Vacations To Remember

I recently met a wonderful couple that have been together for 50 years. They wanted me to create a Tuscan mural in their breakfast nook so they could remember their most recent trip to Italy. She had reference pictures for me to create a rendering and he requested that there be a few farm houses that he could look at while enjoying his meals.


The challenging part of this mural was figuring out scale in between the five windows and making the perspective seem realistic.

During the first meeting with the clients they had dated, decorative, fabric valances that I knew would fight with the mural. Luckily the client was open to my suggestion of removing them and adding in some architectural element to the mural that would enhance the windows but not take away from the overall mural design.


They loved my idea so much I ended adding the same architectural element over the two kitchen windows and the three large windows in their great room - creating continuity throughout the space.

They were such delightful clients, and we have a lovely testimonial from them to present to future clients.

A big thanks to my local Benjamin Moore representative for this referral!

Save Old Cabinetry, Go Green!

One of the great things about our line of work is being able to salvage beautiful architectural features of old homes and making them feel new again. If your cabinets or built-ins have good bones you don't have to rip them out, rebuild, or reface them yet! Think Green! Why fill our landfills with cabinetry that can be given new life for a few more years and save you money.

We are on our way this morning to do just that -- revive an old kitchen with good bones. We'll be glazing cabinetry all week. I'll be sure to share pictures with you when we've completed the project. For now... here's a buffet in a 1920s bungalow that we worked on this summer. It has been given new life and complements the client's home decor.

The Quintessential Teen Room...

We are often blessed enough to work in many beautiful homes and lucky enough to be surrounded by clients with great taste in design. This room is one of my latest favorites. It was designed by a 13-year old.




It was her idea to have the emblems on one wall, the other three walls are painted a hot pink. I handed her the Benjamin Moore fan deck and she selected all of the colors. She's got a future career in interior design I'd say! She was such a delightful teen. I couldn't believe she wanted to be in the room the entire day - even while we snapped chalk lines and marked where the stencils would be placed. Normally we advise clients to keep the project area free of all foot traffic and some decorative painters are often reluctant to have clients hang out all day for intellectual property reasons and because sometimes it's a little distracting.

My favorite part of this room is the glitter glaze we applied to all the circle emblems. You can't see the subtle glittery effect in the photos, but the shimmer is there.

Don't you know... everything is better with glitter! Except chicken as one five year old client explained.

Old Fireplaces

Not sure what to do with your old ugly brick or stone fireplace? Call a decorative painter. Most likely the options for a finish will be more cost effective than ripping it out and rebuilding with the materials that everyone else has. The old fireplace in this lovely Portland bungalow home was very ugly stone most likely installed in the 60s. The contractor built up the fireplace, covered with wallboard and skimmed it out. Then came time for our magic... a pounded copper faux finish leaving the client with a custom, unique treatment that blends in with their decor.


The mantel was a custom finish as well. The client wanted the brand new mantel to have an aged feel to it. As you can see in the closer photo there is crackle in some areas.


The bookcases were painted white when we started with this project which seemed out of place and floating after the fireplace and mantel were complete. We came back to give the bookcases a lighter treatment so the mantel would still stand out.

The final result -- happy clients are good clients!