DESIGNING & PAINTING A SKY CEILING MEDALLION MURAL & TUTORIAL

From time to time I paint store bought ceiling medallions for my clients. 

They go at the base of a chandelier or fan and always look so nice and really add a lot to the decor of a room.  They don't have to be painted.  They still look really nice if you leave them white or paint them your ceiling color.

But, I wanted something different for my dining room.

In the decorative trim pieces at Lowe's, I found some tiny wooden applique scrollies. 

 I bought a lot of them because I wasn't sure what I was going to do.

I decided I wanted a sky.  

I'm not finished because I'm going to paint birds in that sky, one of these days.

I taped some poster board together and started laying the pieces in the pattern that I thought would look good above my chandelier.

With a pencil I drew the outline of all of the pieces.  Then, I cut out my pattern and cut it in two pieces so I could place and tape it on the ceiling on either side of the chandelier.  It was a little tricky making sure it was straight (to the eye).

Then, I drew the outline of my pattern on the ceiling with a pencil.

I painted the scrollies metallic gold.

I took the pattern down and worked with one little scrollie at a time, placing it in the curves of my penciled in lines on the ceiling.  I put a little bit of glue on the back of each piece and nailed a tiny finish nail to hold it securely.

I love the way it turned out!

I really am going to work on it again one of these days and make the clouds look more like clouds and add some little birds.  When I finally get around to it, I'll share it with you.

This is, kind of, how it looks at night.

You could do this to your ceiling, (or wall as a bulletin board), and have your very own, unique design.

It doesn't have to be my shape.  

Your's could be round, long and thin or any shape you might design.

Hope you will share your pictures.

Have fun!

MASTER BATH REMODEL & A SPECIAL, DISTRESSED PAINT TECHNIQUE

Last week, I finished painting a special finish on some master bath cabinets.  I took lots of pictures, but never got my post written.  

So, today I was back at this really beautiful home starting a special finish on the kitchen cabinets and saw that the hardware had been installed in the bathroom and looked so nice and wanted to share it with you.

If you remember, last summer I worked on that New Orleans styled house for 

Richard Walenta . 

 He builds truly beautiful and very custom homes.  I'm so glad that he found my name as a painter because I enjoy working with him and love the different projects/challenges he has presented to me.

This is not a newly built house.  It's a remodel of the whole downstairs.

He showed me a picture of how he wanted these cabinets to look and the colors and I made a sample board for him.

As I was distressing the cabinets, I had to use my thumbnail to make those dark marks.  I had painted an undercoat and wetting it with the top coat before it had cured, was making it come off.  So, the only way to make it work was gently use my thumbnail.  By the time I was finished, my thumbnail was really short. One of the tough guys working there suggested I get some "false fingernails" to use next time.  I guess I could find some at the drugstore.  I was wondering how he knew about "false fingernails".  Actually, it is a very good idea!  (for next time)

When I went back to look at the new kitchen cabinets to see what Richard wanted me to do, they had already installed the granite and faucets in the bathroom and they looked so nice with the paint finish.

They made a new mirror frame for the large mirror and Richard had me paint it to match the cabinet finish.  You can see it in these pictures.

The large mirror hasn't been put back on the wall yet, but I know it will look soooo nice.

In the kitchen and bathroom, one of Richard's guys made new cabinet doors.  They kept the framing part, just made new doors.

I've started on the kitchen and will show it to you when I'm finished.

Then, I think I'm painting the bedroom furniture for their totally newly decorated room.

I might be painting it black...I'll show you.

"WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS OF THE WORLD"!!!!!

"WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS, WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS, WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS OF THE WORLD"!!!!!  YAY SPURS!!!!!

FROM PLAIN TO ELEGANT~~PAINT & DECORATIVE WOOD TRIM PIECES DRAMATICALLY CHANGED THESE TWO CEILINGS

FROM PLAIN TO ELEGANT~~PAINT & DECORATIVE TRIM PIECES DRAMATICALLY CHANGED THESE TWO CEILINGS

 I'm not a "decorator", but I do have good ideas, sometimes.
A couple of posts ago, I showed you the kitchen island that a client asked me to create for her to look like a piece of furniture.  These clients asked me to come by and look at two of their ceilings.  The dining room ceiling and the master bedroom ceiling.  They said they had seen a few things in other homes and what did I think could be done.  Both rooms, walls and ceilings were painted the same color.  The dining room walls and ceiling were beige.  My client happened to mention that she loved red and had red accents around the room.  So, I suggested painting the very top part of the ceiling red and add trim around the edges.  I mentioned rope trim because her chandelier was made with metallic gold rope accents and tassels all over it.

So, this is how it turned out.

At the bottom of this post I show you the two pieces of trim that I used on each ceiling.  

Two pieces made it a little more substantial and elegant.

They loved the ceiling so much that they asked me to paint that same red under the "built in" china cabinet and use the same trim pieces on the left and right sides of the wall.  

You can see this red from the large living area.

Isn't it wonderful??

Here are Adam and Lisa installing the trim pieces on the ceiling.

  Adam does such good work and his wife, Lisa, is a very good helper!  

Here is a close up of the dining room ceiling and trim pieces. 

 My camera flash made the ceiling look really red!!  

The first picture is the actual color.  A deep rosy red.  

Here are the two pieces I picked for the very large master bedroom ceiling.  And, the off white paint color I chose.  The walls and ceiling were a beautiful dark beigy green but my client said the room was just too dark.  So, I suggested painting the very top part of the ceiling and the trim pieces an off white that matched well with the wall color.  

It, totally, changed the look of the room.

These are the trim pieces I chose for each room.  

My clients loved the master bedroom trim so much that they are asking Adam to come back and put only the larger trim (minus the smaller trim) around their master bath walls.  You'll be able to see part of it from the bedroom and it will really tie in beautifully.

On the right is the little wall in the dining room before I painted it red.

It looks beautiful, warm and elegant, now, with the red.

~

TUTORIAL

On the left I wanted you to see how I painted down on the wall a little bit when I was painting the ceiling.  I did that to make sure you were seeing red, not the beige at the seam, when the molding was installed.  I really should have painted down a little bit further on the wall because when the rope molding was installed, you could see beige in some places and I had to get back up there with a tiny brush and fill in with the red.

These ceilings dramatically change the look of the two rooms.

My clients are very, very happy.  

She emailed me and said they were "in love" with the ceilings.

Now, that made me feel good and I'm proud!!

HAND PAINTING A METALLIC GOLD HARLEQUIN PATTERN ON WALLS IN A WET BAR & TUTORIAL

HAND PAINTING A METALLIC GOLD HARLEQUIN PATTERN ON WALLS IN A WET BAR & TUTORIAL

Sometimes you've lived in a house long enough that it is finally time for a re-do.

Patti was doing a wonderful job redecorating a client's (whole) house and I got to do several of the special touches with Patti's guidance, of course!

One of the things I was asked to do was paint a harlequin pattern in the client's wet bar.  It had several openings and you could see in the wet bar from all around the living area and the patio.  The metallic gold paint looked really nice because the client had touches of metallic gold around the room.

Also, she had touches of red around the room, so I made the little red cherries at the points where the diamonds met.  I painted them with my finger.  

Just dipped my finger in red paint and did a little swirl.

I think the "inspiration" for the wet bar was this painting of the Queen Of Hearts.

These bookcases were across the room from the wet bar and Patti asked me to paint the same metallic gold inside.  When the lights were on the metallic gold reflected and looked really beautiful.

~

TUTORIAL FOR WET BAR HARLEQUIN

The walls in the wet bar were painted white.

I drew my harlequin pattern with a pencil.  When you paint it should cover the pencil marks.

Because it's easy to get confused I always count out and put a piece of tape on every other diamond.  That way I won't start painting the wrong one and, believe me, I have done that. 

As I painted the gold, while it was still wet, I used a rag to rub a lot off.  

Then, in the white diamonds I very lightly brushed the metallic gold around the edges so it would look shadowy.

At each point where the diamond points met I painted the red circle with my finger.

If you don't want to use your finger you could cut a sponge into a circle and use that instead. 

~

Below is a link to a bedroom wall I painted in a harlequin pattern.

It will show you how I measured, but you might have a much easier way.

PAINTING A HARLEQUIN PATTERN ON A WALL

Have fun painting your harlequin wall!