Faux Painting And Murals

New Blog Address

2011-12-27T18:17:00.001-05:00

As of January 2012 I have moved this blog to a new blog at www.everythingicreate.com and will continue on from that new address. I did this so I could talk not only about the murals and decorative wall finishes but also all the other works of art I create.

I have transferred all the posts from the beginning of this blog to that new address. I hope you will join me there!

Paint Garage Door To Look Like Wood

2011-11-19T07:13:00.001-05:00

I started and completed painting a garage door to look like wood this week. This door was facing south and I had to create shade while painting it. If I didn't the paint would have dried way to fast to manipulate to get it to look like a wood grain. I used a Sherwin Williams color called Toasty for the basecoat. This first picture shows the door after I got started with the first coat of wood grain color. That's a SW color called Java.

By about 2:30 the door finally got in the shade so here's a better look at the first coat of wood graining.

I got this far at the end of the first day which is quite a bit of work done for one day. When I first got there I scrubbed down the door with soap and water and rinsed it off and then dried it with rags. Taking special care to open the door and stop it at a place where I could dry the seams between each row of panels. Once dried I applied the basecoat then started the wood graining process.

The next day I finished the first coat of wood graining and then started on the second coat. For the second coat I mix in black with the java color. This makes the door darker but also using two colors gives the wood graining much more depth and enhances the faux wood effect greatly. After the door was completely done with the wood grain painting I applied 2 coats of clear UV protection by using a product from Modern Masters called Master Clear. The entire job took 3 days.

Finished Up Exterior Faux Painting Home

2011-11-13T10:22:00.001-05:00

I finished up the faux painting project out at the beach on Friday. The work came out great and everyone was very happy with the results. View from the dock.

Faux Paint Exterior of Home

2011-11-08T19:44:00.000-05:00

For the last few days I have been working on faux painting the exterior of a home. To do this I first scrubbed down the exterior walls to clean the surface. The home is a Mediterranean style and its located on the intercoastal waterway in St. Pete Beach. Homes on the water can take quite a beating with the normal amount of sun here in Florida and then add the reflected sun from the water it can put a real beat down on a home's walls.

So after I cleaned the walls real well I applied a coat of conditioner/primer. After the conditioner dried I applied the basecoat of paint then started the faux painting. As you can see from the pictures this home has a really great texture that was created for the walls. So what I am doing is to apply the faux color and then wiping back on the high areas of the texture.

In this picture I show the tools I am using to do this techinque. I have my paint tray there with a 6 inch roller and a 2 1/2 inch angled brush with a cotton rag to wipe off the paint. I am using the paint right out of the can without mixing any glazing into it.

Got the first little wall done.

Then the second one.

Havnig gotten the stroke down as it were I moved to the water side. In this first picture you can see the basically blank slate I had to start. I am standing out at the end of dock to take this photo.

This next one is after several hours of work. This back side of the home gets the morning sun as it faces east. So I have to wait til about noon before I can start to work on it. If I try to faux paint in direct sunlight it dries too fast and becomes extremely difficult to get a consistent look without getting overlap lines.

I made it to the end of the wall on the right side there but only above the windows. Tomorrow is another day and I will finish this water side of the home then.

Paint White Bricks To Look Like Real Bricks

2011-10-21T15:58:00.005-05:00

I just finished up another faux painting project today. The home I worked in was built in 1925. When the home was built it had a brick fireplace and bricks all around the front porch. Through the years these bricks had been painted. The new home owner wanted to get them back to looking like new bricks instead of painted white bricks. At first the homeowner told me he tried to strip off the paint but could see right away that that was not ever going to work. So faux painting bricks was the perfect solution.

Here is a couple of pictures that show the fireplace before and after. The actual fireplace was a darker after I painted it but the flash kinda blew it out some.

Faux painting the bricks on the front porch was a much bigger project. I guess ideally the new homeowner could have waited to get the home painted but he wanted to start with the bricks so he could use that to help pick out the color scheme.

The first thing I did on the porch was to clean the bricks and then prime them. Then I applied the basecoat color as you can see in the next two pictures.

After the basecoat dries I start to paint in each brick using 3 other colors plus the basecoat color. In order to have the bricks look authenic you have to employ a dry brush technique. Each brick has all the colors in it to a different degree

In the next 2 pictures you can see the completed bricks.

Paint A Garage Door To Look Like Wood

2011-10-07T17:31:00.003-05:00

I finished another garage door this week. This garage door was painted to look like wood by another faux painter. It was a pretty decent job except whoever did the work made the worst mistake you can make and that is they used an oil based product. The paint cracked and peeled off the garage door in about 5-6 months. Not very good at all. You can see the result in the following picture.

You can see here how it cracked and peeled all over the door.

So the first thing I do is scrap and sand and try to get off as much of the previous paint job as I can. I can't get it all off but I do what I can. Then I clean the door real well and prime it with an acrylic primer tinted a Sherwin Williams color called Tatami Tan. Once that is dried I can start to paint on the wood grain pattern on the garage door. In the next photo you can see where I have painted in the centers to all the panels. I use a lot of tape when I paint a garage door because I tape off all the panels so I don't get any over painting.

After I get the centers done I paint the wood grain pattern on the vertical pieces of the garage doors. To do this I tape off so the ends will be nice and crisp. I like to use the yellow Frog tape. The yellow Frog tape is for delicate surfaces and won't pull up any painting that I have already done. In the next two pictures you can see how I taped off the vertical pieces and what it looks like after I take the tape comes off.

Nice and crisp ends.

In the next photo you can the difference between the two coats of brown I use. The taped off horizontal space you can see has only the first coat of brown painted on. I always use two coats for the actual wood graining I do. That way it gives the doors a much more realistic wood look. It just creates a richer feel. For this garage door I used Fiery Brown a Sherwin Williams color for the first pass at the wood grain. For the second pass I used the same brown but with black added at about a 1 to 1 ratio.

The last two photos show the completed project. You will notice that the angled part of the center panels is darker than the rest. I like to do that because it does what I call 'picture frame' the panels and that to me dresses up the door with a more finished look.

After the garage door is completely painted to look like wood and dried I apply two coats of a clear acrylic top coat.

If anyone would like to have the full written instructions to painting a garage door to look like wood just email me at gatorschott@gmail.com

Paint Kitchen Cabinets

2011-09-24T07:16:00.000-05:00

I put the finishing touches on a kitchen cabinet painting project. To finish off the kitchen I painted some wainscoting and installed it at the appropriate locations.

The kitchen cabinets where natural oak. See the picture above. The idea was to lighten up the kitchen cabinets. The entire kitchen was remodeled except for the granite counter tops.

In the picture above you can see the difference painting the kitchen cabinets can make. Notice the new stainless steel range and microwave too. Also the flooring was changed out to ceramic tile.

In the next two pictures you can really notice a big difference. Nice new stainless steel refrigerator to compliment the new look cabinets.

The two following pictures will show you some detail of the piping done. Two shots of the same cabinet doors.

These next two shots I took while I had the doors in my studio working on them. The coloring doesn't look like the photo above but its the same color in real life. The lighting makes a huge difference when taking these photos. In the close-ups you can really see the two piping lines I painted in. I actually had to paint each line twice. Once very dark and then a lighter larger width line over that.

If you look up top at the photo of the kitchen before I started you'll see where under the bar area was flat natural oak with no defining characteristics. So the home owner had a great idea to install in those areas some painted wainescoting. I painted the wainescoting with the dark piping and installed it around the bar and at one other location.

Rodie's Resturant

2011-09-21T06:49:00.001-05:00

I put the finishing touches on the lettering for a new resturant I had done some work for. The resturant is called Rodie's and is located in Clearwater.

They are open for breakfast and lunch. I painted their logo sign on a piece of cabinet grade plywood installed it on the wall and hand lettered the words.

Wood Grain Side Entrance

2011-08-26T05:21:00.000-05:00

The side entrance of this home was completely rebuilt with new framing, glass and door. In the first photo you can see where I have applied a tinted basecoat paint on the new framing, the door yet to be primed.

After the primer dried I applied the first coat of wood grain color. I like to use 2 coats as it gives the grain pattern more depth. You can also see where I painted the window sill and around the window to simulate the wood grain.

Subtle Striated Faux Finish for Kitchen Cabinets

2011-08-21T16:21:00.000-05:00

These kitchen cabinets where painted with a very subtle faux finish. I first painted them a solid color and after that dried I used the next color up on the color strip to apply a striated faux finish. This resulted in a very nice soft faux finish. Of couse its hard to photograph these subtle techniques but here are some pictures.

As you can see the kitchen is still under remodeling construction. These cabinets where a dark purple in color when I started.

The picture bleow is probably the best at showning the faux finish.

Faux Wood Grain Gates to Match New Front Door.

2011-08-15T16:04:00.002-05:00

I had a small job to match two gates (one on either side of the house) to the new wood front door. The gates were painted a celery green. The photo below shows the completed job with the left gate. My challenge is to paint the gates to match the front door not only in color but have the wood grain look similar also.

So the first thing I had to do was paint a good base color over the green. This very warm golden color was the perfect choice.

Then I painted the first coat of wood grain color.

The the second wood grain color gets painted on after the first has dried and after that dried I applied a clear top coat to seal it for extra protecion.

Faux Paint Garage Doors to look like Wood

2011-04-02T10:11:00.002-05:00

I just completed painting a set of garage doors to look like wood. There is a double and a single garage door. Both of these doors had been previously painted to look like wood but a coat of an oil based spar urethane had been applied and that ruined the doors. Never use an oil based product on your garage doors. All manufactures of garage doors say on their websites that using an oil based product will void the door's warrenty. The reason is an oil based product will crack and peel taking off the original door coating exposing the metal of the door to the elements. Take a look at the first three pictures to see the damage an oil based product can have on metal garage doors.

It looks pretty nasty at this point. First thing I did was to scrub the doors with a wire brush to get off all the flaking of paint. After I got off as much as I could I cleaned the doors and then applied an acrylic primer. Then when the primer dried I applied 100% acrylic latex paint. I use SuperPaint by Sherwin-Williams. In this next picture you can see that I have painted back in the center panels of the single garage door. The basecoat color that I used is a SW color called Tatami Tan. Then for the wood color I used another SW color called Java for the first pass. Then I mix the Java with Black in about 1 to 1 ratio and apply the second coat of a very light glaze of this mix. I use water to thin the paint.

This last picture shows the completed door. If you look to the left side you can see where I have finished the center panels in the double door. At this point after the garage doors are done being painted to look like wood I apply 2 coats of a 100% acrylic clear coat called MasterClear by Modern Masters. The added black hardware adds a nice touch.

Pictures From Summer Job

2011-02-27T17:11:00.001-05:00

I received pictures today from the client of the big job I worked on all summer. Here's a few of them. This first one is the great room. I painted the ceiling here and there are 4 of the big trusses I painted. Only 3 are shown in this shot. I also created a texture on the walls but its subtle and you can't see it in the photos.

In this next shot you can see the ceiling work a little better. The ceiling at the peak is 25 feet. Where the ceiling meets the wall is 16 feet. In the center of the photo you can see the kitchen opening.

So here's a shot from the great room into the kitchen. Painted all the crown and base in the home as well as all the window trim and doors.

This is the home office. Again I painted all the crown and base and doors. There were something like 24 doors downstairs and 9 upstairs.

Speaking of upstairs, this is one of the bedrooms upstairs. All the crown, base, window trim and doors were painted a light colored woodgrain compared to the dark woodgrain I painted downstairs. I also painted the fan blades to match the other trim work.

This is the outside entrance. I painted the beams and ceiling in this portico just like the trusses and ceiling in the great room. I also painted the double entrance doors.

Another view of the portico.

A nice shot of the front of the home.

Stainless Steel Room Divider

2011-01-18T18:30:00.000-05:00

I put the finishing touches on a job today. The small condo I was working in has a kitchen area that shares a wall with the dining area. We wanted to paint the kitchen backsplash and wall areas a very dark charcoal color but we needed a logical and good looking way to stop it at the end of the counter.

So I went to a local machine shop and had them make me a stainless stell piece to install as a room divider. It came out great and really looks sweeeeeeeeeeet.

From two different angles.

My wife, Cathy created a faux finish on the living room wall by using two different metallic glazes over the same dark charcoal color.

Paint Doors To Look Like Mahogany

2010-11-27T09:38:00.000-05:00

Well I could not find the photos I had downloaded the other day of the doors. So I took some new ones on Wed. These doors started off white. In the first picture you can see I have already primed and base coated the doors. The base coat color is a Sherwin-Williams color Tatami Tan.

After 15 minutes of trying to load some pictures and unable to I am giving up on this post. To see it in another format with great pritures go to my blog at Best In St Petersburg .

Hand Rubbed Tuscany Wall Texture

2010-06-29T13:06:00.005-05:00

Still working on the great room. I am applying a hand rubbed Tuscany wall texture to the walls in the great room, kitchen and pantry.

I tried to take a couple of pictures to show how the wall texture is done but its very difficult to get good wall pictures of this but never-the-less.

I am using joint compound for the texture material. I apply it with a trowel in a random pattern. After it dries I sand it down to get rid of the sharp edges. In the first picture I try to show the texture on the wall before sanding. In the second picture its after I sanded it down. All the sharp edges are gone and what you get are smooth variations in the texture. I have one more wall to sand down then the walls can be primed and basecoated before I apply the faux finish to them.

The house is full of trade workers all day so I am trying to work around everyone. Typically that means I have to leave something and then get back to it when I can so I have several places I am working on at once. The trusses are one of those areas. In the next picture you can see the progress there. I have primed, basecoated and now puting on the first coat of wood grain paint.

Designer Colors For Driftwood Ceiling

2010-06-06T19:06:00.005-05:00

I worked on the big ceiling again this weekend. I am painting the 2 by 6 planks to have a driftwood effect with designer colors. You can see by the picture I have an eight foot ladder set on the scaffolding so I can reach the peak of the ceiling. The reason for using the ladder instead of building up more scaffolding is I need to roll the scaffolding under the four big trusses. Breaking down and building up the scaffoldlng all day would take too much time so its way easier to use a ladder.

In this picture you can also see the three different stages of the ceiling. Right above the ladder is the plain basecoat with two different colors applied. To the left of the truss is the finished product with 3 colors on. You can also see the ceiling with just the plain basecoat color.

Below is a close-up of the 2 by 6 tongue and grove ceiling planking with the top part of the picture showing the first 2 colors applied and the bottom part of the picture showing the third color applied.

Below is the same section as above but the completed look. After I get the entire ceiling painted I will work on the trusses which are going to get a very dark brown aged look.

Patio Railing

2010-06-02T17:43:00.005-05:00

I have started on a new job while I am waiting to get back to the big ceiling job. This project is to paint a long railing on a second story patio and then as the stairs go down to the ground level.

First I had to sand down the entire railing which is quite the job in itself. Below you can see a section that is sanded and ready to start.

The first thing is I primed the railing after sanding it down. After priming I painted the railing a dark brown. I am almost done painting the basecoat on. The railing is approximately 140 feet long. The horizontal bars are not that time consuming but the verictal setions that the bars attach to are very time consuming to paint. I should have it all basecoated by Friday.

Here is a small section which I had painted to show the client how it is going to turn out. The entire railing will have a beautiful patina look to it.

Faux Painted Ceililng

2010-05-24T15:22:00.003-05:00

I started on the big ceiling job over the weekend. The ceiling is 2 by 6 tongue and grove. I am going to paint with a wood grain but in designer colors not typical wood colors. The basecoat for the ceilng is on in these pictures. The trusses in the photos I am going to paint like a dark wood grain when its time for them.

The peak of the ceiling is 25 feet from the floor. In order to reach it I have an 8 foot ladder up on the scaffolding with me.

Trusses set.

2010-05-05T15:37:00.005-05:00

The big trusses for the great room came yesterday and were set. These big fir beams will be painted to match the other beams I have done for the home.

I spent the day painting the tongue part of the tongue and grove 2 by 6 ceiling planks for this room, approximately 220 sixteen footers. A little forward thinking here is that if the ceiling planks shrink any you might be able to see the raw wood if a seam opens up. So painting that area eliminates that from happening.

Recondition Wood Doors

2010-04-29T15:28:00.003-05:00

I have just completed reconditioning two front doors. First day I stripped down the doors by sanding. In the first picture you can see where the upper part of the doors are sanded down to the wood. These doors face east and get the morning sun. The old finish was totally cracked and coming off. Luckily the wood itself was still ok.

Completed doors then a detail shot.

Faux Paint Wood Grain On Beams

2010-04-24T08:10:00.003-05:00

I have been working a new construction home this month. I am painting a lot of the big wood beams that will go into the home and then I am going to paint the 2 by 6 tongue and grove for the ceiling in the great room. I have been working in the garage and as you can see the wood framing indicating the drywall is not up yet.
The picture shows some of the painted beams and four big ones that just have the basecoat on.

To paint the beams first I applied a primer, after that dried I applied a golden basecoat. Then I started to create the wood grain by painting the beams a medium brown with a wood graineffect. After that dried I used two passes of black both passes very light. I used two passes becauseI wanted it dark but would have had to use too much paint to get it as dark as I wanted with only one pass. The light passes of the black over the brown give it a lot of richness without seeming black. The beams look old but not distressed.

Sample Boards Tobacco finish

2010-03-19T14:21:00.002-05:00

I've been working a sample board for a 'tobacco' finish. I have done two, one is darker than the other but both use the same colors.

How To Paint Wood Grain On Garage Door.

2010-02-20T10:45:00.012-05:00

I finished up painting a metal garage door to look like wood. I have a few of the steps outlined in this post.
Take a look at this first picture. What I have done so far is to paint the base color on the door. The base color is a Ben Moore exterior low lustre Moreguard paint called Peanut Butter.
Then I tape off the individual panels as shown. (The homeowner had masked off the windows before I got there with paper as you can see. ) In the picture I have already finished one row of panels.

In the next picture I show the first step in painting a panel. I take and paint in the tapered sides of the panel with vertical strokes.

Then I paint in the center of the panel with horizontal strokes.

Then I finish off the panel by painting in the horizontal tapered edges.

I usually go down the entire row like that and even do another row while the first row is drying. Then I do the exact same procedure again with the second coat which is a different color a much darker brown. By the way the first color brown is a Ben Moore color called Pancake syrup. The second and darker color is made by mixing Black Bean Soup into the Pancake syrup color. You can see it doesn't get much darker because I have diluted the mixed dark brown with a clear acrylic exterior sealer.

Not done yet with the panels. To finish off the center of the panels I wait for them to dry and then apply a second coat of the darker color just on the tapered 'frame' part around the center. I call this 'picture framing' and you can see the darker 'picture frame' effect it has in the picture below.

The next step is to paint in the vertical pieces between the panels. So I tape them off like you can see in the picture below. I do the same thing as before. Paint them in with vertical strokes with the pancake syrup and then when that dries paint over it with one coat of the diluted darker color.

Next are the horizontal pieces that go all the way across the door. I tape them off and paint them in the same way. You can see in the picture below where I have painted in the first coat of the brown that is lighter than the other painted spaces. It needs the second coat to look good and give the door a more authentic wood look.

So all done now. The last spaces to paint are the vertical spaces at either side of the door. I paint the door in this manner because if it where real wood that is the way the grain would run. The door came out great and the client loved it.

Tuscany Landscape Mural Complete

2010-02-03T20:02:00.009-05:00

I finished the Tuscany landscape mural today. The last two days have been rough with the rain and wind. The mural itself is in an exposed hallway area so it gets high relative humidity while it rains.

Monday I started painting on it at about 9 am or so. By 2 the paint was still not drying. So I packed it in and went home thinking it would dry sooner or later. Well the next morning I got there and not only did it not dry, most of what I had done Monday had melted and ran down the wall.

It was still raining and luckily it was because the melted paint was still wet. So I was able to wipe it off and start over. It took until 12:30 to get back to where I was the day before.

Today was absolutely gorgeous and painting went great. I finished up and put 2 coats of a clear exterior sealer on it.

So as you enter the hallway I painted on both sides of it. The walls are 11 feet high and the width of the hall way is 12 feet. Each side is 35 feet long.

This first shot is to the left as you enter the hallway. This is the wine storage room I painted.

The second shot is the side entry door to the wine store.

The next shot shows the pass thru window. The bar is right inside the window to the right and wine gets passed out to the seating in the hallway. "Inveno Veritas" is latin for In Wine There is Truth.

There is one more door on this wall, an electrical closet.

The big landscape part is on the oppsite wall where I had a 20 by 11 space to work with. The arched stone opening is 6 feet high and 12 feet wide. I am sure if I were better at photoshop I could get rid of the light spot in the center from the flash but...

A close up view of the wine bottle and glasses. I took advantage of the label on the wine bottle and that's where I signed the mural. You can see the texture on the wall pretty good on the right side of this shot.

Tuscany Landscape Mural

2010-01-29T19:35:00.002-05:00

Almost done with the mural. I have a day or maybe a day and a half left. I need to finish off the building on the left and paint in some hanging flower pots and window boxes. I also need to do something with the monastary. Like paint in a courtyard or sculptures or something around the building. I just don't like the naked look of it now.

Tuscany Landscape Mural

2010-01-27T20:09:00.006-05:00

I had a pretty good day on the Tuscany landscape mural. The first picture shows the area and what I got done yesterday. The space is 12 feet wide and 6 feet high.

A little closer in the next photo. The mural is a sunset scene.

What I completed today are the grape vines and a monastary type building. I am still not done with the building. I need to put something around it like plants or flowers. I have the courtyard area and stone fence to finish and then 3 large houses or buildings on the left there. I hope to get it all done and sealed by Friday.

Wine Store Mural

2010-01-22T06:49:00.004-05:00

The wine store mural is going great. I plan on finishing one wall today. I got a ton of nice compliments yesterday from passersby. The only problem I have is the hallway area I am painting is not wide enough to get a good photo as I can't get back far enough. I do have a wide angle lens for my digital but it doesn't 'wide' all that great. However, next week I am going to try it out on the mural and see if I can get more of the piece in.

Part of the problem with photographing walls is the flash reflects off the surface of the wall as in the photo below.

Wine Store Mural

2010-01-16T15:59:00.006-05:00

I got started on a mural this week for a new store. The store sells wine and cheese, it has a bar and a few tables inside. Outside there is a corridor that is approximately 15 feet wide and 35 feet long. I am painting a mural on each wall of that space. The wine cellar has several tables set up there so patrons can sit and enjoy a glass of wine over good conversation.

The walls are stucco with a sand finish. Around the doors and widows there is a stucco relief trim. I first painted that trim to look like wood. Then I aged the walls. I am now painting large stones around the doors and windows. I have most of one wall done with the stones but after I finish the stones I will go revisit them again to put the shadowing in.

Inside the stone arch (below) I will paint the lettering "Inveno Veritas" - In wine there is truth. You can see in this photo how much the stones need to have the shadowing in. Right now they look like they are floating on over the wall and not anchored to it.

Concrete Countertop

2010-01-06T20:15:00.008-05:00

I worked on and mostly finished a concrete countertop. The homeowner made a great countertop out of concrete. I have to say they a super job. For various reasons they ended up not using an acid stain to color it and called me in to do something.

I painted the counter to look like granite/marble incorperating the colors of the cabinet and other elements in the kitchen. The backsplash has yet to be installed.

Mural Complete!

2009-12-31T11:26:00.006-05:00

I finished the Soda Shop mural and it came out great. The clients loved it and asked me to do some more work in their new home.

My only disappointment is that I can never seem to get an accurate picture of the wall work. Its because I am not a great photographer and the lighting in a room is always off in one way another. The colors aren't true espeically in this mural (oh well). Using the flash mostly creates a flash point on the wall. I do the best I can but like this mural the actual piece is so much better than the pictures indicate. The mural is 5.5 feet high and 20 feet long.

The mural is on a wall opposite the counter in this recreation of a 50's soda shop. Its suppose to be like you are looking out the window at the town square. The town square is based on the movie 'Back to the Future' with the actual courthouse being used and other elements fromt the movie.

new mural

2009-12-23T19:22:00.000-05:00

Long time no post but I have been working on my novel and it takes a tremendous amount of time.

I started a new blog about that at http://www.bookscomealive.blogspot.com/

I have been working on a mural the last 2 weeks. The mural is 5.5 feet high and 20 feet wide. This first picture shows the whole mural.

I probably have 2 days left on it to complete. The wall is in a room designed to be a soda shop. The mural is based on the town square of the 'Back to the Future' movie. I have painted in the courthouse with the clock at 5 after 10. Got the reference material for that off the web.

Three autos are from left to right a 47 ford, a 57 chevy and a 54 ford wagon. And yes I know that in the movie it was 55 but the client likes the 57 chevy. The booth seating in the soda shop is made to be like the seats in a 57 chevy.

The 54 ford on the right is really not that bright of a color but the digital camera decided to depict it like that.

I put the finishing touches on the 47 ford today by painting a driver with his arm hanging out the window. The client loved it.

I plan on painting in several people walking the sidewalks and most likely going up the steps of the courthouse before its all done. At this point its going to have to wait until after Christmas.

Garage Door Painted Like Patina Copper

2008-07-26T17:06:00.010-05:00

I just finished painting two garage doors and surrounding trim to look like patina copper. One was a double and one a single car door. When I started both doors where painted the color of the house so the first thing I did was to paint the doors the color of copper that has been aged which is a dark reddish brown.

Then I start the patina process by painting on the first glaze coat of patina color.

Here is a picture of the door done but not the trim and then the next picture is a close up then a close up in the same area with the trim painted.

The completed doors.

Bamboo Beadboard in Powder Bath

2008-07-19T19:31:00.004-05:00

This is a new one for me. The client had beadboard installed in the powder bath. He gave me a color pallette and a bamboo roll up blind to go by. I also painted the char rail and baseboard to match. I have to say that the beadboard is the perfect thing to paint to look like bamboo.

Garage Door Painted Like Wood

2008-06-12T14:17:00.009-05:00

Boy, do I really, really like this garage door painted to look like wood. It's a two-tone wood painted approach that really works great.
First the base coat goes up on the garage door.

I first painted the wood grain look in the areas around the central panels.

A close up shows the nice wood grain pattern painted on the garage door.

After the surrounding wood grain was painted on the garage door I painted the center panels to look like a rich cherry wood. To me this is the nicest garage door I have painted to look like wood, I just absolutely love it.

Front Door Painted Like Wood Planks

2008-02-16T16:45:00.005-05:00

Worked on my own front door today. I thought I was going to work on a job but stayed home instead. Been wanting to do something with the front door and finally got off to a good start. The door was white before I started. First I painted it a very rich yellow, almost an orange yellow, then used a deep reddish brown and then a black brown. The idea is to make it look like aged wood planks. Cathy is going to paint some big black hinges on it soon to complete the look.

The window area was a job. It was faced out with some very small trim wood. So I took that off and put this one by four around it. I distressed the one by four by knocking it around some and then put it up. I chalked all around it and then primed it before painting.

I did the garage door one day last week. It was the same color as the house before I started. It looks sooooooooo much better painted to look like wood than painted just the color of the house.

Painted Ceilings

2008-02-10T20:03:00.000-05:00

Here's a couple of pictures of two ceilings I painted this weekend in a home that is just about finished a major remodeling job. The first is in the dining room. I am assuming they are going to get a nicer chandelier after they move in.

The second picture is in the living room with 24 foot ceiling height.

Pool Bath Distressed Wall Finish

2008-01-25T16:37:00.000-05:00

I recently finished this pool bath with a distressed glazing technique. The base coat of paint is a light yellow. I then used a Sherwin-Williams color called Toasty for a glaze.

Mural in Child's room

2008-01-25T16:20:00.000-05:00

Here are some pictures from a recently completed mural Cathy did in a child's room.

Finished Ceiling Work

2007-11-01T12:37:00.000-05:00

I finished up the ceiling work this week. Now its off to the doctor to get an alignment to my neck.

Here's some pictures. The first here is of the completed foyer ceiling.

These next two are the living room ceiling.

Ceiling work

2007-10-27T08:19:00.000-05:00

I have been working on several ceiling areas the past week, a dining room, a foyer and some smaller areas. Next week I will be working on the living room ceiling. The living room and the foyer ceiling are 25 feet in heigth. The highest point in the curved dining room ceiling is about 14 feet.

The ceilings started out white. First I primed them, then painted them a solid sage green. When that dried I applied 2 glazes coats. The first was a glaze using Sherwin-Williams Java, that is a fairly dark brown, the second glaze coat I mixed the green with some black. A closer view. So when you use a solid color base and 2 color glazes you can see three colors in the finished product.

The next picture shows the foyer ceiling but only after the sage green base is up. It takes 3 levels of scaffolding to reach the ceiling.

Still Here, Still Working

2007-09-04T17:14:00.000-05:00

Hi All, I haven't posted in a month or so because I have been so busy and all the work I have been doing is sort of stuff I have gone over in the past year.

I have done a few ceiling jobs since my last post. Here is one of them.

The living room ceiling height on this one is about 25 feet. You can see some wiring hanging down where the pendent lighting is going to go.

The first thing I did on this was to prime the ceiling and paint it a basecoat color of Lara Ashley Gold 4. Then I put a one color glaze using a Sherwin Williams color of Java. The beams are quite large. They were painted to be a deep walnut to match some crown molding I had previously painted in the dining room.

I also painted the ceiling in the kitchen. It to was divided up by wood beams.

Wood Grain Garage Door

2007-07-11T19:18:00.001-05:00

I recently completed a project which had me faux wood grain 2 garage doors, each one was a double. The pictures that follow are the first door I painted and the other door is across the large paver driveway. So the client has a large double garage on each side of the house. The first picture is the completed door.
This next picture shows the door after I have worked on it for a while, at least one full day's work after the basecoat was already on. The basecoat is a Sherwin-Williams color, Saucy Gold. That is the golden color I applied to the door first. The brown color is also a Sherwin-Williams color called Java. I also mix a black with the Java about 1 to 1 for the final glazing coat.

The most common type of garage door has a wood grain texture imprinted on it. That wood grain runs horizontally across the entire door. Now if the door was made out of real wood that would not be the case. If the door were made out of real wood the individual vertical pieces would have a vertical grain to them. So I paint my doors as if they were real wood and give the vertical pieces a vertical grain even though it has an imprinted horizontal grain to it. It looks fine and no one ever objects to this technique. The following shots show how beautiful the grain can look on these vertical areas. Notice how I have taped off these areas before I painted them. Then before I took the photos I removed the tape.

Notice the way the grain pattern is different for each vertical area. You want to make each grain pattern a little different so sometimes the grain has a leftward bias and sometimes a right directional bias, sometimes the left side is darker sometimes the right sometimes the center, etc.

The final two pictures show you parts of the completed door. Notice how each panel on the garage door has a little different wood grain pattern to it. Also in these last two pictures you will notice that around the center panels the wood is darker than the rest. That gives the individual panels a 'picture frame' look that is the final touch that really makes for a very beautiful looking door.

Master Bathroom Mural

2007-06-17T07:10:00.000-05:00

Cathy recently completed a beautiful mural in the master bath at the home she has been working in since December 06. She has created wall finishes in 12 of the rooms so far. It is the same home she is creating the foyer mural in from the last post.

Mural in Foyer

2007-06-09T18:13:00.000-05:00

Cathy and I started a new mural this week in a very high foyer. From the floor to the ceiling is 32 feet. In order to do this mural we rented a sissor lift. You can see in the picture how high it is. Cathy is actually doing most of the work for this piece with me providing logisical support.

Those windows are the second floor and the wall goes up another 10 feet after the window. As you can see there is going to be sky above the block wall. Lots more stuff will be going on than that but this only after 2 days of work.

Free Standing Shelves

2007-05-08T19:03:00.000-05:00

Not only do I paint furniture some times I make it too.

This is basically what Cathy saw in a store. It was $600.00. The shelves were 20 inches wide but she only wanted them 14 inches wide. So I told her I would make one for her with 14 inch wide shelves.

At first I was going to build it all out of 2 by's but she wanted the flat part to be smooth and I was going to put 2 - 2by 8's together to get the 14 inches but I don't have a planner to smooth out the edges to join them so it would not have been a very good surface. And besides I was buying the wood at Home Depot and the 2 by's there are pretty rough.

so I bought a 4 by 8 sheet of good cabinet grade 3/4 inch plywood and had them rip it to 12 and a half inches wide. Then I bought some 1 by 2 and ran that around the edges so it ends up looking like a 2 by anyway. When the 1 by 2 is around the edges it gives you the 14 inch wide shelf.

For the vertical supports I bought a 2 by 12, (which we know is only 11 and 3/8's wide) the feet are fence post tops.

One of the things I like about it is when I attached the vertical supports I drilled down thru the top and up thru the bottom of the shelf and countersunk the screw heads (3 inch screws) from both directions. Then back filled the holes with M and H ready patch. After it dried I sanded it down and after it was painted you can't see any mark at all where the screws are. I also used that polyseamseal adhesive chalk on all the joints and then chalked with it around the top and bottom of the vertical supports. Man that thing is as solid as a rock, once that polyseamseal sets up it is strong.

Cause one thing I was concerned about was like if you stood at one end and pushed it it would start to lean and collaspe but it is totally solid, doesn't move at all if you try that.

Its painted flat black and then I went back with my dremel and sanded back the edges to give a somewhat aged look. Total material cost is about $80.00.

Garage Door Faux Wood Grained

2007-04-01T09:49:00.005-05:00

I finished a new faux wood grained garage door last week. This door was painted to match the real wood door to the entrance of the home. It is a walnut color but probably like a warm walnut tone wood.

The absolutely most important thing to know about working on a garage door is to use ONLY 100% acrylic paint. NEVER use any oil based or alykyd based paint or sealer.

So the first thing is to prime the garage door. Typically new doors like this one have a white paint on them. It is an aluminium or steel door that has been painted with a factory finish on it. So what I do is prime it with a primer called Benjamin Moore Fresh Start, that is an acrylic based primer for interior slash exterior and you can paint.

What I like to do is tint the primer before I paint with it. If you can't find a paint store that will do that you have to paint on the white primer and then put a basecoat on before wood graining.

A really good basecoat to use for a walnut look is a Benjamin Moore Peanut Butter or one called Dark Mustard. It will look pretty gold when you paint it on but don't worry about that. The reason you want a very gold base is it will give the wood look that warm undertone it needs to look authenic.

If I am trying to make the door look more mahogany or cherry I use a Sherwin-Williams color called truepenny 6355. That will make the door look like a pumkin at first but it gives the final wood tone you want. Typically when I use Truepenny for the cherry look I use a SW color Fiery Brown for the actually wood tone.
You want to use acrylic paint and not oil. You can use a similar color paint from Benjamin Moore using their Mooreguard line for exterior.

Back to the walnut colored door. I use a SW color called Java for the wood tone. (By the way use exterior paints.) A quart is way more than you will need to do a double garage door. After painting on the grain pattern with the Java color and it dries I take a black and mix it with the Java about one to one. Then I go over the same area again with that thined down a little with Floetrol or use some of the clear seal product that I use to thin the paint. That product is called Varathane Spar Urethane Waterbased. I buy it a Lowe's.

At this point you just want it to be a transparent pass like a glazing effect. I have found out that using this two color pass technique really makes it work to where the door will look real.

Take a look at the first picture.

In this picture you can see I have done the top two rows. You can also see how I have taped off the vertical areas to paint. Now with all the garage doors I have done, the factory imprinted grain pattern goes horizontal, that is fron left to right. But if this were a real wood door that would not be the case. The areas I have taped off would have vertical grain pattern. So that is the way I paint it reguardless of the imprinted grain pattern. Just inform your client about this before hand.
In the next picture you can see what I mean better.

See how the grain goes vertical in the places it would if the door where constructed out of real wood. When that dries I tape it off to do the horizontal grain direction.

A caution here is only use the blue tape that says its for sensitive areas. Don't use the regular blue tape. Because typically like this job I only have about 30 minutes to an hour between coats so the regular blue tape would rip off the freshly painted paint. In the last picture you can see how I paint in the horizontal grain pattern.

After it is all done I top coat it with two coats of the Waterbased Varathane spar urethane.

Kitchen Cabinets

2007-03-15T18:29:00.000-05:00

I completed a nice one week project today. I distressed the center island cabinets in this new kitchen.

The first picture shows you the color we started with. All the cabinets in the kitchen were the same. There has been a trend in the last year or so to have the island cabinets different than those on the walls.

In the next picture you can see that the plan was to paint them black and with major areas sanded thru to the raw wood.

The first thing I did to create this look was to sand down to the raw wood in the various places where I knew I wanted to leave that area without any black paint. Then I painted on the black paint and dry brushed it over the sanded areas. Once the side was dry I sanded along the edges of the moulding with a rotor sander. A close-up view below gives you a better idea of how it all came out.

Condo Lobby job complete

2007-03-10T08:24:00.000-05:00

I finished up the lobby project in 3 days. They were small lobbies. I painted a new base coat of paint in each lobby and then applied a one color wash.

All the residents who came and went during the process really liked the new look. So that job went well.

I have been doing sample boards and estimates thrus and then on Friday I completed a small one day job.

This weekend I will work on doing more sample boards and the new neighborhood monument markers I have been commissioned to create.

Some of the sample boards I am working on are venetian plaster. Fine mormarino plaster. That is the kind that when finished has a gloss finish and feels like polished marble. Really nice stuff but the material costs are more pricey than paint.

Big Job Complete

2007-03-03T16:13:00.000-05:00

I finished that big job I have been working on for the last month. It alwasy feels good to finish up a big job.

I went on a job estimate yesterday but had to decline the work. I didn't realize how far it was from me. It took over 2 and a half hours round trip and that is too far to go.

I have a few small jobs coming up and then some really big ones.

Monday I am starting on doing a color wash in two small lobbies of a condo on Treasure Island. It should be about 3-4 dayer at best.

Big Job

2007-02-17T14:06:00.000-05:00

I have been working a very large job this past week. I have been creating a tuscany type of wall finish using a colored glaze technique over the existing textured wall. As you can see from the first picture this is a large space. The foyer I am working is app. 12 feet wide and 45 feet long with 25 foot ceilings. I have 3 levels of scaffoldling set up to do this job.

This next picture is a good one to let you see just how the finish is looking. The wall to the left is what I started with. Quite a dramatic difference after the glazing goes on. I use a two pass technique which I developed. This technique allows me to work on large areas without worrying about the dreaded "overlap" lines.

Perhaps the biggest challenge in creating a look like this is making sure you get that "consistently inconsistent look" over the entire wall. You want those darker areas and lighter areas but you want them to be fairly uniform without being a repeating pattern. Now, a large part of that challenge is to not get any of the "overlapping lines" on your wall.

An over lapping line occurs when the glaze has dried on the edge of the application area and then when you go back to that area again and overlap onto it. Look at the next picture. This is where I finished at the end of one days work. When I come back the next day and pick it up again I don't want to see a line down the wall where I had stopped and started. So what I do is create a stopping point like you see. On the leading edge of the glaze, after I apply it, I take a cotton rag and wipe it back taking off most (if not all at the start) of the glaze with it. I probably wipe off about 5-6 inches of glaze, feathering it back from the edge.

Then the next day I start by applying the glaze in the area which has no glaze and working back into the previous days work. I feather the glaze back into the previous days work so that when it does overlap only a very little amount of glaze is actually overlapping the previous day's work. But I overlap it by the 5-6 inches I had wiped off the previous day. Then I intergrate the pattern flow into the new application areas again using the two pass technique. In the picture below you can see where the wall is now done and there are no overlapping lines. There is a smooth flow across the entire surface of the wall.

cabinets

2007-02-16T06:27:00.000-05:00

I recently worked on some built-in cabinets. Often times when I do this I bring the doors home to do at home. Typically I paint both sides of the doors so it goes faster if I can bring them home and work on them in the evenings to at least get the backs done.

These where white when I started out and so I primed them with a golden tinted primer first and then put on the first coat of a medium brown. Actually the color is a Sherwin-Williams color of Java.

There were four doors to do. The next step was to use another S-W color a dark brown called French Roast, then on top of that I used a light golden color. The end effect was to have them aged. After that I painted the center diamond and trim molding a distressed metallic.

Here you can see with and without the metallics painted in. The next is a close up.

Installation of Big Painting

2007-01-10T20:17:00.000-05:00

Well, I finally got the big painting done and installed today. Here are some pics. The bottom two pieces are about 5 feet off the floor and the top is 16 feet up from the floor.

Fireplace

2007-01-06T19:45:00.000-05:00

A good one day job today. This fireplace is brick but the previous homeowner painted the bricks white. It would have been too much trouble to try and sandblast off the paint so I was called in to paint the bricks back to original form or better.

As you can see in the picture below I have already painted the top half of the fireplace to what I think is a really nice looking brick pattern and color. I really like the different colors here and especially some of them are almost white and some are dark. Then I painted in the a dark, warm gray for the mortar.

In the next picture you can see how the progress of painting the white brick gets going. The photo is actually where I am about half done. Here I have painted the basecoat brick orange color then painted some darker and some with a golden color and some with a tan color but those colors are lightly applied over the base orange brick color. Looking at this picture it doesn't look like I am going to get where I am going but its almost there.

The next photo is a close up of the finish hearth section of the fireplace and then a photo of the completed project. All in all a job well done.

big painting

2006-12-29T17:56:00.000-05:00

Still working on the new big painting. I hope to have it mostly done by the end of the weekend.

Been doing a lot of ceiling work the past 3 weeks. Oh my aching neck.

Here's how far I have gotten on the canvas piece.

Big Canvas Painting

2006-12-19T17:31:00.000-05:00

I have started on another big canvas piece. It is going to be 8 canvases, each one is 32 inches square. I have the background done on the top 6 canvases. Because of height considerations I can only work on 3 up at a time.

After I sketch out the image in pencil I use a liquid frisket and paint that on all the spaces that I don't want the background color to get on. Then I paint in the background and peel the frisket off.

What you see is the white canvas of the image I will now paint in.

front doors

2006-12-09T10:39:00.000-05:00

These front doors just needed a little touch to make them come alive. They were finished off with just a clear urethane and needed something to give them a little character. The handles are an anitque bronze so we aged the wood.

To do this I used black oil paint and applied so it that the paint would be in the crevices around the molding as you can see. Then I carefully applied the black over the entire door and wiped it off in a way to leave some and 'age' all the surfaces.

rectangle pattern

2006-11-23T11:25:00.000-05:00

I have been working in a condo unit on the 15th floor. The unit is in downtown Tampa and over looks the Hillsbough river.

I have done quite a bit of work there. I applied a three color glaze on all the walls in the dining area, kitchen and living room area. I painted the two columns in the foyer area a slightly distressed silver. Painted some niches in the dining area and painted the cabinets in the masterbath to match the bedroom furniture.

But the realllllllllly nice i did was under the bar and the backsplash.
check out the photos. It has great overlapping and transparent rectangles painted with 5 different colors and silver metallic then an over glaze of gold veil shimmer. The subtleties of the gold veil and metallics don't photograph well but you get the idea.

This is a really high teck look in the condo from the silver columns to the fantastic flooring - which unfortunately you can't see well from these photos.

2006-10-25T17:16:00.000-05:00

Here are some pictures of the pirate float I have been working on yesterday and today. I was approached by a client that I had done some work for at his home and business and asked if I could help them with their priate float. Its some sort of benefit thing but they have it in the Gasperilla parade every year in Tampa which according to police estimates draws about 500,000 people, so its a big deal.

Anyway the float is nothing more than a flat bed trailer about 40 feet long with a structure on the back and it had a raty looking tiki bar on the front. I told them to get rid of the tiki bar and I designed a treasure chest to put there instead. they also had the thing painted all seafoam green and pink and other colors that have nothing to do with priates.

they are going to put some benches down the middle but the whole thing is they get about 12 to 15 people on it and drink a lot of beer and toss out beads and plastic coins.

the first picture is the front of the float. I designed this to look like a treasure chest and they did a good job of building it. I am painting the wood a reddish brown and the trim will be a metallic gold. The idea is to stand in the treasure chest and throw out beads and coins, etc.

the next picture is the back of the float. This structure was already existing and they wanted to keep it and asked me if I had any ideas for it. So I thought it would make a good jail. It was painted some aweful color I so I painted it to look like plaster that had broken away revealing stone in places. there is a window on each side and they are going to put bars there. you can see how I painted the sides of the flatbed to look like wood planks. I still have about another 2 days on it before my part is done.

Back to work

2006-10-17T17:35:00.000-05:00

Well, that was a great vacation. We went to Zion National Park for 10 days and did some of the most awesome hiking in the country.

Back to work now and I started on a little job today repairing a ceiling. The ceiling has a color wash on it and the air conditioning system somehow broke and this resulted in water damage.

This is in a large dining room about 20 by 40 feet with 14 foot ceilings. Its hard to match someones elses work but I will try.

Today was just a prep day getting it all primed and ready. Then I tried to match the color. Hopefully I have it close enough, we'll see tomorrow.

Garage Doors Finished

2006-09-28T17:48:00.000-05:00

Well, I finished up the garage doors and outside walls of the new garage addition today. I put a good exterior clear coat over everything to ensure the longest lasting results I could.

The first photo is after I had primed the garage walls and primed and started the first coats of the door.

As you can see I first paint a pumpkin color over the door. This gives the final product a warm wood glow. Then I paint on the first brown color.

After that I paint on the second brown color which is nothing more than adding black to the first brown.

After the garage door was complete I painted the outside garage walls to match the walls of the home.

The last picture shows a close up of the door. Notice the nice warm glow of the wood.

Weekend Work

2006-09-24T18:23:00.000-05:00

I spent most of the weekend at a new chiropractic center. In the lobby I faux painted the window trim around three windows to match the wood grain of the furniture. Then I installed some paintings that Cathy had done above each window.

In the picture you can see two of the windows with two of the paintings. There is a wall to the right which you can't see that has another window and painting.

In the next picture you see this beautiful wood work that was installed in the lobby also. This piece was brought in from a storage location and was in rough shape cosmeticly but sturcturally sound. After it was installed there where marks and scraps everywhere and some of the wood did not match up in color. So I had to go over it and basically repaint/stain it so that it looks new again.

All the work came out great and I got home just in time to watch the Tampa Bay Bucs loose to the Carolina Panthers in the closing minutes of the game (boo).

This past week

2006-09-24T18:05:00.000-05:00

This past week I have been working on a home at the beach. I previously faux painted the entire outside of this home. You can see it here.

http://www.wallscomealive.com/pages/ww.html

There was a carport with the home then that in the last couple of months was made into a one car garage. So I have been working on that to make it match the rest of the house. In the picture you can see the addition and my initial work on the garage door. The door was white and I am painting it to look like a deep rich rosewood. I hope to finish the job this week.

Because the garage door is new and never been painted before I first put a prime coat on it with zinsser cover stain. Then as you see I painted it a base coat of a pumpkin color. After that I will paint two layers of brown. One a medium brown and then a very dark brown. Then seal with an exterior clear sealer.

wood grain crown and base

2006-09-18T15:50:00.000-05:00

I have been doing a lot of wood graining in the last week or so. No pictures to show because it is the same kind of wood graining I have shown and talked about in the past so nothing new.

I worked on some newly installed trim around where two large mirrors are going. I matched the new wood to the cabinets.

Then last week and this week I have been working on doing some crown and baseboard in three rooms. It was painted white and I painted it to be a deep rich mahogany look. The challenge was in the dining room there is this swinging door between the kitchen and that room. So I painted one side wood and left the kitchen side white. Then I split the door jam in the middle so in the dining room it looks like wood and in the kitchen it is white.

Everything looked so good I ended up doing the front door too. The door was stained and sealed but a much lighter tone of wood. Plus the outside was showing some signs of wear and weather. Now it looks like a brand new door.

Entry Cabinet niche

2006-09-08T12:12:00.000-05:00

As you go into the house from the garage these canbinets were installed in the niche there.
When they were installed I first primed them then put several coats of a deep wine color as a base. Then I took black and rubbed it into the creases and crevices. The cabinets are not quite as dark as the first photo but certainly darker than the other two. Its just that with the flash on it changes the color somewhat.

I love creating this hand rubbed look for the cabinets, it just seems to create a really rich look. Check out those legs in the last photo.

Talk about distressed

2006-09-06T16:47:00.000-05:00

This bathroom vanity is really distressed looking. The bathroom was remolded and mostly gutted and starting over. The black granite top is new and so is the small tile work over it. It was decided to keep the framework of the cabinet and distress it. Distress it a lot.

The first thing I had to do was to prime the cabinet and all the drawers and doors. Then I painted it a dark wood grain and put some crackle finish over that. On the crackle I painted an off white let that dry so you could see some of the dark grain show thru. Then I went over the entire piece with a black-brown distressing it to the max. It looks like it was drug out of room that had been fire damaged. Which is not a bad look as long everything else is new and crisp.

Homework

2006-08-31T18:23:00.000-05:00

A lot of times I have homework to do. That's what I call pieces I bring home to work on or sometimes people drop off stuff I do in the studio at home. That way I can work on them at night or the weekend.

Here's a little table that I did this week. It was a bightly multi colored piece that the client wanted to look like silver metal.

The first thing I did was to prime it with Zinsser Cover Stain. I was not sure of what kind of paint it had on it so a good priming was in order. Then I painted it solid black. I used a can of Behr paint from Home Depot and I have to say I got great coverage over the white primer. Much better than I thought I would. I figured it would take at least 2 coats to get solid black but one coat almost did it, I just had to touch up a bit after the first coat dried.

Then I dry brushed the metallic silver on. I acutally mixed a little metallic antique bronze in the silver because the silver was too cool, almost a bluish tone to it. I wanted it to be a warm silver so mixing a bronze in did the trick.

The other homework I had done this week was a mirror. The mirror was a light brown wood grain when I got it. The decorator wanted it to be a dark walnut. So again first I had to prime it. I used a primer tinted yellow because I want a warm glow to come thru the wood graining. I used a yellow tint because we didn't want any redish cast to it. You can see it half way primed below.

After the primer dried I first used a regular brown as the first wood grain pass. Then I mixed black in that and went over it a second time. I really think that doing it this way creates much more depth in the wood and makes for a better look.

Wall Panels

2006-08-26T17:01:00.000-05:00

Cathy has created a fabulous array of hallway panels in this home. The first picture I want to show you is a shot looking down the hallway where the panels are (12 foot ceilings). There are 8 panels on each side of the door which is in the center and then there is a panel above the door.

You can see seven panels here below. On the other side of the door the panels are a mirror image of what you see here.

A closer look at the work. How perfect can you get! Look at the wonderful corner work going on. The wood molding was put on by a carpenter and Cathy painted it also.

The panel above the door and next to it.

Distressed Armoire

2006-08-22T18:35:00.000-05:00

This armoire project came about partly because the family dog had chewed off the lower right hand corner and chewed in a few other places.

You can't see the chew marks in the first picture because I had already recreated the corner with M&H ready patch. It wasn't an exact match but close enough for what we are doing here.

An off white was chosen as the top coat. The application was to use a 'dry brush' technique.

You want to have the original dark finish show thru and even scrap some scratch marks here and there. The insides of the doors where also painted. This piece houses a television and various supporting items (tapes, dvds, cable box, etc).

Colors

2006-08-19T07:38:00.000-05:00

Sometimes it works out that painting a solid color can be as effective as painting a faux finish. With all white walls this town house originally had it really needed some color.

The first plan was to paint a red leather look in the kitchen and up one wall of the stairs. After painting the red base coat of paint on the wall the client decided that the red by itself looked great and was dark enough. Check it out.

What happened in this case (and happens occasionally) is a client will have a picture from a magazine or brochure and would to have it created on their walls. In this case it was a faux finishing brochure from Ralph Lauran showing a deep red leather look. Well in the photo of the wall they showed the lighting they used showed most of the wall as being quite a bit lighter than the actual finish. On the opposite page it showed about a one inche square image of what the actual look of the wall would be without it being lit. Its real dark. So using the formula it says to use in the brochure I did a sample board. I know from experience that this was going to be too dark. So while doing the sample board I divided it in half and did half like the brochure says and then I did a lighter version. The darker half of my sample board matched the brochure exactly and the other half was lighter. Well as expected when I showed the sample to the client the lighter half was chosen.

So I then put up the red basecoat. It only took two coats to get total coverage of the red over white. That's not easy to do, especially if you use the Ralph Lauran paint. You could end up painting 4-5 coats to get total coverage with that stuff. Red is a very hard color especially a dark red to paint on a wall and get coverage. By that I mean you want to see a solid coat of the color paint and not any roller marks or shallow areas where you can see the previous color underneath the top coat.

So for deep reds you really need to use Sherwin-Williams paint. They have a product that is espically made with a deep red base for the reds and it will only take two coats to get your solid coverage. Its thick but thats ok, it works great.

So after I put up two coats of the red, by the way I used a color called 'Red Bay', the client really like the look of it and definitly did not want to go any darker.

So we then modified the concept for the home by painting in a solid color (Tamiami Tam) on one side of the down stairs and I created a faux finish on the other side of the downstairs using a white base coat and a brown color from Sherwin-Williams called 'Java'. You can see the tan color in the photo, lets look again.

So much nicer and richer looking than white walls. The last picture shows the white wall on the right that was used for the color wash, unfortunately I forgot to get a photo of it when finished. There was also a powder bath downstairs that got the color wash.

Paver Patio

2006-08-12T15:43:00.000-05:00

This past week I finished up a condo project that I have been working on for a month. Monday I start a new project. I am going to paint a deep red leather look on the kitchen walls and going up the stairs. Hopefully I will get some good pictures of this project.

I just got a new paver patio installed last week. Check out the photos.

there are still some finishing touches to be done. We used some of the extra pavers to make planters with on each side of the gate. Then there is a paver walkway out to the end of the driveway.

We even had enough left over paver to make a patio on the other side of the house and a walkway from the front door to the driveway.

Art Installation

2006-08-02T18:20:00.000-05:00

Cathy has created a wonderful piece of artwork for an outside courtyard area at a local hospital. This area is a space created for cancer patients. I constructed the six panels and Cathy painted the image on them. Each panel is 32 inches square.

Cathy also painted a stone border to two planter areas in the courtyard. The first picture is the blank concrete canvas she had to work with.

The next two photos show the stone borders.

The last photo shows a arched panel 54 inches wide that she painted and we install above the doorway that leads outside of the courtyard area. The wood 'plank' below the painted arched piece is painted directly on the block wall.

Pirate Ship Float

2006-07-29T12:05:00.000-05:00

I was asked to design a pirate ship float, the float will be part of various parades in the Tampa Bay area most notably the Gasperilla Day parade in February of each year. This parade typically draws 500,000 people.

These are the preliminary sketches that have to based on an existing float platform.

first one is overall float.

I am not sure what the height requirements or restrictions that you will have but basically a large treasure chest in the front, mast in the middle and stern of ship in... well the stern.

Front picture.

So in the front the treasure chest is a walk in piece. The four sides are constructed to look like a treasure chest and you can stand inside it and throw out beads or whatever. There would be a walk thru doorway space ('passage way' in navel jargon) to go in and out of the chest.

This could be a really nice piece if you take the time and build it right and paint it up with some metallic paint and all. I would imagine the construction company could find some large metal pieces to simulate latches, etc.

Help by the participating members to get accessories to simulate treasure and that draped over the lid and leaning up against it.

the sides of the float could be wood or that hardiboard and nailed on to simulate the side of a ship with areas for the cannons.

The mast in the center of the ship is surrounded at the base with powder kegs. I was thinking that this would provide a seating area for a rest.

Then you could make a sail and install it so it covered the front part of the ship to provide sun shade and rain protection. It attaches to a mast going out the front of the ship.

Now this is reallllllllllllllllllly cool. On the posts that line the perimeter of the float you could get life size human skulls plastic models and mount them on the top of each post. You could also get femur bones and cross them below the skulls.

The stern of the ship could like the stern of a ship.

I think it needs to be curved out like the sketch. Again I don't know the height restrictions but it would be cool to have a platform on top to stand and throw beads also.

What will make the float outstanding is the accessories you use on it.
lost of rope rigging and poles with multi colored flags, etc. Will add tons of 'look' with not much cost.

anyway this is my initial thoughts and I will do more detailed sketches of the individual aspects if asked. (Depending on budget)

Aged Columns

2006-07-26T17:48:00.000-05:00

I started this project on Monday. The deal is to paint 4 stone columns so they match in color the marble around the fireplace (not shown in picture) and to make them look very old. In the picture the two columns furthest away have been completed.

The pedestals that the columns sit on have been changed from what they were. They originally were sitting on wood and the wood pedestal was actually smaller than the base of the column so it looked kinda funny. Now as you can see the pedestals have been built out some and faced with marble and some sculpted decorative type tile. (Which I have to paint to match the columns)

Anyway, I assumed the columns were painted in oil as the wood base seemed to be and they were both a satin white. (Painting stone columns white is not a good idea. It just does not do the columns any justice at all.) So the first thing i did was to prime them with a product by Zinsser called 'Cover Stain', its an oil based primer. Its an excellent primer and I use it on a regular basis, especially when I am not sure what it is I am priming over. I have found that this primer is the only one I can count on to adhere to oil paint. Yes, I know, the Bin 123 and other waterbased primers will say they adhere well to oil paint but in my experience they do not.

Even though the Cover Stain is oil based it dries as fast as an acrylic primer and once it cures it ain't coming off.

So after I primed I based coated with a color that I thought would give me the base coat color of the marble I was trying to match. Priming and base coating was the first day.

The next day I started on the first column. Now sometimes my plan does not go as planed. I tried for almost 3 hours to get the column to look the way I wanted it to but could not. So I gave up and base coated over what I did to get it back to a starting point and moved to another column. I used a different technique and that worked great so at that point I was off and running. I was able to get 2 columns completed the second day and today finished up the last two and sealed them.

I use a product called, 'Diamond Elite' it is made by Varathane and is a clear waterbased polyurethane made for floors but I use it on walls and cabinetry all the time.

So here is the aged look above. To get it I used a dark warm gray and a medium to dark toned brown mixed to gether. I do not mix up a batch of the color and then paint with it. What I do is take my brush and dip it in one can and wipe that off in the paint tray, then dip the brush in the other can and mix the two colors together in the paint try.

I mix the colors like that so that each time I mix up a small amount it has a little different mixture of each color. that way the hue and shade of the color varies slightly around the column. It makes it more interesting to do it that way.

Once I mixed up a small amount of paint I get my brush very wet with water. I need to have the paint extremely runny because I want to push it into all the pock marks in the column so with the brush very wet and spread the paint on the column pushing it into the pock marks. Then I immediately take a cotton rag and wipe off almost all the paint on the surface of the column leaving the pock marks filled. If you look at the photo above you can see the pock marks and how the dark paint filled them.

I am working in areas of about 15-18 inches by 20 inches and sometimes larger. I get the whole column done like this and let it dry. then I take an off white and dry brush it over the column and leave the muted veining look you see. then I take a brush with the darker paint and go into all the seams at the top and bottom of the column. Then once dry I seal it.

They look very much like they have stood there for hundreds of years.

Stripe Pattern

2006-07-21T14:22:00.000-05:00

I finished the stripe pattern I have been working on. It came out really nice and the client loved it.

In order to do this project there was quite a bit of prep work. The walls that have the stripes on them had wallpaper. The clients took the wallpaper off themselves. There were quite a bit of holes and rips and other gouges in the wall that first had to be repaired.

Typically when one hires a professional to take down wallpaper the person will strip the wall and repair any damage then prime the wall so it is ready to go.

So that was not done in this case so I had to do that myself. The first thing I do in these cases is to sand down the entire wall with my 'mouse' hand held sander. I clean up the edges of all the tears and holes. Then I fill the holes with M and H Ready patch. The smaller holes, tears and gouges I can fill with joint compound.

The difference is joint compound is softer than the ready patch and not good for larger holes as it will crack.

So I go over the entire wall area and let that dry for a day. Then I re-sand the entire wall hoping I got all the holes. Of course with this wall and so many places I missed a few so I get those. When all is dry I sand again then prime. After you prime with a good primer there will be some spots that might need some more attention so I take care of that. Then I prime again. Lots of work just to get to the place where you can start putting paint on the wall.

So lets look at the wall again.

I first painted the entire wall with one coat of the tan color. I did this for a couple of reasons. The first is I wanted to get some color on the wall. I was also concerned about seeing an edge mark with painting the stripes. Each layer of paint when dried will have a thickness to it. So if you paint two layers of paint then try to butt up against that with two other layers there is a good chance you will see a line there. So hoping to minimize that effect I opted to paint the wall one of the three colors first. I also wanted to do the job in the least of amount of time possible. When you are doing stripes to get the edge line as clean as possible you need to use tape. I use the blue 'safe release' tape and would not reccomend using anything else. The regular blue painters tape will lift paint off the wall.

So first I paint the wall one coat of tan color. Then I taped off the two off white stripes and painted them in with two coats. I then taped off the center tan stripe and gave it a second coat. (I only needed to paint one coat on this stripe after I taped it off because I had already painted the entire wall this color.)

So now I have three stripes done, the two off white and the center tan one. I did it this way because I have to wait over night for the paint to dry before I can tape off the other stripes. Even using the safe release I give paint an over night dry before taping on to it.

Now the next day I taped off the gray stripes and the top and bottom tan stripes and paint them in. Here you can see the taping and painting of the gray stripes.

In order to paint in the gray stripes I needed to tape on the off white stripes so that is why they needed to dry over night.

In order to paint in stripes you need to be able to mark off the edges of the stripes in a level straight line. In order to do that I use a laser level.

Mine is a 'David White' laser level and costs about $150.00. It comes with an eight foot pole you can attach the laser to. With that you can slide the laser up and down and clamp it at any height thereby you can set it precisely where you want it on the wall. It has a horizontal line and a vertical or both at one time. It has a self leveling feature which is invaluable. It levels itself on the wall so you don't need a level to to that.

Once I determine the width of the stripes I mark off the measurements on the wall. Then with the laser level you just line up the red line of the laser light on each mark and it gives you a level horizontal line across the wall. You don't need to pencil off this line, I just leave the light on and tape right to it. Its really a nice tool to use.

After the first stripes are done you don't need the laser level anymore.

For the gray stripes and the upper and lower tan stripes I simply tape along the edge of the off white stripes over lapping less than a 1/16th of an inch.

I had previously painted the crown molding a brushed nickel look with metallic paint. You really can't tell from the picture so you will have to trust me on that. The procedure on that was to paint the crown first in a dark gray satin paint. Then I mixed some metallic silver with some metallic bronze to darken it some and brushed it over the dark gray paint.

T-shirt design

2006-07-16T15:28:00.000-05:00

Sometimes I do these little extra art jobs. Like one for this t-shirt company that asked me to do a design with clown fish. So I painted this piece for them and will ship it to them tomorrow.

straight painting

2006-07-15T07:33:00.000-05:00

typically I do not do a lot of just straight painting. so the last couple of weeks has been a challenge. still working on getting all the prep work done and base coat painting in this condo.

prime, prime, prime

2006-07-11T14:31:00.000-05:00

lots of priming on this project. almost done with that, maybe one more day and then I can start to paint.

prep work

2006-07-09T18:12:00.000-05:00

major prep work all week and possibly this week too. lots of priming and basecoating. worked it on sat and hope to have all the prep done by the end of this week.

new project

2006-07-04T08:47:00.000-05:00

I started on a new project this week and got off to a good start on Monday. I am working on the 24th floor of a condo that over looks Tampa Bay, so it has quite the view.

The first challenge is that the living room was wall papered. The homeowners removed the wall paper and did a pretty good job but of course I now have to fill all the holes and tears in the drywall where the paper ripped up the surface of the drywall.

So what I do is to take my hand electric pad sander and go over every inch of the walls. This takes off any wall paper glue that was left behind and smoothes out the other raised imperfections.

Then I take a 6 inch drywall blade and some joint compound and fill in the holes and tears and generally smooth coat the wall where needed. I will let this dry over night and in this case since it is the 4th it has an extra day to dry. Then I will take the pad sander again and go over the wall one more time smoothing out the joint compound.

I filled in some pretty substantial holes, one was about 3 inches in diameter. I have no idea how a hole that big got in the wall but anyway... What I do is take a piece of styrofoam about 3/4 of an inch thick and just using my hands break it into roughly the shape of the hole leaving it a little larger. Because the styrofoam will compress I can force it into the hole and it will stay there as it tries to expand back to its original size. I push it in about a 1/8 of an inch recessed to the surface of the wall.

Now with most of the stuff I on the repair of the walls from taking down the wall paper I use joint compound. But for holes I use 'MH Ready Patch' its is the best product for this because it sets up harder than joint compound but still sands well.

If the hole is big you have to use a couple of layers because if you make it too thick it will crack on you.

But the styrofoam will hold well if you sized it right by not making it too small and then you use the MH ready patch to fill in the hole to flush with the wall surface.

There was also a door that was removed and not being replaced. So when you take off the door hindges there is the routed out spot on the door jam that held the door hindge. So I use the MH ready patch for that also.

Of course you could take out the door jam entirely if you didn't ever want a door there again but that can open a whole can of worms too. So if there is any doubts about whether or not a door will be reinstalled at a future date its best to fill the door hindge spots and call it a day.

Last year I took off a door jam in my own home because I knew we'd never want a door in that space again. For some reason when they built the home they put a door in the doorway going into the kitchen so I removed it when I bought the home and last year got tired of looking at the door jam.

So I ripped it out and then had to plaster the opening to match the surrounding walls. It came out great but its a big job.

metallic signage

2006-06-30T10:09:00.000-05:00

I had a little one day job yesterday painting two signs, one on the front and one on back of a building.

Actually the entire job took longer than one day. I first had to lay it out on paper then transfer it to the walls. That was about a half day's work. Then it took a day to paint it on.

In the first picture you see how I approached the project. After laying it out on the wall I painted the first layer of the logo with a dark brown coat. The lettering is solid black and I was happy it only took two coats to get solid. Sometimes it takes three.

I then painted over the dark brown with an antique bronze metallic paint. Then I made the individual tiles seem 3-d by painting the edges black. To do this you have to have a direction from which the light would come. So the actual light fixture on the building there I shadowed in the left and bottom sides of each tile. Notice how much of a difference it makes from the first picture to the second. I repeated this exactly on the front of the building.

sample boards and sketches

2006-06-28T06:51:00.000-05:00

I finished the garage doors on Friday but did not have a chance to seal them until yesterday. It has been raining during the times when I could have sealed them.

Anyway no harm done, I sealed them yesterday and now the job is complete.

I worked on sketches and sample boards over the weekend.

I have 3 jobs I need to start at once. Impossible, so that's always a challenge.

Today is another prep day. Tomorrow if plans go well I will do a one day job and then on Friday start something else, I just have to see what project falls into place by then.

wood grain garage doors

2006-06-22T16:05:00.000-05:00

The last couple of days I have started a faux wood grain project on some garage doors. One set is a single and the other a double. It pretty much like this set
of doors where you have one single and a double click to see doors

the biggest challenge is the weather. man its hot out there.

faux wood grain

2006-06-19T17:53:00.000-05:00

Today I had a small one day job. I fauxed wood grained some newly installed molding around a big stain-glass piece. The stain-glass piece is about 6 or 7 feet across and hexagon in shape. It is installed above the reception desk area of a new chiropractic center and is back lit by several lights. I fauxed wood grained the moulding to look like a deep mahogany.

sample boards

2006-06-16T17:26:00.000-05:00

Man, I have done a ton of sample boards between yesterday and today. I just could not get the right combination of color and technique.

I finally got one set done and another half done.

I just having to paint over what I had done and start over. Very frustrating but I refuse to settle for less than what I believe is the right look and sometimes it takes a big effort to get there. Most times I get right the first or second time.

If you look at the picture you can see two sample boards. I have been working a horizontal stripe pattern based on the fabric (shown)for the pillows that are on the couch. I don't want to use all the colors of the fabric so I am using three.

You might not be able to tell much from the picture because the color differences are subtle. I probably used 3 or 4 different base coats and a few different colors for the first layer of glaze. Every time I use a different base coat I have to paint the sample board that color before I apply a glaze. So when I do that and it doesn't work out I have to paint over it and wait for it to dry. Which on a sunny day here in Florida its not long. Then I start again.

I got these two done and they are pretty close but I will probably go with the one on the right. Seems to have a cleaner look. Nevertheless I will take both boards with me to show the client. Its best to see them both in the room that the painting will take place in. It might change things with that particular lighting that each room will have.

sample boards

2006-06-15T18:21:00.000-05:00

Big sample board day. I worked on several sample boards and made 5 new ones.

To make new ones I bought a 1/2 inch piece of drywall 10 feet long from Home Depot.
I have a drywall t-square so when I wheel the sheet of drywall out to my van I mark off every 2 feet and cut 5 pieces from the sheet, each is 2 by 4 feet. I drive a dodge mini-van so a big sheet won't fit in but the 2 by 4 sheets fit no problem.

so that is the size I like to use for a sample board. Its generally big enough that once the sample is done the client can get a sense of what the finish will look like on the walls.

So when I get home I use regular masking tape to tape the edges where I have cut and then I prime each board. But before I primed all the boards I used a can of spray on orange peel texture on 3 of them.

They have these spray on cans of texture you can buy in the paint dept. Some are for popcorn ceiling, some for knockdown, some for orange peel.

the can says it will cover 60 square feet but I only got 3 boards out of it which is 24 square feet. hmmm...

After the spary on orange peel drys I hit lightly with a sanding block to knock off the roughness. You have to be careful at this point and not sand off too much texture but you really need to sand it some. Then prime with a primer don't just paint over them. After the primer drys you can basecoat with whatever color you are dealing with.

so I worked all day on sample boards and at the end of the day painted over all of them because I did not like anything. That means tomorrow I will try again.

busy day

2006-06-14T18:42:00.000-05:00

I had a pretty busy day today but did not do any painting. I went to visit a client and check on how the progress of her new condo was going. She is having some extensive construction work done before I can get in there.

One thing they are doing is taking down wallpaper that was up. Some times it comes down easy and sometimes not. I would say its not coming down all that easy and there are many spots on the wall that now need repaired. So I will have to repair those and prime and basecoat before I do any wall finishes. A big job.

I spent the rest of the day working on sample boards.

faux finish in kitchen

2006-06-13T14:31:00.000-05:00

Well, I had an easy day today. Things went as planned and the one color wash in the kitchen went up great. Then I sealed it with a clear acrylic topcoat and was done.

Tomorrow I really need to get to work on some sample boards and sketches. I have been working so much on the weekends building a wooden fence and gate I have not had the time to devote to business stuff. check out the section of fence I built and the gate. The gate is white for now but I am going to paint it a dark brown and then dry brush a green color over that.

corbels

2006-06-12T15:33:00.000-05:00

My new project for the first part of the week is to paint 4 corbels that were installed under some cabinets. The cabinets are a dark mahogany type color. The corbels were a light raw wood color when I got there this morning. They now match the cabinets.

I got that done today plus some other minor touch-ups that needed to be done because the clients dog had chewed up some wood funiture, a foot on the dining room table. So I first sanded then filled the chew marks with MH ready patch (great stuff, available anywhere) Then I let that dry while I was doing the corbels. After the ready patch dried I sanded it and painted the area to match the dining room table.

I also worked on another piece of furniture, a Bombay Chest, that had been chipped from moving around. Just a small area, I used the MH ready patch there also and painted it to match after it dried.

tomorrow I go bach and apply a one color wash to the kitchen wall areas, which is not very much space as the kitchen is mostly cabinets. So it should be an easy day tomorrow (fingers crossed).

ceiling project complete

2006-06-09T13:31:00.000-05:00

I finished up the ceiling project this week and it went well. No pics this time however. Next week I will start a new project maybe two if I finish a little project I have going Monday and Tuesday.

I talked to two different prospects yesterday about work. So I have to work on a sample board this weekend and some sketches for that stuff.

Always busy, which is a good thing.

new ceiling project

2006-06-05T17:34:00.000-05:00

I started a new ceiling project today. What it is is a kitchen ceiling that is 10 by 12. It is one of those deals where there was a space in the center of the room where there was drop ceiling for the fluorescent lighting fixtures. So you take down the drop part and take out the fluorescent lights and in this case they installed some pendent lights.

What you are left with is a recessed space in the ceiling in the center of the room. Now what happens is there are numerous holes in the recessed ceiling part of the ceiling where the fluorescent fixtures were and where the drop part of the thing was attached. Not only that but that part of the ceiling was never finished off to begin with because they knew it would not be seen.

So the first order of business today was to fill all holes and using joint compound I put a texture on all the ceiling areas. Now it all looks consistent. I am assuming that the joint compound will dry over night tonight and tomorrow I can prime and wait a couple of hours and then basecoat it. Then the plan is to put a two color wash on it Wed.

faux stone around windows

2006-06-01T19:54:00.000-05:00

Well, I got some better shots of the work today but not great. Its hard to get good photos sometimes. At least you can see better in this photo than the ones I took yesterday.

At first glance you think it is stone.

In the picture below you can see my extension ladder with the standout attached. I really couldn't do work like this without the standout. Unless I used scaffolding.

window treatment

2006-05-31T17:55:00.000-05:00

I took Monday off (sort of)and started a new job yesterday. There are 4 windows up high in the family room of this beautiful home that I am working on to make them more 'dressed up'. Check out the photo. This is a very hard project to photo for me because of the light coming in the window. It makes it hard to get a good shot of the work. Tomorrow I am working on the opposite wall so maybe that will be better.

I painted the faux stone work around the window on the left. You can barely see the window on the right with part of my extension ladder. If you look close you can see the outline of the stone. The ledge there is 10 feet and it goes up another 8 feet after that. So I had to use an extension ladder with a stand out attached. The window on the left was a challenge because of the iron railing there. Very hard to reach the wall in the lower left corner of the window. I had to weave my arm and hand thru the railing to get to the wall. The railing is there because there is a set of French doors on that wall that open to a bedroom that over looks the family room.

All in all it came out great and at first glance you can't tell is it not stone. I also painted in some roseates on the stone that might show up in tomorrow's photos. The lighting is just too much of a challenge for me on this side of the room.

busy day

2006-05-27T16:11:00.000-05:00

Busy day for a Saturday. Cathy has an art project going on with a hospital. She is going to paint a painting in a similar format as the one I did a couple of months ago with the big flowers. On that one I used 16 canvases each 24 by 24 inches. On Cathy's, she is going to use 6 pieces each is going to be 32 by 32 inches. Its going to be a horizontal piece so 2 rows of 3.

I spend most of the day making the painting substructures for her. I used a tempered mansonite and cut it to size then used 1 by 2's and cut those at a 45 degree angle on edge to frame them. Then I will prime and put a white base coat on them for her. They should be a really nice surface to work on. We figured it would be a much better way to go than using canvas. Mostly because this is a commerical job and you never know what is going to happen the work. Using masonite is a good choice because it is much stronger and can take some abuse. I was too afraid that the canvas would be easily damaged.

You can see above the front and back of the pieces. Its going to be a great surface to paint on structurally really strong.

By the way I finished my big kitchen cabinet project yesterday and the clients loved it! Yipee!

still plugging along

2006-05-24T07:02:00.000-05:00

Still plugging along on the kitchen cabinet project. After I get the cabinets done I am going to put a light color wash on the walls.

kitchen cabinets

2006-05-21T12:56:00.000-05:00

The current project is a pretty big kitchen cabinet makeover. Lots of doors and drawers to paint. I spent all week doing one side of the kitchen and this week I will do the other side. Check out the picture.

The cabinets are 20 years old and they structuraly are in perfect condition. That's because they are made from solid mable wood. These are probably the best built cabinets I have ever worked on. Even the sides of the drawers and the bottom and back are a solid 1/2 inch thick mable wood. You just don't see that so much.

The challege is after 20 years is the finish is in pretty bad shape. As you look at the photo the door on the right is what they look like and the door on the left is how I am faux painting them to look. The whitewash or pickled look was popluar 20 years ago but basically nobody uses it today. Along with me faux painting the cabinets a new floor was installed of travertine marble, the backsplash is now tumbled marble and instead of tile counter top there is a granite counter top and new lighting. So a complete make over. I am painting the cabinets to look like a hand rubbed Tuscany look with a color that picks up some the color in the granite counter top.

lots of work on this one. I had to throughly clean the cabinetry with denatured alachol and mineral spirits. I also ended up sanding quite a bit as that was the only way to get it all clean. However, what happens then is you end up sanding down thru the whitewash finish to the raw mable wood in areas. so to counter act that I have to apply a whitewash in those areas to get it back otherwise when I apply the tuscany hand rubbed finish it will not look right at all.

then of course I put 2 coats of a clear coat finish on each surface. I started using a product called diamond elite varathane for this and I absolutely love it. It is easy to work with and has a great 'hand' to it. When I say it has a great 'hand' I mean it feels soooooooooo nice to run your hand over it.

Faux wood grain

2006-05-10T17:59:00.000-05:00

Almost finished another project. I have been faux wood graining a bathroom cabinet set and applying a suede type wall finish in a bedroom that has actually been turned into an office.

The cabinets started out a solid off white hue. I think they came out great. The color of the wood tones were made to match some very large pieces of marble in the room which you can't see in the photo below. (Actually if you look close you can see some of the marble in the mirror on the left.)

In a room that is now the office I applied a suede looking wall finish using a special glazing technique that I have developed. In the photo below you can see a part of the room that has a niche. There is a table there with a computer hook up and nice wall mount tv. In the photo it sorta looks like I painted the ceiling but what is happening is there is a soffet that runs all the way around the room and I painted that but there is a white ceiling area in the room.

sealed buffet

2006-05-03T14:51:00.000-05:00

Well I finished the buffet today by sealing the work I had done in the last two days. the doors are back on in the photo but the drawers are not in yet. I asked the client to wait until tomorrow to give the sealer time to dry before putting them back in.

Since then I have been working on three estimates and getting ready for starting a new job tomorrow.

buffet

2006-05-02T16:33:00.000-05:00

Yesterday and today I have been working on a buffet. I usually don't do furniture to much anymore but this is a good client and so I thought I would.

The buffet is made out of pine and had a medium tone stain on it. The first thing I did was to prime the whole thing. I primed it because we want to do a distressed finish on the piece in order to do that in any kind of timely manner I want to work in a waterbased paint. However, the sealer used on this piece was oil based so I prime first with a primer that will adhere to the sealer and let me then paint in acrylic paint. I used 1-2-3 bin.

Then I painted the entire piece black. This took two coats to get enough coverage. That was Monday. Today I used a medium dark green and dry brushed it over the black and then before it dried totally I took a damp cloth and wiped out areas to make those areas look as if they were rubbed out or scratched out. Then I applied a very light layer of red paint and let it build up in the corners. Then I used a gold metalllic paint to highlight some of the trim work.

I hope to have a picture tomorrow. I want to seal the piece but I am going to let it dry over night before i do that.

stuff

2006-04-29T07:33:00.000-05:00

Thrusday I spent the day going on initial appointments for possible future work. So what I do is meet with the client and go over their thoughts and see the space, etc. Then I take measurements and try to visulaize how the job would go. I try not to give an estimate on the spot until I have had time to sit and think about all the aspects of doing the project. So today I will get back with them with an estimate for the work.

Yesterday I painted 4 columns to similute a marble finish and it went pretty well.

Today besides calling back on estimates I am going to work a mirror project and start on the clown fish t-shirt project.

The mirror project comes from the bath I did this week. As previously posted I had painted the bath cabinetry to look like a deep toned wood grain, so I offered to make a simple wood frame and paint it to match the cabinets for a mirror above the sink.

Lots to do as always.