Hi, Everyone!  I’m excited that it’s time to announce the Kitchen Week Giveaway Winners!  Please note that the Winners were generated according to the number of eligible comments at the end of the giveaway deadline.  Without further ado…

Faux Design Studio

Faux Design Studio is an incredible decorative arts school in Chicago whose head instructor, Sheri Zeman, is continually introducing new, cutting-edge techniques and products in the field of faux finishing and decorative painting.  Faux Design Studio is a Certified Training Center and retail distributor of the complete Faux Effects International Gold and Silver label product line and offer a full lne of professional faux finishing supplies and tools.

Twisted Roller Giveaway Winner:  Celia Block

Robyn Story Designs

Robyn Story Designs is a 5,000 square foot destination of style, a place where anyone looking to add panache to their home or wardrobe can visit for inspiration.  She has a fab online boutique, too!

$50 Shopping Spree Giveaway Winner: Dollie

Giani Granite

Giani Granite began manufacturing pigment dispersions and specialty additives for paint companies nationwide.  Today, they have award-winning unique kitchen coatings products, such as faux granite countertops, stainless steel and cabinet refinishing kits, that are changing the way America remodels its kitchens!

Faux Granite or Stainless Steel Kit Winner: Monica Arrache

Star Scenic

Star Scenic is an international supplier of faux finish, scenic and decorative painting products.  They have both an physical location in Orlando, FL, as well as an online store.  It was founded in 1990 to meet the unique requirements of scenic artists working in the film industry and theme park projects and have since expanded to include set painters, muralists, faux finish artists, decorative painters, gilders, sign painters and wood finishers as clients.

Rust-Oleum Cabinet Transformations Kit Winner: Karen Warren

Royal Design Studio

Melanie Royals, owner of Royal Design Studio, is a lover of rich colors and patterns both historic and contemporary.  Royal Design Studio design and manufacture modern wall stencils, furniture stencils, Modello Designs vinyl stencils, stenciling supplies, decorative painting tools and techniques for faux painting in addition to stenciling educational resources for professional decorative painters, interior designers and home decorators.

Autographed Marrakesh by Design & Stencil Surprise Winner: Leigh

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Congratulations to all the Winners and a very special Thank You to all who entered!  Big fireworks of appreciation to our fab Kitchen Week sponsors — please do visit their sites as their products are wonderful.  Winners: In addition to this post, please note that I will be contacting you via the e-mail provided to notify you of your giveaway win and prize.  Please respond by Thursday, August 9, 2012 to claim your prize otherwise another winner will be chosen. You may also contact me at Regina@Fauxology.com ~  Thank You!

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Culled from submitted entries, Kitchen Week focuses on five artists with extraordinary projects.  For the first time ever, each artist and five readers are receiving prizes for their beautiful artworks. Look to the end for today’s sponsor and your chance to win! Our Kitchen Week concludes with yet another old friend of Fauxology, Texas-based Ashlie Bickford and Kindra Benge of Texas’ A Fabulous Finish.  They were previous featured during our Column Week series. Today, they showcase a beautiful traditional kitchen with cabinet refinishing, wonderful metallic faux finishes and stenciling.

This was a wonderful project in Houston, Texas. We did beautiful finishes in the entire home, but the kitchen was one of our favorites.  The walls were lightly textured and painted with a very soft cream tone and then glazed with color and cream.  The breakfast area had a round inset that was also created by layering Modern Masters metallics to coordinate with the groin ceiling.

Wall Glazing and a Layered Metallic Finish on round ceiling inset.

The cabinets were painted a few shades darker than the walls and glazed to create a deeper, richer effect.

Pitch-perfect cabinet refinishing that looks like it was created in a high-end factory!

(above) In addition to the cabinet refinishing, panels were stenciled with Modello Ornamental Panel (OrnPan118) vinyl stencils on the refrigerator to create dramatic interest. (below) The groin over the island was huge and layered with Modern Masters metallics. The bronze and gold tones were woven into each other to create a smooth, rich finish.  The four corner stencil designs were the Modello Ornamental Center pattern (OrnCen193) painted in with Champagne Lusterstone.

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I hope you’ve enjoyed Ashlie and Kindra’s work.  Please do see their company site, A Fabulous Finish, which is based in The Woodlands in Texas.  Do also keep up with them on their Facebook fan page. There’s some great talent in Texas!  I also do hope you’ve enjoyed Kitchen Week!

For their winning submission for Kitchen Week, Ashlie & Kindra will receive a signed copy of the book Marrakesh by Design and a special stencil surprise from Royal Design Studio.  Would you like to win this prize as well? Scroll right below or click here!

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Melanie Royals, owner of Royal Design Studio, is a lover of rich colors and patterns both historic and contemporary.  Royal Design Studio design and manufacture modern wall stencils, furniture stencils, Modello Designs vinyl stencils, stenciling supplies, decorative painting tools and techniques for faux painting in addition to stenciling educational resources for professional decorative painters, interior designers and home decorators.

Today’s Prize to Kitchen Week artists Ashlie Bickford & Kindra Benge and Giveaway to one lucky reader is:

1. A Marrakesh by Design book signed by the author, Maryam Montague; and
2. A special Stencil Surprise!

G  I  V  E  A  W  A  Y

Marrakesh by Design is an incredible, detailed book on achieving the look and feel of Morocco in your home.  We recently reviewed the book, which includes a look at both historic and contemporary Moroccan spaces and architecture as well.

For your chance to win the signed book and the stencil surprise…

Leave a comment on this post after visiting Royal Design Studio and let us know your favorite stencil!

But that’s not all! You have FOUR MORE chances to win…

1. Follow Royal Design Studio on Facebook
2. Follow Royal Design Studio on Pinterest
3. Follow Royal Design Studio on Twitter
4. Follow Fauxology on Facebook

Each time you do one of these, leave us a comment on this blog post letting us know you did.  So, you can leave up to five individual comments on this blog post to enhance your chances of winning — please note that comments left on Facebook, Twitter or other posts or sites will not count towards this prize.

The Giveaway is open to everyone and one winner will be chosen at random from the comments.  Deadline: Midnight on Friday, July 27, 2012.

All winners will be announced August 1, 2012.

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Kitchen Week: Culled from submitted entries, the week-long series focuses on five artists with extraordinary projects.  For the first time ever, each artist and five readers are receiving prizes for their beautiful artworks. Look to the end for today’s sponsor and your chance to win! Our Kitchen Week continues with another old friend of Fauxology, Gina Garner, who paints Italian-Renaissance inspired ceramic pieces.  We have profiled her fou our Faux-cus on the Pros series.  She created some for her own home as well as doing a few paint finishes and textures…but let’s let Gina tell her story.

A sampling of Gina Garner's ceramic artistry

We lived in the big city but spent weekends in the country in central Utah, in a small artist community.

After we retired we decided that we liked living in the country.  We have visited the Veneto region of Italy many times and especially liked the smaller country villas of that region.  Most often those that were designed by 16th century architect Andrea Palladio.  We found a beautiful piece of property and built our house right in the middle of a very large Alfalfa Field.  Our house, and for only minor details, was  finished in 5 months.

We designed the kitchen.  We laid floors and installed handpainted ceramic tiles.   I painted my kitchen cabinets a celadon green.  It actually has 4 layers of glaze applied, each different color adding to the whole.

These hand painted plates are not just for show…they get plenty of use.  Having everything handy and ready to use.

The Kohler artist line, Lavabo, serves as a second sink. I also painted the Delft-inspired ceramic wall.

I finished the walls with joint compound into which I added builder’s sand and straw.

Making preserves from fruit grown on our land is a yearly activity.

And in another corner of the kitchen is a table which most often is used as my “corner studio” where I paint my ceramics.

We built our house in this particular spot because a very deep spring feeds this pond year around.

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Hand-painted ceramic tiles, cabinet refinishing and uniquely textured walls — isn’t it wonderful to be able to incorporate your given artistic talents in your own home?  Gina’s ceramic works have been featured in museums, magazines such as House Beautiful and she travels the world to be inspired and learn more of her craft.  She also teaches classes in her lovely studio.  Gina maintains a wonderful blog, Art and Alfalfa, where she chronicles her beautiful country life, her travels and her ceramic artistry.  One thing!  Gina has advised that she would prefer if you not pin her images and thanks you for honoring her wishes.

For her winning submission for Kitchen Week, Gina will receive a Cabinet Refinishing Kit of her choice from Star Scenic.  Would you like to win this prize as well? Scroll right below or click here!

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Star Scenic is an international supplier of faux finish, scenic and decorative painting products.  They have both an physical location in Orlando, FL, as well as an online store.  It was founded in 1990 to meet the unique requirements of scenic artists working in the film industry and theme park projects and have since expanded to include set painters, muralists, faux finish artists, decorative painters, gilders, sign painters and wood finishers as clients.

G  I  V  E  A  W  A  Y

Today’s Prize to Kitchen Week artist Gina Garner and Giveaway to one lucky reader is a small Rustoleum Cabinet Transformations Kit (up to 100 square feet) in their choice of the available colors.

You can read more about the Rustoleum Cabinet Transformations line here.  The kits come in either light or dark with a variety of colors to choose from.   To see the process, you can click here for the online instructions and click here to see the video.  There’s lots of great information to explore on those pages! Star Scenic carries the line and will also help answer any questions you may have.

For your chance to win a kit…

Leave a comment on this post after visiting Star Scenic online and let us know which products or brands in their online store intrigue you the most!

Please note that comments left on Facebook and/or Twitter will not count towards this prize.  The Giveaway is open to everyone and one winner will be chosen at random from the comments.  Deadline: Midnight on Thursday, July 26, 2012.

All winners will be announced August 1, 2012.

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Kitchen Week: Culled from submitted entries, the week-long series focuses on five artists with extraordinary projects.  For the first time ever, each artist and five readers are receiving prizes for their beautiful artworks. Look to the end for today’s sponsor and your chance to win! Our Kitchen Week continues with an incredible artist based in Sarasota, FL: Zebo Ludvicek.  She has also been profiled in several books and we’re happy to feature her with a historic technique: Marouflage.  

Drawing by Zebo Ludvicek

Marouflage (a French word originally referring to sticky, partly hardened scraps of paint) is a technique for affixing a painted canvas to a wall to be used as a mural, using an adhesive that hardens as it dries, such as plaster or cement. Marouflage is a 3,000-year-old technique.  Historically, artists used several types of adhesives including a rabbit-skin glue. White lead ore was used in the 19th and 20th centuries in the mixture to help it dry.

The murals are normally painted on large canvas in the studio and attached to the wall on site, using a starch based glue (applied to the wall only). Once the canvas is mounted to the wall, pressure is exerted with rubber hand rollers to smooth the canvas and remove any bubbles.  By following proper technique, the murals can then be moved by a professional with minimal damage and re-instated elsewhere if required.

I was contracted to paint a mural on the underside of arches and their columns in an open kitchen/bar/wine closet area. The clients, designer and I preferred a design with a bit more whimsy than grape leaves with branches twining around a lattice.  Haven’t we all seen that WAY too many times?  I looked up at the arches and saw monkeys in my mind…as simple as that.  Drunken monkeys to boot — like in the game “Monkeys in a Barrel” where the monkeys hook around each other in a variety of ways.  The clients loved it.

Since I had previously painted a large tropical scene in their entry foyer niche and the space was very open, you would see both murals simultaneously from various vantage points.  We wanted to keep this painting neutral so as not to clash. The palette was tone on tone, browns and white with a slight blueish tinge to the monkey faces and background.  So as not to compete, we also opted for a totally different style of art than the trompe l’oeil mural: more like an etching – an exaggerated, quirky etching.

I decided on marouflage for two reasons.  One, my neck, my arms, my back!  Because of the fine detail of the artwork, it would take many hours on scaffold with arms and head up.  No way!  Two, the surface of the arches was too rough to airbrush and paint a refined, detailed line.  I needed to work on smooth canvas.

Each arch design contains a different group of wild and crazy monkeys, though the wine glasses remain consistent. The monkeys are contained by an acanthus leaf border. Each column contains the same acanthus leaf scroll design, fairly formal. A nice juxtaposition with the whacky monkeys on the arches.

The big question was whether to paint each arch mural and connecting column mural as one continuous strip of canvas or paint separate canvases for each. There are disadvantages to both. With the continuous strip, the area where arch and column meet may bubble over time and is difficult to repair. Painted separately, the seam shows. I opted for one strip. I would not suggest this option unless you have an excellent installer, which I fortunately do.

I utilize Golden Proceed Acrylic paints in my work. Their qualities mimic those of oils, but are water soluble.  After I lay down the basic shapes, I airbrush highlights, lowlights and shadows.  Finally, I detail it with a variety of materials from gouache to tomboy pens. For repetitive shapes, as on borders, I sketch the design, then cut a stencil (both positive and negative) out of mylar. Now I can quickly trace the image and then airbrush through it.

(above) Extreme close-up of Ian, one of the many monkeys that Zebo affectionately named. (below) More of the extraordinary “exaggerated, quirky etching” type of artistry she was going for.

Since we wanted the canvas to virtually disappear on the wall, I took the same paint as the walls and columns, and painted the outside edge of the canvas to the acanthus leaf border. We did two skim coats to smooth the walls, sanded, and then primed them before our installation began.  When the canvas was finally installed on to the arches, I finger troweled plaster on to the edge of each canvas and painted over the dried plaster with the wall paint.  Now, no edges showed and the walls and columns blended perfectly with the canvas, making it invisible!

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What a cool project!  I thought it would be wonderful to not only share Zebo’s considerable talents but also to include a kitchen project that involved an age-old technique.  Do be sure to visit Zebo’s site — love her style!  She is based out of Sarasota, FL, but has and does travel for commissioned projects.

For her winning submission for Kitchen Week, Zebo will receive her choice of either a Granite Countertop Kit or Stainless Steel Kit from Giani Granite.  Would you like to win this prize as well?  Scroll right below or click here!

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Giani Granite began manufacturing pigment dispersions and specialty additives for paint companies nationwide.  Today, they have award-winning unique kitchen coatings products, such as faux granite countertops, stainless steel and cabinet refinishing kits, that are changing the way America remodels its kitchens!

Today’s Prize to Kitchen Week artist Zebo Ludvicek and Giveaway to one lucky reader is a choice of either:

1. A Granite Countertop Kit in your preferred color; or
2. A Liquid Stainless Steel Kit.

G  I  V  E  A  W  A  Y

Boston-based decorative painter Rima Bechara recently tried the Liquid Stainless Steel Kit with great success — click here to read the fantastic review.

For your chance to win either kit…

Leave a comment on this post after visiting Giani Granite and let us know your favorite product and/or color!

But that’s not all! You have FOUR MORE chances to win…

1. Follow Giani Granite on Facebook
2. Follow Giani Granite on Pinterest
3. Follow Giani Granite on Twitter
4. Follow Fauxology on Facebook

Each time you do one of these, leave us a comment on this blog post letting us know you did.  So, you can leave up to five individual comments on this blog post to enhance your chances of winning — please note that comments left on Facebook, Twitter or other posts or sites will not count towards this prize.

The Giveaway is open to everyone and one winner will be chosen at random from the comments.  Deadline: Midnight on Wednesday, July 25, 2012.

All winners will be announced August 1, 2012.

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