Introducing...

~FWS Artistic Accents~

Finished With Style, LLC has introduced a new dimension to the business with upcycled, handpainted furniture, fine art and architectural accents.

Curbside finds, dumpster diving and tag sales had yielded quite an inventory of unwanted furniture over the years...actually filling a garage!  Sooo, when the opportunity arose to open a retail booth at Black Rock Auction & Design Gallery, we went to work.  Talk about multi-tasking...in addition to regular FWS jobs, we now had multiple furniture and art pieces in various stages of work.

  We cleaned, patched, sanded, created and
recreated for over a month.

In addition, we put the FWS 'stamp' on the booth itself by

resurfacing the brickwork & floor, and hanging burlap on the walls.

Dresser turned rolling work island

Kittredge occasional table

Reactive metal art

Drum table with Italian tray

 French Provincial sideboard

Hammered metal bowl

Paris Grey coffee table

Candelabra

Demi-lune glove table

It has been exciting to transform these pieces, sell and bring in new inventory.

And, even more exciting to imagine where this new venture might take FWS.

*promise...upcoming posts will include before & afters,
as well as a little history on some of the pieces.

Ready...set...go!

Remember this sneak peek from...oh, about 6 months ago?  We are now up and running with a new product: Aurastone.  Aurastone is a concrete overlay system for creating countertops and other surfaces that are seamless and durable.  The surface is easily maintained with a beeswax finish and mild soap & water for cleanup.  With USDA approval, Aurastone has one of the highest food safety ratings in the country, is bacteria & stain resistant and will withstand temperatures up to 500 degrees.  Because of it's wide color palette, the artistic applications are endless.  We can create a natural or fantasy stone look or create original artwork within the epoxy.

Our first project was a kitchen counter.  The new countertop was constructed with MDX, a denser version of MDF.  A water-proof sealent was applied to the entire surface.

Two passes of concrete were then applied, creating a scratch-coat.

Some painting magic...

...with dyes, mica and metallic powders...

...followed by a coating of a water-based 2 part epoxy system.  This epoxy has no odor and is low VOC, so it's great to work with.  The blow torch is used to disperse air bubbles.  A more natural, matte stone finish is achieved by honing the surface with an orbital sander: 4 passes with sandpaper-400 to 4000 grit!!!  The surface is then buffed with beeswax.

Here is the awful, laminate butcher block before:

The newly installed countertop.  A handsome, polished concrete finish.

Aurastone can be used for countertops, tables, art and so many more possibilities.  We look forward to creating many more projects and posting them in the future.

Zula

Once upon a time, about 5 years ago, a new restaurant was in the design & construction phase.  FWS was hired to install hip, modern finishes in 5 spaces.  And we did.  Venetian plasters, Lusterstone, a JaDecor night ceiling, reactive metal walls.  Unfortunately, there were some zoning issues and the restaurant never opened.

But...there is a happy ending!  We learned that the space was taken over by new owners.  Zula Bar and Restaurant opened in January, 2011.  We recently made the trip to check out the new restaurant and were very pleasantly surprised to see that they had kept our finishes.

Lusterstone plaster in the bar and cocktail area.

Venetian plaster finish in the dining area

Reactive metal walls on the stage.

Overall, we were very pleased with the new restaurant. Nice bar, the drinks and food were great. We look forward to visiting Zula the next time we are in the Hartford area!

Mouldings and Medallions

While we were finishing the powder room in Dave and Rita's, there was a great deal of work going on throughout their entire home. New crown moulding and ceiling medallions were being installed in their kitchen, family room and master bedroom.

New crown, corbels and medallions.

Dave & Rita's home is filled with beautiful furniture and carpets that they have collected over the years.  Rather than painting all the decorative trim white, they wanted to accentuate the Old World feeling of the carved wood.  

ALL of the new trim was basecoated in black..ALL of it. Basecoating in black gives the end product an aged patina.  The basecoat was followed by 2 passes of bronze glaze~dark, then high lights were added.

 

Moving right along at Dave & Rita's.  Up next:  the foyer.


Susan & Tracey
FWS

Oh, What A Ceiling!

After completing a powder room, 7 ceiling medallions, 4 corbels, a dozen cartouches and many, many feet of crown moulding, we moved on to Dave & Rita's dining room.  The decor is Empire~Louis XIV, which is quite ornate.  It was decided that we would go big on the ceiling, yet subtle.  Is that possible?!  D and R wanted their dinner guests to be seated, casually glance upwards and...ooohhh!  The wow effect.

So...go big or go home...we brought a carpet (in the form of a stencil) up onto the ceiling, filling the 8' x 10' tray, as well as all four corners.  To accentuate the tray, the 4" soffit was gilded.  As well as the medallion.

We applied Lusterstone in a pale, silvery grey on the ceiling.  The medallion and soffit were base coated in black, then gold leafed.  Just this change alone created a dazzling effect!

Next, the ceiling stencils were installed.  We painted 3 layers: a 1/2 tint of the wall color, the Lusterstone, then highlights of gold.

Wow!!!

Although there were many elements to this design, each was important to the end result.  We had to to keep the design well-balanced.  Otherwise, the dining room would have appeared unfinished.  The ceiling is truly bold, yet subtle at the same time.  Our next project is Dave & Rita's master bedroom...yep, you guessed it...the ceiling!!!


Susan & Tracey
FWS

Sneak Peaks of Upcoming Posts

By the last post date, it's obvious that we have been away for some time! There were probably 3~plus feet of snow on the ground back in February. And now,  we are in the middle of a heat wave in July. Triple digits are forecast again for today. Time flies when we are busy!

We've been working on several projects over the past 6 months.  This summer, we have a few weeks of down time...we will collect our thoughts (and photos), and post the completed jobs.

Here are some sneak peeks~

Susan & Tracey
FWS