Today was an excellent day. I taught a special class and it was so much fun! It was a custom class specifically tailored for a client of mine. When we originally met at her lovely home (which was under construction), she explained that she very much wanted me to do the Garay Artisans magic on some areas but….since I taught classes, would I teach her how to do finishes of her own along with some color guidance? It was an intriguing idea…and I thought, why not? So we came up with a plan for her home — together we picked out the areas where she need a professional touch and decided on the ones she could tackle herself. I would also provide color guidance so that she wasn’t out there on her own surrounded by hundreds of paint options. We agreed on a price fair for both of us and we were off and running!

It’s pure joy for me to do this type of work and to see her enthusiasm to learn the?finishes she picked was really gratifying. You see, she wanted to learn not because of budgetary reasons (although it helps) but mostly because she wanted to feel the accomplishment of designing her home and to have a creative outlet for herself. (It’s funny, because I have some clients who when they see all the effort that goes into their creations, say “You could not pay me enough to do all this work!” or “There is no way you’d catch me on a scaffold like that, don’t you get scared?” or the famous “Wow, I had no idea it was like this…”).

One of our newer team members also came along to help and learn a bit as well. You should have seen the three of us drooling over the colors for one of the finishes — we mixed LusterStone’s Terracotta, Mandarin Red and Cantaloupe colors together.(LusterStone is a shimmery plaster made by Faux Effects.) Mmm, mmm, mmm.

Here’s a shot of that combo (over gold leaf) on my teaching easel and with the ladies working on their board.

                       Easel.jpg    Yuri & Patricia.jpg

I taught the class at her still-under-construction-but-almost-done home. It was the perfect environment since we were able to immediately see what all the colors would look in their proposed environment. Can’t beat that!

So, I’m tired and about to watch some of my TiVo’d programs (love that TiVo) but I thought I’d share this great experience with you. Please remember that if you’d like to receive the Garay Artisans newsletter (chock full of tips, pictures and updates), please e-mail Suzanne@GarayArtisans.com and let her know you’d like to be put on the mailing list.

Until the next post!