Stripes

Stripes are one of the easiest ways to give your room a little pizzaz. Such an impact can be made with this design. One way to do it is to go half way up the wall, with an actual wooden chair rail, or a painted chair rail as shown in the pink and brown nursery and the butter yellow and white bathroom above, to separate the stripes from the solid color on top. The painted border can be done to match your bedding or other design elements, giving a very customized look.

Bold stripes are great in kids rooms, such as these examples. The Cardinal Red/Gold/Tan stripes are part of a USC themed room, and the Hot Pink/Black/White stripes tie into the Zebra bedding in this little girls room. The Zebra border was hand painted to tie it all together.

In a nursery, as shown in the Princess themed room and the Blue/Black room above, stripes are a good way to bring in color and leaves you with options down the road, when the crib moves out and a twin bed moves in. In either of these rooms, the crib can be replaced with a twin under the mural or monogram.

In this case, we painted a wave design above the existing chair rail, and added stripes to correspond to the waves in this Surf Shack themed room. It's so easy to dress up a room, and it doesn't always call for doing a huge, involved mural. Stripes can do the trick!

CHOC Home Tour Client

I have a long time client whose house was a stop on last friday's CHOC Home Tour. This client lost her home in the Yorba Linda fires in November of 2008, and rebuilt her home from the ashes, and did an absolutely amazing job. Her deadline to get it done by the time of the Home Tour was a tough one to meet, but she did it! Here is what I did to help get it pulled together:

This is the downstairs Powder Room which already had the beginnings of a Faux Finish done by a sub-contractor of a sub-contractor, and not to my clients liking. She was talked into using this other artist by the Color Theorist she hired to help choose paint colors for the entire house inside and out, and was very unhappy. The room was described by the florist doing the arrangements for the tour as looking like "the inside of a heart". The walls had ben painted a brick red color, then a metallic gold was applied to the surface, and gold "veins" were drawn on. I came and and gave the room texture and depth, by adding a coffee colored glaze to the entire surface to tone down the gold paint, and soften the veining. The desired effect was an Old World finish, and I was able to salvage what had been done to these walls with a nicely applied glazing to mask the imperfections and bring in some class.



In the Foyer, the client wanted her favorite Bible verse above the door, with her collection of crufixes, and in a small alcove she wanted to have a custom script painted with a few lines from a favorite song. The lettering above the door is an adaptation of "Parchment" - most people have it on their computer, and the lettering for the alcove is my own handwriting, which has actually been made into a font, and is currently used by Target, and has been used in magazines, yearbooks, a VW ad, OC Restaurant Week 2009, and probably more that I am unaware of. You can view/purchase my font here: Fontgarden

And in the Master Bedroom, I created a 4 color faux finish to give the room some Ooomph! With her dark, carved and gilded furniture, the walls needed to be able to hold their own. Using a combination of colors used elsewhere in the adjacent rooms and Master Bath, the faux finish brings in the color she wanted, creating a showcase for her custom bedding and ornate furniture.

Mermaid Bathroom

This small mural was painted in the bathroom of a very dear friend of mine. They live on the boardwalk in Long Beach on the peninsula, and their house is designed with a retro beach feel...bamboo floors, tropical fabrics, and they have an impressive collection of Shag artwork. The mermaid for the bathroom was designed by me with their personalities and design likes in mind, a little funky and a very big focal point in a small room. As you can see below, they love her!

Susan giving me the love...

Faux Marble Walls

This technique is something I do quite a bit of in powder rooms and other small spaces. Bathrooms and hallways are a perfect space for this look. In a large room, depending on what you have going on, this may be way too busy. In some I use metallic paints, some have just metallic on the veining, some have no metallic...each room is as different as each client and their wishes are. Custom sample boards can be worked up for your specific project.