As I alluded to in the New Challenges Post, I’m trading expertises with a past client of mine. She previously hired us to do a baby nursery (for her cutie-pie son) and this time around, I am helping to pull her living room, dining room and kitchen together. She is a nutritionist and personal trainer so, in turn, she is helping me become a healthier person and whipping me into shape (and boy, do my muscles hurt). We are both soooooo happy with our “deal”.

We just finished doing a Venetian Plaster niche today. This is a Before shot — we had already picked out a new color for the walls (SW Ramie) and a color (SW 6009 Coffee Bean) to accent the soffit area and the niches — it was all one solid neutral color before. We framed out the soffit to make it more of a focal point as well as have the niches compliment it all. The niches will be receiving a nice Coffee Bean Venetian Plaster with a subtle gold wax as well — but that is for another day.

Here’s the start of the first layer of Venetian Plaster (“VP”). We painted it in Coffee Bean just to have a nice dark base and I custom tinted the plaster to the perfect shade of red. We troweled three layers of the VP and then burnished the third layer. (There’s a lot of work in that last sentence, LOL!)

After we finished burnishing those last three layers, we waxed it with Liberon Medium Oak and burnished it again. Here are some pics after taking the tape off.

There are some touch-ups to do and we have to clean and paint in the edges above but you can start to see the effect. We are tackling the VP niches next and then on to the dining room. We have a whole world of finishes available for the dining room so we each want to come up with something spectacular. I’ll keep you all posted, of course!

P.S. All in all, it was about 9 layers counting from the skim coat (making the walls smooth). I kept saying “no, just a few more layers — it’ll be over soon!” until she finally said to me “just wait till it’s my turn — they’ll be a few more reps and sets, too!”. We both had a big laugh at that one (mine was more of a nervous laugh…). You know, she came up with a great idea: they should turn this concept into a reality show — having people trade services that the other one wants and filming it.  It’d be totally cool to see so many different careers profiled and how much work each entails. At least, she and I would watch it!

We all know I love faux finishing. If you are a regular reader of the Fauxology blog, you know how much I?also love wallpaper and beautiful base paint colors. Now imagine?a material?that could combine all three? We are talking?about?products that have permanent residence in?the Garay Artisans Hall of Fame: Anaglypta and Lincrusta.?

Lincrusta, a paintable tough petroleum-based wallpaper, was invented in 1870. Ten years later, Thomas Palmer patented his creation, Anaglypta, a lighter alternative to the heavy and hard-to-install Lincrusta. Anaglypta is an embossed and flexible wallpaper that is made out of pressed cotton pulp and meant to be painted as well. The papers are?imprinted with their design while the cotton pulp is still in its wet state

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Stumped?? Well, we here at Garay Artisans are excited about it!? We just finished filming our latest (ok, second) DIY YouTube video and it features my brother, Jason, teaching this crocodile skin finish for cabinetry.??Yes…you get to learn this finish gratis! This particular look is usually meant for special “glamour” places such as guest baths and powder rooms.?In our cabinet workshops, we teach our two most asked-for finishes in the kitchen: aged cabinets and distressed cabinets.??We try to cover all bases for you, folks!

If you haven’t seen our previous YouTube videos, let me introduce you.? Our first DIY Video: Glazed & Gold Powder Bath (still can’t believe it’s been seen over 2,000 times — for me that’s a lot).??For those interested in knowing more about our company and services: Interview by WFTV-Channel 9?and our Garay Artisans promo.

In case you’d like to take our one-day Cabinet Workshops (where you learn everything from prepwork to HVLP spraying to topcoats), click here.??We have a new special where two-person teams receive a great discount.? We already have a few students signed on — the first class in our new facility is Saturday, May 17th.? Here is what one of our previous students, Cape Cod, MA-based Robin Pierson?of Robin’s Nest Interiors?had to say about her custom training class:

“It was so helpful – I can’t tell you how excited I am about getting started.? ?Jason was a great trainer and I felt very comfortable with him and the information he provided.??He was more than happy to answer all of my questions and by the time I left I felt like I had all the information I needed.”

Robin’s website has some great cabinet works?as well as a cool decorative window line called Reflections. She truly is a wonderful artisan.

Our cabinet video is currently being edited so it should be up in about…oh, 2 weeks.? (But don’t quote me!) We will keep you posted here!

I thought I’d put up pics of a project we recently finished.? It was previously the theatre room of a well-known basketball player’s home.? However, the new owners wanted to make it into the husband’s in-house office.? Out went the theatre seats, the slanted stage they were on, the media system and the heavy drapes. In came an updated cabinet system much more conducive to holding files than DVDs…and still to come is new flooring, drapes and furniture.? (BTW, this room overlooks a gorgeous golf course.? While we were working, we spied an extremely famous golf player doing his thing — we almost fell off the scaffold!)

This is our first project with the designer, Kim Patiry, and we worked really well with one another.??She’s very talented, great with colors and open to hearing suggestions from the trades she works with.? For this commission, we had to match the new bare wood to the existing woodgrain and continue to add black trim to the right areas. We also added a decorative panel to the cabinetry using Modello OrnPan125 which was slightly altered from its original format. ?The ceilings had a four-panel decorative trim added (which we metallicized) and we glazed the exteriors and Venetian-plastered the interiors. ?Took almost three weeks…what do you think of the results?

Here’s a Before (left) and After (right)

…and another Before featuring my brother coming up with our cabinetry plan…

…to the After.

Until next time!

This month’s Mailbag question comes from Caryl in Orlando, FL. ?Here is what she wrote to us:

My interest is in antiquing & distressing furniture. I bought a book and one of the supplies that it recommends is rottenstone. ?The book says it is a fine, light brown powder which is used as a mild abrasive to give texture to some antiquing techniques.? I have not been able to find it, however.? Have you heard of it? And do you know where to get it? Thank you!

From Regina: Hi, Caryl! ?I have heard of rottenstone and have used it sparingly throughout the years. ?It’s a kind of fine crusty textured rock dust with some coloration to it — but it will just age nicely and not scratch your surface. ?When I’ve used it, I’ve experimented with both mixing it with dead flat vanish and Liberon furniture wax, separately. ?(I’m sure you can even use a tinted glaze, although I haven’t tried that. You can see that rottenstone is very versatile in its use.) ?It gives it a nice crusty aged look by gathering in the crevices and lines so it looks like the piece has been weathering for years. ?Just so you know, I use the dead flat varnish with it to give it a fully flat appearance — something that’s been weathering for ages doesn’t have much of a sheen to it. ?If you use the Liberon wax, it will leave some sheen (esp. if you buff it) but it gives is a more elegant edge than just a flat surface.? It really depends on the look you are going for.

Refinish Furniture is a cool website for those who are interested in learning more about working on furniture.? They have some great information and tips.??Please note that Woodworker’s Supply sells rottenstone online, among many other good products. ?Hope this has helped!

For our blog readers, here’s a pic what rottenstone looks like and what it does:

If you have any questions about faux and such, please feel free to write in. ?I’m here to help…and we may just pick it to be in the Mailbag! ?Have a great day!

You know how if you put something out into the universe, it usually comes back to you? Well, I’ve no idea what I did but I have been experiencing a slew of requests for exterior commissions. (One really high and really scary I’ll tell you about if it pans out…) ?Many people say “Really? You faux exteriors? What’s that about?”.? The answer is yes – and although the types of faux finishes are legion, the ones suitable for exteriors are a bit more limited, LOL!

Exteriors have to be approached with an organized plan.? First, you take into account the substrate — a fancy word for the surface you’ll be working on — and what finishes will look best on that. ?Also, the architecture — you don’t want to suggest a Tuscan finish if the building is clearly contemporary.? If it’s dirty, it will need to be pressure washed since all your material will stick to that dust/dirt and will be relatively easy to come off. ?Finally, make sure all the products you use are exterior-rated, UV-protected, non-yellowing, scrub resistant and has excellent adhesion…all those pretty words that mean a lot, trust.? Here’s why: I once did a home with the regular glazing products I use for the interiors, never thinking it would be a problem.? I came back the next day and it was seriously faded and worse…a completely different color. ?Oh, how I cursed the sun and stood there shaking at it with my fist! ?(No, I’m just kidding — I just wanted to give you that as a visual, LOL!) ?What I really did was far less dramatic…I just stood there with my mouth open while calculating in my head how much it was going to cost me to do it over. ?That was my one and only lesson in checking your products — I’m a quick learner, folks.

My favorite glaze to use in exteriors is Adicolor’s Glacis and we create the color with universal tints. ?The Glacis has never gone wrong for us and we like that it’s water-based. ?I’ve actually driven by the exteriors we’ve done after a hurricane has come barreling through.? If it withstands the rain-driven winds of a hurricane, it’s a good glaze. For exteriors you can also use patinas, crackles, limewashes and other products. ?You can check with the manufacturer as well about exterior durability since some may be just fine with a few coats of an exterior-rated topcoat. ?Here are some of the exteriors we’ve worked on:

Crackled Shutters & Doors…

Here is a nice Before/During and a faux close-up…

….and the full After.

Lanai Columns with Venetian Crackle — they are made to look like weathered wood.

This is a house where the exterior leads into an interior courtyard and then you enter the home. ?The pic on the left is the Before — it had a flat gray color. ?The client had a waterfall of patinas added to the courtyard walls and on the right, you can see our during work in the courtyard’s arch (and see a peak of the patina waterfall). ?The stone arch was in its during phase (we made it more realistic later) but you can see part of the crew working to create a beautiful design within by the use of Modello muses.? The third pic is an After shot.

Finally, some limewashes. ?The builder requested that these townhouses look aged, water-beaten and faded.

3/8 Update: Added one more pic!

Oh, how I love wallpaper! I know it’s not kosher for a faux finisher to say that but it’s a not-so-secret crush of mine. I guess I love wallcoverings in general since they all do battle with The Barren Wastelands (which is what I call most white walls).

Wallpaper is experiencing a renaissance. Many people really enjoy these designs but hesitate because of the glue/pasting/taking off issue — a speed bump that both paint and most faux finishes do not have. However, with the right stencil pattern, the design can be painted in and changed easily when a fresh look is desired. Stencil companies have taken this ball and run with it: you can now find everything from historic patterns to modern linear patterns. Some great companies offering these designs are The Stencil Library, Royal Design Studio, Henny Donovan Motif, Designer Stencils, Wallovers (what a great name), Stencil Planet or you can conduct a search through Stencil Search — try using the words allover, repeat, damask or wallpaper stencils.

We’ve done a few commissions ourselves. Here’s two of my faves (coincidentally, both using the same stencil):

There is a company in Chicago, DesignRed, that does gorgeous historical work — they were recently named the best faux finishers in that area. Check out their stencil work here. Beautiful.

Here are some ideas beyond walls, either painted, screened or paper itself, from various books such as Florence Broadhurst, Modern Glamour, Tricia Guild Pattern, Wall to Wall and The Complete Book of Paint.

Until next time!

UPDATE 2/24: I added a second view of one of our fave commissions and a link to the stencil provider, after the original post went up. Cheers!