The 5th Wall

A few posts back, Julie's dining room, we mentioned our 'strong' opinion regarding ceilings. Well, here we go again, a dining room and it's ceiling. The dining room walls had recently received a strie treatment. Strie is a combed glaze finish created by pulling 1 or 2 tinted glazes over a base color, resulting in a very fine pin stripe. The clients, Mary & Paul, weren't sure if the color or the strie were right for the room. We offered 3 solutions: paint an additional stripe over the existing colors on wall, add color and a medallion to the ceiling or do both.

It was decided to start with the ceiling. Replacing the expanse of the white ceiling with a warm, complementary color would change the entire feeling of the room. And adding a medallion would anchor the chandelier. Mary & Paul's existing walls were blue and the window treatments gold dupioni silk. We chose a gold lusterstone to 'warm up' the blue walls and balance the fabric and hardwood floor.

We won't bore you with the details of the installation...standard trowelling and stencil procedure for FWS. What we will share was the exuberant reaction of the clients: It's as if the ceiling color and artwork had ALWAYS been there!!! They were beside themselves. And it's true. The 5th wall just shouldn't be ignored.

We are currently doing some personal shopping for them, assisting them in completing some unfinished decorating projects.

No more white ceilings!!

Susan & Tracey

FWS

Finding Inspiration

 

Some clients know exactly what they want...they have a very clear vision in their head. Others work with a designer, who helps create that vision for them. And some clients are in-between.

A recent client was 'in-between'. Julie had ordered window treatments for 2 formal living spaces; her dining and front sitting rooms. A designer had helped her select fabrics based on existing upholstered pieces. And then recommended us for wall and ceiling finishes, rather than wallpaper.

 

Choosing fabric first is always the best inspiration for selecting paint colors. There are MILLIONS of colors that can be matched to fabrics. Don't arm yourself with a paint chip and expect to easily find fabric to match...let the fabric do the choosing for you.

Once you have chosen your fabrics, grab a fan deck of paint chips, and choose colors in the space to be painted. You will need to purchase samples, paint swatches on the walls, then watch what happens to the color in the changing light. Phewww!!

Working with Julie's fabrics, we selected a palette of blue and gold to be used on the walls and the ceilings in both spaces. Julie had a vision of an all-over damask pattern in her dining room. She knew she wanted some texture and not an extremely formal feeling. Based upon this and other factors (flooring, lighting hardware, adjoining rooms), we created four wall sample boards for Julie to choose from. Sample boards are just what they sound like...samples of techniques and colorways on 1' x 2' hardboard.

After living with the sample boards for a week or so, Julie was having a difficult time making a decision. She loved 2 boards...so we reworked the technique and color, creating 2 more boards to choose from.

Two more decisions would follow the final choice for the dining room walls: the actual all-over damask pattern and the finish for the coffered ceiling and medallion stencil. Our next post will show Julie's choices and the step-by-step process of an all-over damask.

Until then, get inspired and go paint a room!

Susan and Tracey

FWS