Bathroom Nightmare

This was truly a bathroom nightmare. Very scary cherubs painted on a light blue bathroom ceiling. In the ladies' room... of a restaurant. The restaurant owner had expected roly-poly cherubs. Instead, she got skinny elves with pointy chins.

We are not bashing the artist. The client was just not happy with the work. She had let go of the idea of a cherubic ceiling and was looking for a quick fix. And a quick fix it was!

We went in immediately and painted the offensive ceiling black. Getting rid of the blue ceiling (not to mention the cherubs/elves) was an immediate improvement. The walls had already been glazed with a metallic bronze over black, so the black ceiling gave the ladies' room a more cohesive look.

Of course, we did not stop there. We decided to layer a stencil over the bronze glaze. And since this was a quick fix, we went to our library of stencils. The large damask cartouche that we had used in Julie's dining room was the perfect fit. The all-over stencil went up quickly, using a copper metallic glaze.

The owner was thrilled with results.

Small bathrooms can be jewel boxes. Have we mentioned this before? A professional opinion here: the best way to ease color and pattern into your home is in a small bathroom.

Start with a bathroom!

Susan and Tracey

FWS

Yes, We Do Windows

Yes, we do windows...

and roosters

and fountains

and mosaic counter tops

and a Celtic Cross.

Bring it on.

Susan and Tracey

FWS

The Blue Buffalo Co.

The folks at The Blue Buffalo Co. are sooo lucky.  They get to bring their dogs to work!!  Blue Buffalo is a natural, holistic pet food company, based in Wilton, CT. Very cool company...the dogs and their people.

The Blue Buffalo Co. offices had moved into a new location, prompting a redesign of the lobby. Although an interior designer was involved with the overall plan, the company had a very clear idea of what they wanted. The vision was to feature the logo on an accent wall of imported barn siding from Canada. Kind of a vintage, old feed store look...as if the buffalo logo had always been on the side of that old barn.

We first projected "Blue", the buffalo, onto the wall. Next, we used a Modello stencil for the positioning of the lettering. All images were painted with iron paint.

Once the paint had cured overnite, we carefully spritzed and sponged on a metal reactor. This is a solution that forces the iron paint to rust. We let the images 'rust' over the weekend.

Having achieved the desired rustiness, we dry-brushed the images with a custom blue glaze, then randomly sanded back color and rust. We went back and forth with the glaze and sandpaper, until we felt the logo was as aged as the barn boards.

The end result was just as The Blue Buffalo Co. had envisioned. It's as if their logo had, indeed, been on the side of that old barn in Canada.

Bring your dogs to work if you can!

Susan and Tracey

FWS

Happy Holidays!

Friendly Wishes for

a Warm and Wonderful

Holiday Season!

Susan and Tracey

Finished With Style, LLC.

Spoken for in Westport

Remember when we showed you the photo of the kitchen in the Westport rental...six months ago?!  To make a very long story short, we ended up refurbishing the entire house.  Yep!!  Overhauled  the entire house!!  Plaster repairs, paint, lighting fixtures, tiling, hardware, floors refinished, laundryroom moved, basement refinished. Of course, we had help from the 'trade': carpenter, electrician, plumber, to mention just a few.      

We could go on and on about the state of the house and the extent of work done, but basically this house was brought into the 21st century with repairs and cosmetic updates.  After many weeks of work, all was complete and the house rented after 2 showings.  We think the before and after photos speak volumes, so enough said!!

We have been very busy since the completion of Speechless in Westport...lots of work to show. Business/ blogging  resolution for 2011?  To blog on a weekly basis.

 

Susan and Tracey

FWS

A Jewel Box

Quite often, we are hired by clients who are afraid or unsure of putting color and finishes on their walls and ceilings. Recent clients, Rita & Dave were definitely in this category. After showing them our portfolio of sample boards, they decided to start small in their very grand home. They decided to have us finish a powder room. If they liked that, well, then we would go from there.

We were working with a 6' x 8' powder room, tiled floor, beautiful gilded mirror, sconces and chandelier, custom window treatment. Beige walls. White ceiling. The new color palette was inspired by the window treatment fabric. Finishes were chosen for the walls, ceiling and ceiling medallion to complement the accents in the space.

The walls and ceiling were basecoated, then burnished with tinted waxes, resulting in a high-polished finish, not unlike Venetian plaster. The medallion was basecoated in black, then drybrushed with gold metallic paint to mimic the gilded accessories. The new moulding was aged with a gold glaze, accentuating the carved details.

TaDa!! A beautiful jewel box.

And, now, over their fear of finishes, work has continued throughout their beautiful home.

Much more to follow!!

Susan & Tracey

FWS

Form Follows Function

This was a fun and functional project in Breda's kitchen.  Rather than cluttering up the fridge door with magnets and stuff, why not put a decorative magnetic board right onto the wall?   And why not make it a lovely restaurant-style menu board with gold leaf scrollwork?

That's exactly what we did for Breda.  We selected a 2' x 3' decorative frame stencil to fill her blank wall.  We masked off the area of the frame's scrollwork and painted it out with 3 coats of magnetic paint. 

 

 

The magnetic paint was then given a decorative coat of color with a textured bronze paint.  The stencil was installed on top of the magnetic area and given a basecoat of black paint.

Once the paint was dry, a coat of size was applied. The stencil was then removed, and a variegated gold-leaf was added.

 

And voila! A beautiful magnetic board/wall! Another great idea would be to install this stencil with chalkboard paint, rather than magnetic. Either way, the grocery list becomes a piece of artwork.

 

Susan and Tracey

FWS