A Closer Look at the Office Projects...

On the wall above the sofa, I painted a very simplified cherry blossom branch using stencils.  I decided to make two sizes of blossoms and then just hand painted the branch and buds.

This is my stencil maker.  It looks like a soldering iron but with a very fine tip at the end.  Basically, the tip heats up and melts the plastic as you draw your design.  You can get them online and I highly recommend getting one. 

I cut out the petals I wanted to use and then just traced them onto plastic using a thick sharpie. 

I moved the petal I cut out around a center circle, tracing it as I went along. 

Once the flower was traced, I put an "X" in all of the areas I needed to remove - It's pretty obvious on a simple design like this, but if you do something more complicated, you'll want to make sure you are removing the correct areas.  I then tape it down onto a plate of glass.  This old frame worked great.

I did a sample of the stencil on a piece of paper to make sure it looked the way I wanted it to.

Looks good to me!

I started by adding a few flowers along the wall.

Next, I very loosely painted the branches, then stood back to make sure the branch was hanging the way I wanted it.

I painted the larger and smaller flowers and, when finished, I went back over the exposed branches and added little buds just with the tip of a small paintbrush.



Almost finished.  If you look at this photo and the finished product at the top of this post, you will see that I actually removed several flowers on the side walls.  Once I put the furniture back into place, I thought it looked too busy.



A few other small projects I used on this room...

Two very different lamp bases.  By painting them both red and adding matching lampshades, they look very nice flanking the sofa bed.

The lamps on either side.



I wanted to bring some red to this side of the room and so I wrapped some manilla folders in red and white wrapping paper (thank you Sally Foster wrapping paper..).  Ignore the cords beneath the table, I will be hiding them once I'm sure I like the layout.



Lastly, the bookshelves.  This is a "during" photo, with one light coat of primer.

So pretty with the red and white!

I've spent this weekend at our lakehouse.  One of us needed to come down and make sure everything was ok and I volunteered - nice of me, right?   As I look around the house, I am making a list of all of the painting opportunities that I can look forward to doing this summer to spruce things up and I can't wait!  In the meantime, this week I will be trying my hand at cake decorating...stay tuned!

Office Politics!

 Doesn't it seem like the rooms with the doors are the easiest to neglect?  Close the door and all your troubles go bye-bye!

I mentioned last week my embarrassment at having guests see the state of affairs and now I'm going to post photos (Oh my gosh!) of the unvarnished room.  I didn't even tidy up for these shots because I want you to see how it really looked!



This would be the perfect room to write horror novels or books on hoarding...



Dark navy walls and a completely useless office area, even the relatives on the wall are shocked! 





The 80's called and wanted their curtains back - Gladly!  I had only slung them up there for some privacy!




Starting to clear the room to get ready to prep and paint the walls.



And like a breath of fresh air, on goes Benjamin Moore's China Blue!  It already makes me happy but, after that navy color, it sure looks bright!  Almost too bright, but I'm determined to move forward and see how it goes.



The old wooden bookshelves, before. 



Same bookshelves, after a coat of white paint and the back panel painted a red-raspberry for my accent color.

 

No matter how we slice it, the shelves in the office are going to have to hold office binders and books -  I did try to add a litle bit of space and style to two of the middle shelves, there's no guarantee they will stay clutter free!

I framed a thank you card we were sent.  Our friend's daughter took the photograph of the dahlia and I thought it was beautiful!

After



After - If the desk return looks strangely familiar, you are not seeing things, that is the tv stand for my sitting room!  I have found another table I will paint for the sitting room, but this was just perfect to use as additional desk space in here - always changing things around..

 


 

Since we live in the DC area, I decided to make a cherry blossom stencil for the wall over the couch with a few extra blossoms floating around.  The sofa, which is another pullout, has to stay as does the file cabinet.  The problem is that the file cabinet is much taller than the side table.  Two lamps that are different heights, spray painted red and given the same shade gives it more balance.  Not perfect, but better.

I like to add a little suprise - in this case I have a little cherry blossom that's fallen to the ground behind the door.



 

 Well, Jazzie approves.  She loves the cushy white rug, I think mostly because it looks just like her coat!  Have a wonderful weekend everyone and thank you for looking!

Tromp Loy...

Do you have a room that is basically the catch-all room?  For me, that would be my home office.  When we first moved in, I painted it a dark navy, just to get rid of the builders beige, but never really went any farther.  The hubs, Bob, and I decided to have an impromptu New Years gathering a few weeks ago and since the only place to put the coats was in the office,  I found myself opening the door a crack and just tossing the coats in while trying to distract everyone from the disaster that was inside!  Enough was enough, I needed to do that room! 

But...I'm not finished with it yet!  I tried to get it done in time for today's post, but didn't make it!  I will tell you that I love it.  I'm not completely sold on the color yet, so that may eventually change, but for now, it is beautiful!  The color is bright.  Not in the "fresh" sense of bright, but in the "don-the-sunglasses-vitamin-D-producing-write-it-in-caps-and-say-it-loud-and-in-your-best-soprano-voice....BRIIIIIIIGHT!"  I haven't put up the window treatments, and some of the furniture is missing, so I will withhold final judgement - it may tone down.  Next week, you can be the judge...

Enough of that.  Because I am working on a small project for one of the walls, I thought I would show some of the trompe l'oeil (pronounced tromp loy) projects I've done.  Trompe l'oeil means "fool the eye" and is a very popular paint treatment.  There are masters that have painted a glorious painting, then painted a trompe l'oeil fly on the canvas!  I went to the National Gallery of Art a few years ago to see the Trompe L'oeil exhibit and actually told the boys to behave themselves or the security guard would get mad...only to realize that the security guard was trompe l'oeil!  It was alot of fun.

Trompe L'oeil by Borrel del Caso

Now, my work is nothing like the masters, but it's fun and lighthearted.  I guess mine would be more "tromp loy", said with a Jersey accent, than "Trompe L'oeil"  said very french-ly.

A powder room view of Franklin Farm lake in our last house.

I loved doing this for my client - these little chicks were taken out of a vintage children's book!

As an aside...you can just see the hand painted scrollwork I painted on her beams in the adjoining room.

The cabin room at the lake.

My current laundry room - this is where I WISH I was doing laundry!

The rest of the laundry room wall.

Hand painted gingham fabric on an old book case.

Not quite trompe l'oeil, but a hand painted welcome to my home!

This little guy is a nod to the Fox Mill area in which we live. 

I can't wait until next week when I can show you the office.  Go buy your sunglasses now and have a great week!

Childish Fun!

Sorry my post is so late today..Blogger changed the way I upload photos and I've spent the better part of the morning trying to figure it all out!   Grrrrr!  So here is today's post, have a wonderful Sunday everyone!

I've always loved January.  A new year, the holidays are over and everything is fresh and calm.  I've rolled out my new list of resolutions; be more organized, work out more, take my vitamins and paint every day.  So far the only one I haven't kept up with is to paint every day, but I've always taken the first week in January to rest before I start on my waiting list of ornaments from the holidays - Hmmmm, excuses already Andie? 

Winter is a great time to do projects for and/or with the kids so today I'm going to revisit some of the cute kids furniture I've done over the years.  Most of the concepts have been conjured up by Interior Designer Kristin Drohan, http://www.boulevardinteriordesign.com/, and I simply expanded on the idea and painted the piece.  What will you paint this week? 

The Toy Box





The Doll House

Before



After



The Dresser

The little girl who owns this dresser loves The Little Mermaid, so of course I had to include them!



Jewelry Boxes

Don't be afraid to glue rhinestones or shells to a piece (age appropriate of course, you don't want to create a choking hazard).  I use Liquid Nails - which is a very strong glue.