I finally met a Gracie!

No, I'm not talking about a woman named Gracie, I am speaking of the illustrious, highly sought after, extremely expensive wallpaper called Gracie. I have heard of these papers, and seen them on line.
Nothing can hold a candle to it, it must be seen in person! Remember the brown and white floor I did a few weeks back, well that client had custom Gracie paper on 2 of her walls in the dining room. When I did the floors originally a few years back, she also hired me to paint the remaining two walls in a soft stipple to mimic the background color of the Gracie paper. I had the time to stare at the wallpaper up close and take some photos this time around. These were taken with my iPad, as I forgot my camera.

Each area is completely different then the next, not one bird repeats or flower. 

Can you see the fine lines of the feathers?

For those of you who don't know me well, I have shaky hands. When it comes to mural painting, most of my work is unaffected by it, thankfully!  But there is no way I could ever work for Gracie.  Look at the detail! The fine lines...swoon. Sigh.  Someday, I would love to paint a version of their paper, lol, a simplified version! It's exquisite and costs a small fortune. If you happen to go to their website, flip through the gallery and they list prices per panel. A lot of talent and hard work goes into these custom papers. I am glad I was able to study them closer this time around.

Antique Sewing Machine...a new life!

A few years ago, before children, I would visit garage sales. My husband and I went to one that was an estate sale. We were able to walk through the home and check out the whole space! Pretty cool. Since having kids, I have been to 0. That's going to change now!

My mom suggested I give Kyle, my oldest a dollar and then he too could have fun shopping.  We ended up scoring 2 antique sewing table bases that had been redone to have butcher block tops. One was really pretty and round. This is the one featured here.  I knew I didn't like the pale color of the butcher block but didn't want to lose the wood character.  Around the same time, I was doing a custom stenciled ceiling for a client's master bedroom. The stencil was miraculously the same size of my table! Let the painting begin!

Unfortunately I do not have the preview photos. Just imagine it pale wood color. First, I lightly sanded down the poly, then applied a dark gel stain. Then I stenciled my pattern in a dark brown stain. Next, I applied an antique crackle system. It allows just the cracks to be filled with glaze. A few layers of varnish and it's one of my favorite pieces in my home. I set it up for the fall season, hopefully the kids keep their hands off!

The ceiling pattern where the stencil originated.

 

The crackle

Our fall display. 


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Miss Mustard Seed

Saved...at last!

I love me some craigslist! Who doesn't?  When we decided to move last year, we were looking for a book case to replace the one my husband broke, while transporting the oversized piece to the basement.
Well, more like I sort of asked him to try and take apart our beautiful craftsman style bookcase. If it couldn't be done, then so be it. We would have to live with it where it was. I came home to find the bookcase in very poor condition in the basement. It's new home. He said it was impossible to take apart, since it was made of mostly particle board with wood veneer. Really? I thought we spent a fortune for something I thought was all hardwoods. When we sold our house, it remained in the basement for the next buyer. Happy moving in present!

On a random bored evening while perusing Craigslist antique's section, we came across an oldie but a goodie. Just needed a little love.

I finally had time to give it a much needed face lift this summer.  I am a huge fan of Annie Sloan Chalk Paint, thanks to my friend Amanda over at Suite Pieces.  I cleaned it up with TSP, and then put 2 coats of ASCP Provence Blue. Then I waxed with Clear wax, sanded the edges back and added some thinned down Dark Wax over it.  I had to replace the glass, I wanted something more antique, and found a beautiful piece. I also took out the scroll work so that it wasn't so busy.  One day, my office will have coordinating blue in the drapery treatments. As of now, my husbands been wondering why I chose this color. Someday honey it will all come together!

Beautiful Glass!

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Primitive & Proper, Miss Mustard Seed

Classic Painted Floor

Almost exactly three years ago, I painted a large floor in a foyer in a brand new constructed home.
It was absolute torture. I was 8 months pregnant, it was 95 degrees, no AC in the house. Need I say more.  Thank the dear lord I had 2 wonderful assistants to help me on the floor. Flash forward about 5 months after floor was painted. "The floor is cracking".

Uh-oh.

Well, my first thought was of course it is, they installed a floor in the hot, humid house, so the wood had expanded to bust, and now with the heat on the wood has shrunk, and the floor boards are cracking.

Makes total sense to me, and I am not a floor contractor.  This poor client has lived with the floor for 2 years, last year they wanted to re-do it, but I was again pregnant with our second baby, and said it can't be done now. After the baby. Long story short, it was just re-done this past week. Now, the floor still has large cracks, and some of them almost 1/8" thick. Seriously.  The builder and flooring installer are playing the blame game on each other. My poor client was very happy to see us back, and we tried and fill in as many cracks as we could with paint.  Paint is no miracle filler though. These cracks will more then likely re-appear.

What I love about this floor is it's scale. Two foot by two foot squares, in a deep chocolate brown and white. It just seems so classic and bold. I hope you agree!

Can you see the beautiful Gracie Wallpaper in the dining room? Next post!

Timeless.

Ok, so I took a little hiatus..

Ok, ok....I took a long hiatus. But its better then the year long gap between the other posts! I guess my problem being a business owner, a mom, and a wife...is that there is always something else to do.  For instance, after finally getting our 1 year old baby in for a nap on saturday afternoon at 4 pm, an hour and a half past due.  I came downstairs and my husband is sitting on the couch playing on his phone. I looked around at our toy riddled living room and sighed. I said to him, "Must be nice to just sit and do nothing!!"  I said, "Now I have to scan a jersey in to the computer to make a logo, make a sample for another client, switch paint supplies for work....cook and this house looks like a tornado hit it!"  Don't get me wrong, he is a great help around the house and has crazy hours and is most of the time a walking zombie. He deserves to rest on the couch too.  Just wish I could!

I do this at least once a week, have a mini-adult tantrum. I think I am allowed.  There aren't enough hours in the day, to get all my housework done, and my business work done. Being my husband is NYPD officer, he doesn't have any work to do at home, except for all my little projects I give him.  He is great with tools, and can build me anything. We just need time and money.

Part of the reason I wanted to start to blog was to share pictures of our house projects. Since the summer, I did manage to paint one fabulous piece of furniture, which I will share later when I have a chance to get some good photos. We also just recently painted the kitchen.

Yikes, no photos of that either.  God, I am a bad blogger.

Ok so I will switch to a job I just completed in the beginning of September. This is a fabulous client who hired a designer to create a Country French apartment for her.  I got the call to do very rich old yellowed walls, woodgrain beams in the master bedroom and a faux brick powder room.  These jobs I completed in March.  I was lucky enough to go back in September to transfer the black hole in her living room, the fireplace.

The wooden mantle was not to be touched.  The inside stone mantle came with the apartment and had a lovely shade of pink, note sarcasm. So to change that we stippled a textured material to give the look of old limestone. We then over glazed it to change the coloring and antiqued the crevices.  

Bye bye black concrete!

Just one of the many layers of the stenciling process.

Done for the day. Stones tomorrow.

The black areas were primed and base coated with regular paint for a stenciled portugese tile.  The hearth of the mantle, the floor part was a marble that had seen better days. That also was primed, and stippled with a another coarse plaster to give texture. 

In this photo you can see the strange round stones on the bottom hearth. Here is where we miscommunicated with each other. Both the client and I looked at stone walls and agreed upon a random stacked stone in a horizontal pattern.  She did not like this and wanted more round stones, and much larger.  They were changed to this. But these were too clean, new and Disney"ish".  I then changed it to be heavily distressed and can hardly see any grout.  Unfortunatly I only have the finished view from far away. Oops. Next time I'm in NYC, I will grab a better shot.

You can see that the stone is almost disappeared on the hearth.

The finished room. Both her living room and library have turquoise, orange and brilliant yellow. I love her shutters on the window.

Why I love my job

I have to say that I feel blessed to do what I love.  I know a lot of people who just go to work day in and out and hate their job. My husband is one of them.  What I love the most, is that it constantly changes and challenges me.  Very rarely am I in the same location for more than 2 weeks. I am usually contracted for a job and most projects are 3-4 days, and sometimes 2 weeks. I did work in a fabulous home in LLoyd Neck, and we painted there for over a year and a half, but not consecutively.  I enjoy traveling to new places for work. HOWEVER, going into Manhattan is never easy.  This past week, I had the pleasure of being called in to mix some paint for some ceiling work at the New York Athletic Club on Central Park South.

I had no idea what I was in for, and brought my bag of tricks. Tints, glaze, brushes and some paint. I showed up at the main desk, fully knowing they would send me around the back to the service entrance, but I didn't know where it was.  My normal attire for work is black pants covered in paint from wiping my hands, and usually a black t shirt.  Today, for whatever reason, I decided to wear khaki shorts, and a navy tank top. Well, there is a dress code at the club, and I didn't fit it!

Here is the link to their dress code: New York Athletic Club Dress Code.  I just went onto their website and found what I should've been wearing..however, I am just the artist and not a member.  The kind gentlemen actually allowed me to walk through the building to the "correct" side and through the service elevator.  I rode up to the 11th floor and walked into the ballroom. WOW.

The contractor failed to tell me the scope of the project and I immediately thought, this is a month long project at least.  The ceiling is amazing, and covered with hand painting, paneling, decorative trim and boxes. When he showed up, he casually mentioned they have to be done by friday, and am I available tomorrow as well, with panic in his voice during the second request.  Unfortunately another client was waiting for me, and I did my best to mix some colors.

Ok, so here is the issues. The center panels where the hand painting is, are all on canvas. The building was built in the late 1800's, and I am not sure how old the work is in this room, but its been touched by other people many times. The guys here were fixing the plaster cracks, and then trying to retouch the paint. As you can see in the picture, there are multiple colors by the panel, all the flat areas should look like that yellow color with glaze over it. However, the areas where someone else repainted are only really obvious when you stare at the ceiling and hunt it down. But when you are trying to make a color, its impossible, because each area is different looking. I really felt so overwhelmed and disappointed. Overwhelmed because I knew this was not a job where I can mix one color for the whole ceiling, it just isn't going to work. Disappointed because this clearly wasn't going to get the loving care it desperately needed.

This isn't my job, so I have no idea what the contract was and for what. I actually had to just put black on this one area, where the rest of the octagon has a red banner type pattern running through it. It looks awful.

Look at how beautiful this is, this is just one small part, and it is begging for a good cleaning.

The ceiling is just monstrous. It needs so much help!

Getting back to why I love my job, there is no way I would have been allowed into this building to see the gorgeous ceilings. I don't know any members, so that wouldn't be my ticket in. A piece of NY history, closed off to the general public, and I was able to see it up close.

Here are a few more pictures, and more hand painting. The next pictures are of the 9th floor, where the ceiling is all wood carving and hand painted sports figures, equipment and scenery.

Who knows, maybe they will decide to restore the ceiling properly and maybe I will get called back to help out.

I'm back ... let's try this again!

Well, it's been almost two years since I tried to do this blogging thing. It's not that I forgot about it, well ok, just a little. Actually a lot. I didn't even remember what the old page looked like, or the title. Life just got a bit crazy. Since that posting in September of 2010, my oldest son is now 2 and a half, and I have another little baby boy, now 9 months old. Oh, and we moved. Between those three things, and just life in general, I rarely get to spend time in front of the computer.  I have decided to try and get back to writing, and posting photos for friends, family and clientele to see.

In case you are new to the blog, I am a decorative artist.  I have my own business, Bella Terra Designs, Inc., and I love my job.  I meet new people all the time, and I am invited into their homes to help transform them into something beautiful, inspiring, welcoming, and inviting.  I really believe that I am truly blessed that I get to do something that I love.  It has its ups and downs, the economy, always making sure there is work, and just trying to stay ahead of the trends.  It's something that I can't turn off when I get home. I usually have to make samples and prepare estimates after the boys go to bed. Weekends are busy as well. I'm usually trying to catch up on what I didn't finish, pack up and put away paint and equipment, write, etc during the week.  But seeing how happy my client's are and my flexible schedule (sometimes) makes it all well worth it.

One of the first things my client's ask is how beautiful my house is...well...hmmm, you know the saying "the plumber's leaky faucet," try "the painter's unpainted house."  We bought a little 1928 Dutch Colonial a year ago, and I have one room painted. And it was just completed a month ago. The day we signed the contract and got the keys, my husband and his friend decided to rip out the drop ceiling in the dining room. Long story short, the plaster ceiling was in need of repair.  It's now the prettiest room in the house.  Did I mention I was 6 months pregnant when we bought the house?  I was able to paint the living room a regular paint job, but that was it.  Once the baby came, all work ceased.

I guess my goal about the new blog, is to share the projects at work, as well as my little house's transformation.  I love projects, and I need to be more disciplined in actually completing them.  My kitchen has 4 colors painted on the wall. Need to pick one. My office drop ceiling also needs a gut, paneling removed, and oh I have high hopes for that room. Sigh.  Time and money. That's all I need!