Michelle's Design Works

Grand opening galas

Wow! The past two weekends have been full of fun grand openings. Over the summer, I've been doing some faux painting at two new stores. Both had their grand openings in the last two weeks. It was a real treat to go to both of them, see my work after the rooms had been put together, and meet some fun people.

The first gala was at Lighting Efx, which has added a new location in the West Chester area, off Tylersville Road. Their new store is beautiful, and I have to be careful whenever I go there, because I always see some new fixture or lamp that I'd love to have in my home. In their new store I did a faux stainless steel finish in the men's restroom, a linen finish with a stencil design in the ladies' room and some hand-painted wallpaper which was made for the focal wall behind the counter area.

Here's the faux stainless steel. Yep, that's me and my hubby in the mirror.

Here's the faux linen with stencil. It is a pretty black, white and pink color combo.

Here's the "complex cord" hand-painted wallpaper:

I'll be back tomorrow to show you some photos of the other grand opening I was involved in.

Later!

Michelle

That's one looong wall!

This week I began working at a new design center that will be opening soon in Norwood, Ohio. One of the main walls is about 40 ft. long x 12 ft. tall (very long!). The wall is rough, chipped concrete, full of holes, dents and patched areas. Rather than adding new drywall or trying to make it look like something that was even more patched, we decided to play up the rough texture and work with what was already there.

The owner began by cleaning off all the chipped paint and concrete, then gave the wall a good basecoat of paint. I came in and troweled on a plaster product, leaving it heavier in some areas and the basecoat showing through in others. Quite a few hours and some very sore shoulders later the first layer was completed. The next day, the entire wall was then glazed with a color about one shade darker than the basecoat.

The result is a wall that now has a Tuscan look with lots of depth. The chips, holes and dents look like they were meant to be there and add to the character. I can't wait to see how everything looks when the showroom is set up. I'll make sure to share some after photos. Here's a few "before" photos for now.

Before the wall was completely covered with the plaster product. You can see the holes and rough areas in the foreground.

A closeup of the newly plastered texture.

Be back soon!

Michelle