The Latest Faux Job

Well, it's finally done. 6 bathrooms, 6 columns, 4 ceiling medallions.

Here is the big accomplishment...the master bath in a onyx type marble finish, with two of the marbled columns visible. It was very tough to do...the original photo they found for the job was slightly different, the artist used a different technique which I couldn't for the life of me duplicate. I came close enough, and they approved the sample. However, once it was done, the finished product was so overwhelmingly bright that I suggested I glaze it down with transparent white. The wife loved it since she loves colors, the husband (and writer of checks!) went for the white glaze. I am much happier with it with the glaze, and think it looks like some sort of sunstruck cavern in a canyon. Before the glaze it looked like Bozo the Clown on acid with a box of Crayolas.

Here are more columns at the entrance to the bathroom, they look slightly bowed due to Matt's camera lens for some reason...



Another marble column, part of a pair in the master bedroom. They came out really cool, and not bad for someone who's only done minor marbling here and there and not all of it was good!! It's amazing what you can get when you apply 3 different colors of glaze to a piece of plastic wrap and stick it on a white painted surface. Of course, I did a lot more work after that with more glazes and the veins, but if you want a decent cheap marble finish, get the Saran wrap and 3 similar toned colors mixed with glaze and go nuts!

Here is a small bathroom near their large family room I was supposed to paint but didn't since it was off budget. This is one of my favorites. It's a 2 color troweled latex paint and 90 set drywall mix with metallic accents. The colors are tan, cocoa and metallic antique gold. The light is hanging off because everything is brand new and they're changing all the original cheapy crap the builders place in the house.

This is the medallion that got me the gig! I painted this for a high-end lumber and architectural mom & pop store in my town so I could get some exposure. I signed the back of it. My latest (and first here in FL) client bought it for his new house, saw the signature on the back, and hired me for everything else.

Another medallion painted with a ivory and tan marble-type stipple, then highlighted in silver and gold metallics to match the chandelier. There were 2 of this kind.

This is a huge medallion, and ornate as hell, but it's going up on a ceiling 20' high so that's good. I washed it with a beige glaze and rubbed off the high points to show the original white, then highlighted here and there with gold. I could have got away w/o the gold but these folks like small tasteful bits of metallic mixed in with their largely neutral decor. It is almost too easy to turn a heavy piece like this into a gaudy eyesore.

This client and his family, native of Jamaica, live in a giant new subdivision that has many affluent people, and he is a man of influence as well there as he works in the construction industry. His neighbors are all coming over to take my business cards since he and his wife have been recommending me. They were some of the nicest folks I ever had the pleasure of working for and I can only hope all my customers are this sweet and appreciative of my work. So far the neighbors are all different nationalities...Latin, Chinese, Haitian....which is really cool for me because everyone will have vastly different tastes and backgrounds to build designs on.

Tomorrow at 10:30 I have an appt. with a client who wants a ton of mural and possible faux work. He found my website....thank goodness for metatags! I'll keep my fingers crossed on this one, since murals are what I really want to do in this business. But the faux shown above was hellof fun, and challenging!

The rest of the bathrooms were finished a while back, viewed here.