Fauxology: Studying the Visual Magic of Faux Finishing and Interior Design (brought to you by Garay Artisans)

There was a time that, due to the economy, our business was slowing down and we were doing a Keanu Reeve’s-like “Whoa!”.  Now, all of a sudden — SLAM!  To the point that the last week or so, we had three commissions going on at the same time, with the same deadlines.  Normally, my brother, Jason, and I plan and work each job together but this time we separated: he took on the Orlando Airport commission with half our crew and I took on a large residential job with the rest and we all tag-teamed the third project.  Jason and I were constantly calling each other to discuss ideas, options to getting over the speed bumps encountered and discussing our progress and timelines with respect to each project.  As hectic as it has been, you can imagine how appreciative we are to still have work ahead of us.  It’s truly humbling to have ongoing commissions since we’ve heard murmurings of some faux companies coming to a complete halt, work-wise, and to continue to be considered for wonderful projects is something to be truly thankful for.  

The Orlando Airport’s Venetian Plaster commission ended on Monday and the other two end next week, so I’ll be sorting through those pics soon and posting them up. 

In the meantime, I thought I’d share a cool little project we had recently.  When we met our clients, they initially only wanted a nice, elegant glaze for their kitchen.  Then they spied a pic of a unique and colorful range in a book and asked us to mimic that look for their own range hood.  Here are the Before & Afters:

This is the pic of the patinated metal range hood & backsplash our client liked…

Here is their range (before).  You can see they didn’t have quite the same backsplash behind the stove but the top part was almost right on.  The finish on our client’s range was originally a seafoam green waxed Venetian Plaster.  Once you wax a plaster, there is no painting over it since nothing will stick.  So we degreased the range and removed the wax with mineral spirits – no easy task.  Then, it was super-primed.

Our clients wanted the finish done solely with paints and so we started the process by mixing both Modern Masters Olympic Gold and Tequila Gold metallics colors as the base.  We then layered a few custom shades but used the Brick metallic color by Modern Masters as the dominant tone.  We then aged it all (darker on the top, some edges and the bottom band) and topcoated everything for maximum durability and use.  Here’s the after (and you can see a bit of the wall glaze we were initially called in for). 

I daresay you can get even closer to the original pic using oxidizing patinas but the Brick color worked really well — it’s currently my color crush of the month.  It was so much fun putting this one together!

Until next time!

P.S.  Don’t forget about May’s Workshop Contest!  We’ve had quite a few people sign up for our quarterly newsletter and each and every one has a chance at winning a free class.  Good luck!