Someone's in the Kitchen

There's a new project coming up with the loveliest family. I've met with them a couple of times already on their kitchen, breakfast area, laundry room and family room  project. Initially, they were interested in pricing on the same technique in the kitchen/breakfast/family room. I was happy to provide that, but saw that the spaces could be so much more interesting if I provided some design service and helped them select a couple of different colors and techniques to create a coordinated look.
They liked that idea, so we met again and looked at some new options, played with some ideas and colors. When Val brought out some antique tiles she had been saving, things really gelled.

After a bit of research, I found out the tiles were made in England circa 1881. We haven't quite figured out how and where to use them, but they sure are pretty. The colors are ideal for the look we are going for in the spaces.

Two colors were selected for the kitchen/breakfast room- a darker Blue Spruce shade for the lower wall and back splash- I'll be creating a trowelled plaster effect below the chair rail and on the back splash, then color-washing it with the blue spruce. Above the chair rail, a soft gold color wash will enhance the walls. The same tone in a solid color will be used in the laundry and back hall. The laminate sample is their existing counter top material.

The blue spruce accents the counter top nicely. The cabinets are natural oak color. At some future date, they will probably remodel the kitchen and choose another color of cabinet and top material, but for now, this will look fantastic!

We have something special planned for the soffits above the cabinets, you'll just have to wait for more photos of the completed project to see what it is.

The kitchen is open to the family room, and we chose a Tuscan plaster finish for that room in a slightly different shade. The lighting is different in that room, and this shade coordinated well with the brick on the fireplace.

Here are the three paint techniques together, they are going to look just grand when the entire project is done. I can hardly wait to get started!

Family Diner

Moving on to the kitchen area in my client's home, we finished up (for now anyhoo) the antique signage projects on the list this week. Above is the arch over the range that just cried out for some fun details to frame the area. After tossing a few ideas around, we came up with a plan and I set to work planning out the lettering and colors to really make it sing. While I was working, I took a break every now and then to snap a few photos, so you could see how a painting like this comes together.

 

Yesterday, I taped the whole archway off, and layed in the base coat artwork, going for an old wood sign look with some of the paint faded and weathered away. I had another small project to work on at the same time and got that one done that same day.

Today, I set up the lettering mask I had made and cut it out right on the wall. This is a great way to do lettering, creating a one time use stencil, removing and replacing sections as needed to mask off different areas.

I painted a mottled cream base coat for both the letters and their shadows, and did a bit of a frame around the lettering to complete the look.

A hastily and artistically applied deeper beige allows some of the cream to show through, giving it a weathered look.

Each letter got a lovely pumpkin colored outline to really make it pop against the weathered black and deep purple shadows. Notice the green frame around the sign to bring the greens over from the dining area.

Ta-da! Lettering all painted in, ready to remove the masking and do any touch up needed before letting the colors dry for a bit.

Masking removed! Looks great so far, the antiquing glaze- good old 'Decades of Grime' will tone the colors down, and that's what I want.

See? Perfect look. Lovin' it

The dark shades in the sign balances the dark browns and blacks in the granite counter tops, framing the whole range area. I could spend the whole day cooking in this kitchen. I did notice as I was packing up though, that there is a decidedly bare soffit on the opposite side of the room over the sink. I think it might be jealous now, because this side of the kitchen is awesome.

'Decades of Grime'

 There's nothing quite like abusing furniture to work out the frustrations of daily life. I had a great opportunity this week to do a makeover on three pieces of already fairly distressed furniture.

This Chalkboard is made out of part of an old door, there's a bit of old crown molding and a bead board shelf bracketing the top. All it needed was a fresh coat of cream paint, some sanding through the layers and a glazing of a color I like to call 'Decades of Grime'.

Next on the list is this rather large handmade cabinet. It too is created from re-purposed materials- some tongue in groove panelling, boards, old hinges, and some old moldings. The owner told me she's painted and repainted it several times, threatened to get rid of it, but still thinks it has a place in her dining area. The thought here is to make it look like it was made out of an old store sign- quite plausible on the tongue in groove panels.

.

Grabbing my trusty can of cream paint again, it got a rough, uneven coat and then a bit of lettering in several colors and striping to create the old sign look.

After drying overnight, I got out my sandpaper, and scrapers to abuse the bejeebers out of the brand new paint, revealing layers, colors and the patina of years in the out of doors.

The last step was to again get out that special 'Decades of Grime' glaze to add to the illusion. This is when the magic happens, and the glaze catches in all the scratches, dents and gouges, just deepening the patina of aged loveliness.

The sanding and scraping has revealed layers of color, faded and brighter areas in the lettering. The glaze just adds even more depth to this, until the illusion is complete.

I just love this cabinet! There are plans to build some shelves above, distressed and glazed with 'Decades of Grime' of course, and add another chalk board to the mix in the coming weeks. It'll be a great look, lots of fun, while being very useful as well.

Project three was to take an old oak pedestal table that had seen better days and just give it some personality. It's really pretty plain, isn't it? OK, but could be so much better.

Again, out came the cream paint for an rough, uneven coat. Remember- the idea isn't to make it pretty and new, but even older and more abused, and with pizazz! I topped off the cream with a stencilled medallion and another on the skirting, plus a bit of cream on the pedestal to tie it all together.

Great medallion stencil! Again, sanding through the paint layers adds years of patina, while giving my arms a great work-out for the day. I need more of this sort of work to get rid of those arm flags.

Of course the table got the same special glaze to add even more personality to it's great look. It will look terrific in it's place of honor in the front bay window.

I am just loving the projects this client finds for me. She has even put my sewing skills to the test creating table cloths,  and I'll be making over draperies and upholstering benches in the next couple of weeks. You go girl!

A Whole New Year

So, we've started a brand new year, good-bye to the old. I did some assessing of the past year, and while financially I sure wish I had done better (and who didn't?), I really feel I did some of my best work. I just wish I had done a lot more of it. As the old year closed, I also considered going off in a whole new direction, looking for a 'real job'- you know, the kind where someone else has all the stress and headaches involved in running the business, and I just show up, do what I'm required to do, and every week or two I get the exact same paycheck I got the last pay period. After all, that's what most of my clients, family and friends do, and that's what most people understand- nine to five, sit in a cubicle, talk on the phone, work on a computer, fight off sleep in a meeting. Same thing every day, counting the days until the week-end, counting the weeks until vacation. Year after year, with a raise or a bonus every year if they are lucky, looking forward to retirement.  I could do that, I've done it before, that's an option, wouldn't be so bad. I know some people who would be really, really happy if I did that, they get that. Absolutely nothing wrong with this sort of job, I'm not knocking it at all.  As things are, I might be able to make a better living doing something else, at least in the short run, and it wouldn't be as risky. I even applied for a few jobs I felt might be a good fit for me. Yeah- I got in line behind all of the other well qualified individuals all hoping for those jobs.
There have been times when I've had to depend on family and my 'significant other' to get me through a slow period, and while I appreciate it sooo much, it is a drain on them that I wish wasn't necessary, and it hurts that I have to do that. Deeply. If it weren't for them I would have been forced to get a real job years ago, or live out of a shopping cart.  I hope they know how much I do appreciate their support.
The problem is, I feel so blessed to be able to do what I absolutely love to do. I can't imagine not doing it. I love working with my wonderful clients to dream up a beautiful work of art for their wall, or design a new finish for their furniture. I love talking to their kids to decide just what they are passionate about and then paint a great mural for their rooms.  I love figuring out how to achieve the look we all agree will be fantastic, gathering all the tools and supplies I need, hauling them up and down flights of stairs, setting up my work space and spending hours climbing a ladder and crawling around on the floor. I love every exhausting minute of it- at the end of the work day, I'm euphoric, expanded spiritually, and there's an indescribable feeling in my soul, because I spent the day using the gifts God gave me. And I get paid to do this! I wish everyone could feel this way about their work, and I know too few do.

Is it all wonderful and rewarding all the time? Not at all, as with every job, there are parts of it I don't like much: paperwork, accounting, cleaning tools, maintenance, gassing up my car in the winter- but those jobs fall to me too.  There are frustrations as well: looking for new clients, maintaining my web site, trying to find enough work to make ends meet, and it costs me more to do the work that I am making less doing.  I work on a shoestring budget to advertise and keep my name out there, relying mostly on word of mouth and referrals as my best advertising.  I have some great clients who really spread the word well, I just wish there were more of them.
It's tough to be in business for yourself, it is surely not for everyone. It can get scary when things are slow and money is only going out, not coming in, but very rewarding when everything comes together and those nice big jobs come along. It takes a thick skin when someone I've spent hours with, planning a mural like I was their new best friend, suddenly drops the whole idea and won't return calls. There are also those who just give me an idea of what they want and let me run with it, gladly writing the checks to pay for it all, then have me come back again and again to do more work. It takes patience and perseverance to keep trying new things, new ideas and new techniques, to hope that the years of keeping in touch with colleagues, friends, clients, relatives through postcards and e-mails will bring in new business. It does. Eventually.
Mostly I have to be my own cheerleader. There are a bunch of people who do cheer me on from the sidelines from time to time, and I never know when to expect it. This past week I had five or six of them, one a blast out of the past I've kept in touch with for over 20 years! Comments on my blog, replies to my newsletters,  a little note in an e-mail with a few encouraging words- these are little things that mean so much. Not everyone does it, even those I'm closest to, so I notice and deeply appreciate those who do. That some people don't find value in what I do is a painful reality, but people are entitled to their opinions.  I don't need validation, but it sure is nice when it comes, and some people's opinions matter more than others.
I've worked hard to get where I am, and I'm proud of it. In the past 20 years I've built not only a reputation for delivering great artwork, but for reliability, dependability, and integrity in everything I do. There is the potential to make a great living doing what I love, if I can get enough work on the schedule. I'm thinking of sticking around, carrying on with what I do best, painting some walls and making 2012 a great year. Your continued business, referrals, and cheering from the sidelines will help make it so.

HAPPY NEW YEAR, see you soon!!!

For more on why Ellen doesn't have a real job, please read:

Why I Paint

Children's Rooms

I love to paint children's rooms. It's a good thing, because I sure do get to paint a lot of them.  I guess it brings out the kid in me, and I get to have lots of fun creating something geared towards each child's interests. Girl's rooms are great to paint, usually with plenty of pretty things, flowers, fairies, kitties and the like. Boys rooms are full of adventure, sports, or cars. Some rooms could be for either- I've painted the solar system a few times, some for boys, some for girls.  I was poking around in my old files this morning and found a few that I really like, so here there are:

A fun Railroad Room

This boy and his Dad were really into model trains, so I filled the room with scenery, tracks, railroad crossings and all things train. Next to the door, I painted a tall railroad crossing sign with feet and inches marks for measuring him as he grows.

Cheeky Monkey

 Love this Cute monkey! He's just a small part of a Jungle theme room for a young girl. All the way around the room, I painted a bamboo wainscoting, with several palm trees, monkeys, a leopard and a macaw flying above the headboard.

Sweet Robin Nursery

 I like this nursery because it will grow with the child. with realistic trees and birds, and a more sophisticated color scheme of mostly green with just a bit of pink, it's not something she'll tire of for quite a while.

Michael Jordan

 What boy wouldn't like a sports hero  or two flanking his windows? Michael is only about six feet tall, so not life size, but still....

Da bears

For the boy who loves the outdoors, here's a mountain scene with a stream and a couple of bears right across from the foot of his log bed. Tall pine trees flank the bed on either side with real bird houses hanging from the branches, just for fun.

Sports Bench

 Sometimes a guy is just into everything, so a pile of mixed equipment is the way to go.

Quilted Butterflies

 Butterflies! Too cute. The bedding was adorable, the art on the walls extends the theme up the wall. Just a little detail that completes the look.

Flower Power

 Big and bold flowers and butterflies were just the thing for this older preteen.

Solar System

I actually learned a lot doing the research for this room. All of the planets, the sun and the moon were painted across a starry sky. Near each heavenly body I included an interesting fact about each in white paint. Most of the stars are dotted with glow in the dark paint, so when the lights go out, the stars come out!

So, there's just a sampling of some of the children's rooms I've painted through the years. More can be found on my web site. Click here to go directly to a slide show of Children's Rooms.

Just for fun





 I've always loved fabrics and sewing, playing with the fabrics and creating things, making clothes, unique items, window treatments and pillows for my home among other things. Sometimes I even dye, stencil and paint on fabrics to really create something different. So when I discovered these absolutely gorgeous batik fabrics on a trip last spring, I just fell in love immediately! We were meandering around Iowa, and spent a day in the Amana Colonies. I found a roll of 40 coordinated 2" batik strips in a wonderful range of colors and patterns, and just had to have it. I spent the rest of the trip finding more fabrics to flesh out the simple pattern I had in mind for a nice toasty quilt. It'll be a special souvenir of a special trip.

Quilting is something I do just for me sometimes. It's a challenge to assemble all of the small pieces into blocks and the blocks into a quilt top. After the top, batting and backing are basted together, hand quilting it gives me something to do on long winter evenings besides sit under the toasty quilt and channel surf. 

Still a work in progress, but what a joy to work on!

 The process of collecting the fabrics was so much fun that on our last trip, I collected more fabrics for a new project- a large multipurpose satchel. We toured around Michigan, visiting 101 small towns and used the addresses of quilt shops to GPS our way from town to town, and I gathered fabrics as we went.

The bag has a big interior pocket, large enough for a lap-top and has a couple of smaller pockets inside in addition to the two outside pockets. It will come in handy for future travels, but for now, I keep my quilt in progress in it when I'm not working on it.

OK, so after assembling both of those projects I had a good sized pile of small scraps that I just could not bear to throw away, I am seriously in love with these fabrics. (it's a sickness, I know).

So, I made a table scarf! 12" squares with random scraps stitched on them, banded and machine quilted.  I didn't use up all of my scraps, I'll save those for another project when I think of one.

So what do you create just for the fun of it?

New Web Site

For the past several weeks, in between other more important projects, I've been remodelling my web site. It had been a while since I had been able to update it, my old computer just couldn't handle the work anymore. With my new laptop, I was able to install my web site program and get at that overhaul I'd been wanting for a while.

I've kept a few things the same- those things I really like, but it's simpler and cleaner. I eliminated some things that I think people don't really care about, like links to other sites, and extra descriptive sections, the old 'What's New' pages. Other things, like the photo galleries, I've expanded and simplified.
So take a look, you can find me at www.ellenleigh.com . Let me know what you think!