOR THE PINEAPPLE SCHOOL (TOTAL IMMERSION SPANISH LANGUAGE)

REPAIRING A WINDOW MURAL FOR THE PINEAPPLE SCHOOL (TOTAL IMMERSION SPANISH LANGUAGE)

The Pineapple School is for babies and preschool age children.  This school is "total immersion spanish language" spoken to the children.  Almost five years ago when they were building their first school, they asked me to paint several colorful mini murals.
They wanted this large area to look like a patio.

Recently, they called me and said they had some minor damage on one of the murals and had to paint over part of it and could I come repair it.  I always try to remember to keep a file and write down all of the colors I use.  Thank goodness I had all the colors in my file for this job.

Last week, I went by to get started.  While I was working, several of the children around 4 years old came over and in spanish were asking me what I was doing.  I answered in english and they immediately switched over to speaking perfect english.  I was amazed that they could switch and speak perfect english as fast as they were speaking spanish.  One of the teachers told me it was so easy for kids of this age and, usually, could be speaking spanish in a two week period.

I was sooo impressed with these children!

What a great concept for teaching!! 

This is one window I drew and painted.

My client wanted RED geraniums.

Another window across the room.

They wanted me to draw and paint a door.

I textured with mud and faux painted this arch yellow.

This is the window mural that was damaged on the right side. So, with tracing paper I traced the good side of the window frame, turned the paper over and using graphite paper re-drew and painted the side that had been painted over/damaged.  That was a lot easier than having to start over to measure and draw again.  Also, the repair guys were very careful and only painted out the frame.  I noticed they very carefully painted around the geranium sitting in the window.  I appreciated that.

Getting started I had to measure a lot and then draw and paint.

Original post:  5/4/2015

HAND PAINTING TOY SOLDIERS ON A LITTLE BOY'S FURNITURE

HAND PAINTING TOY SOLDIERS ON A LITTLE BOY'S FURNITURE

My client had an old chest of drawers and asked me if I could paint it for her little boy's room.

She said he loved toy soldiers.

She was decorating his room with red white and blue, so those are the colors 

I used for the artwork.  The toy soldiers are guarding the castle.

Her little boy was very happy with his toy soldiers.

And, I had fun painting the furniture for him.

The chest of drawers "before".

There were handles and knobs missing. so I painted wooden ones to match.

Original post 4/26/2015.

PAINTING SUSAN'S ORANGE/TAN OAK DINING CHAIRS & CHINA CABINET TO A BLACK DISTRESSED FINISH

PAINTING SUSAN'S ORANGE/TAN OAK DINING CHAIRS & CHINA CABINET TO A BLACK DISTRESSED FINISH

Susan was moving into a new home and making lots of changes in her colors and decor.  Her very nice, older "orange/tan oak" dining set was not going to work.  So, she asked me to paint the chairs and china cabinet to a black and a little bit distressed technique.

My house is small, so when I have big furniture to paint I have to move things around in my living room and dining room to make room for it.  Then, it is sooo nice when everything has been picked up and I get my house back in order.

So many clients ask me to paint their older brown stained or lighter furniture.  Many times they want it to be painted black.  It always looks so nice, updated and like new again.  Susan is going to put her collection of blue and white dishes in her new black china cabinet.
Won't that be stunning!!

Susan only wanted the edges distressed.  The design on these chairs was so beautiful and looked really great after painted black.

Waiting to be picked up.  These chairs were soooo heavy!!

Looks much better, now.

"Before"

Thank you, Susan, Marsha and Kara.

PAINTING VERONICA'S KITCHEN ISLAND & WINE CABINET TO A BLACK DISTRESSED FINISH & HER NEW BLACK & COPPER STOVE VENT HOOD

PAINTING VERONICA'S KITCHEN ISLAND & WINE CABINET TO A BLACK DISTRESSED FINISH & HER NEW BLACK & COPPER STOVE VENT HOOD

Veronica has a very large kitchen that is open to a very large great room.

As beautiful as it was, she thought there was too much brown and beige. 

She thought some black accents would break up all of that brown and beige.

She asked me to paint her kitchen island and her wall wine cabinet.  

I painted some samples for her and this is the one she chose.

Painted black and distressed the edges.

UPDATE:  VERONICA'S NEW STOVE VENT HOOD

Isn't that beautiful!! 

I got to go back to Veronica's to paint some new cornices that were built for her kitchen.  These pictures are her new kitchen design job completed.  

Her wine cabinet after I painted it.  Wow!  Love the dramatic lighting.  (I lightly distressed this cabinet, but it doesn't show in this picture.)

These are the wood cornices that were built for her kitchen windows.  I painted them the same black as the island and wine cabinet.  Then I painted metallic copper in the middle.  After the metallic copper paint dried the carpenter attached custom wrought iron pieces that fit over the copper.

BACK TO THE ORIGINAL POST:

Her wine cabinet was open and did not have doors.  She had new doors made and added glass to them.  Also, she added lights inside so you could see the wine.

I painted the inside of the wine cabinet black and more distressed than the outside.

This is Joe Henry working on her new tile.  He is a contractor and has his own company.  He does beautiful work!

Her vent-a-hood was very large and stained wood like the rest of her cabinets.  She asked me to paint some black on it to see what that would look like.  But, she had her heart set on a huge round black metal one with copper bands.  So she said she would just wait for that to be ordered.  She even invited me to come back and take pictures!  That, I will certainly do and share the pictures with you.

There was a lot of construction, so lots of dust.  See the orbs?

I really enjoyed working with Veronica.

Maybe I'll get to work with her again.

(Repost from December 3, 2014)

HAND PAINTING ARTWORK ~ A TREE, A BIRD'S NEST & BLUE SKY FOR MADDIE'S ROOM

    HAND PAINTING ARTWORK ~ A TREE, A BIRD'S NEST & BLUE SKY FOR MADDIE'S ROOM

     This is the second time I painted Maddie's bedroom.  The first time was just before she was born.  This time I think she was five.  She loved pink!  She and her mom knew the colors and artwork they wanted and how they wanted to decorate.  So, I painted her walls pink.  In one corner of her room I painted a large pink crepe myrtle tree and a bird's nest in the tree.

I painted her ceiling blue with clouds and pink sparkly birds.

   

      Over her bed I painted an arch and a big sparkly bow. 

     I painted a smaller arch over her dresser and painted sparkles on all of the artwork.

     This room was sooo cute and happy!  But, a few years later I had to paint over everything for her next, big girl room.

     Through the years I've had to paint over a lot of my artwork.  Thank goodness I take lots of pictures.  It's always fun to go back and look at older pictures.

(This is a repost from February 10, 2013)

HAND PAINTING STRIPES ON FURNITURE

HAND PAINTING STRIPES ON FURNITURE

For me, the hardest thing about painting stripes on furniture is drawing the stripes.  I always use a ruler and a soft pencil so unused lines can be erased or painted over.  I do not use tape because I want the stripes to look hand painted and not perfect.  I decide the width of the stripes on the front, top and sides.  The width of the stripes can vary.  I use the edges of the furniture for guidelines.  A level is not useful to use on furniture because your floor might be uneven or the furniture not perfectly in line.

This chest was going in a nursery for a baby girl  My client wanted stripes, ribbons and flowers and told me the colors she wanted on the dresser to match her nursery decor.  The base coat is white.  I drew the stripes and painted with one coat of pink.  Then, painted the ribbons and flowers.  When I'm finished with a piece I always seal with two coats of a dull or satin sealer and a third coat on the top flat surface.

For this sofa table, I painted a tan base coat.  Then, painted a denim blue on top of the tan, dry brushing so the tan would show through.  Next, I drew and painted the turquoise stripes, dry brushing so the denim blue would shadow through.  You can see I lightly sanded the edges, then sealed with two coats of clear sealer.  On the table top I painted a third coat of clear sealer for extra protection.

My client asked me to paint black stripes on her antique cabinet.

When I purchased this pine armoire they told me it was from Stratford, England.  The outside had been waxed, but the inside looked very old and had old blue shelf paper on the shelves.  I didn't remove the shelf paper.  On the outside I painted over the pine with a greenie beige color.  Next, I painted the tree then, drew and painted the stripes.  I painted one coat of black and let the beige shadow through.  A metallic gold paint was just the right touch for the black and beige colors.  Then, two coats of clear sealer.

PAINTING BARBRA & FELIX'S KITCHEN VENT HOOD TO AN "ANTIQUE COPPER" FAUX FINISH

PAINTING BARBRA & FELIX'S KITCHEN VENT HOOD TO AN "ANTIQUE COPPER" FAUX FINISH
Barbra and Felix were doing some re-decorating in their beautiful home.  They saw pictures of my "antique copper" faux finish and asked me to paint their kitchen vent hood.

The "antique copper" finish looks so nice with their dark cabinets and granite.
They replaced the three light fixtures in the same color tones.

To emboss the scrollie designs I used modeling paste and stencils.
Felix added the decorative wood trim.  It really made a difference with the new finish.
Last picture in this post you can see there were no wood trim pieces before.

These new mercury glass globes are so beautiful!

Barbra found these unique chairs already covered with the leopard print.  They were stained brown and I suggested painting them black.  She liked the idea so, Felix painted them black. They love the new look.  This room looks out over the hill country.  Very, very beautiful view!

The warm copper tones are perfect for Barbra's kitchen.

Getting started.
Primed vent hood, used paste and stencils to create the design.

Her vent hood "before".  Light fixtures "before".  No decorative trim pieces.
Barbra and Felix were so, so nice to work with.
Thank you!