Thursday, July 28, 2011

A bathroom as art !


Now that I'm home from LA ... and have a few free moments on my hands ... it's time for some home repairs/improvements.  First on the list is the little bathroom with the wall paper peeling and falling away from the walls !  What to do ?!  First and foremost,  get two layers of paper off the walls, only to find very rough splintery wood underneath.  How about texture paint, that could work?!  Off to Home Depot we go to find a textured paint (which they do have by Behr)and collect all our supplies for this tiny bathroom.


I won't bore you with all the gory details...suffice to say it took two coats of very lethal primer to seal the wood, then two coats of texture paint brushed on with a 4" brush in a random brush stroke (kinda fun), then another two coats of base color (Millet by Frazee) just to get to the fun part, which I still wasn't sure what that would be.

But...going through applying all those coats of primer, texture & paint was the time I needed to become one with that little bathroom, and while I was putting on the final base coat color it came to me...painted circles...of course !  There is an oversized abstract painting (which I love for it's unexpected proportion in this small room) that has outlined circles in to...why not continue a few of them onto the wall and ceiling.  The trick is to NOT get carried away...only add a few (in odd numbers) just enough to make it fun...and not cute.





So...here is the finished little bathroom with a big personality...and that is my process of coming up with the plan.  Often times I have the best creative thoughts and ideas when I'm right in the middle of a project.  Not always knowing how it's going to turn out when you dive in is the fun of  being in the flow!



Next home improvement is cleaning out and trying to create more storage in our workshop!  Along with this project came the realization that we are storage dysfunctional, which made it harder to keep in the fun flow of painting.  Not to worry though, I probably won't post about storage clean up...unless we come up with something wonderfully creative while in the process !

See you next time.

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

I'm back !

I just finished up my twice a year LA gig as showroom designer for a beautiful, 40,000 square foot gift showroom at the Cal Mart...exhausting though very creative & fun !  It takes me out of the loop and my everyday life for about four weeks in June & July, then again in December & January when I drive up to LA and stay for entire weeks at a time while we tear apart the showroom and then put it all back together again for the trade gift shows. It's a nice little shake up that makes me get out and do something different...and when it's all done, I really appreciate coming home and sleeping in my own bed at night !  

Here's a little taste of some of the merchandise presentations I do for 
California Marketing Associates...better known as CMA


New to CMA... Lenox, Gorham & Dansk table top & bar ware


Delicae' Gourmet food line 


Garden is always a big classification 


New line Esschert...a great gardening line with planting kits including the seeds. 


More gardening from A&B furniture line. 


really fun tree trunk garden furniture 


A&B...beautiful new home furnishing line


This is a really BIG showroom...so many beautifully tempting things ! 


I love pulling groups together and displaying pretty merchandise! 


Paragon art & Tag table top...love the colors






A few shots of some of my friends I get to work with at CMA. I've worked with this showroom twice a year, for close to 20 years and some of these people almost as long! Not everyone is shown here, but it's great teamwork and as much as I love being home, and back into my own creative life...I always look forward to seeing and working with them at showtime. 


So that's what I've been up to for the last month or so...now back to pillows and getting ready to be part of the Vintage and Market Finds launch on One Kings Lane...Yipppeeee!  More on that to follow...meandering through my creative life.


Hope your all having a beautiful summer !

Sunday, July 3, 2011

Scavengers...

I'm in the process of hatching a new creative idea, though not exactly sure what it will look like in the end, I'm forging ahead and letting it take shape as I go. Jim says I'm putting the cart before the horse, but I think I'm actually letting my idea come into focus with each step I take, even if they are out of order.

So far I do know that it'll involve painted furniture, and will give me an opportunity to use the new Chalk Paint I wrote about in an earlier post. Painted furniture was my first love and how I started out in decorative painting 20 years ago, and now seems I'm coming full circle after years of faux finishes and murals...it's back to furniture with alot more knowledge and ideas than when I started out.

I've begun scavenging around for pieces of furniture I'd like to rescue & recyle and here is what I've come up with so far. My daughter in law Lucinda went with me on one of my excursions (pictured in the armiore mirror), which made it all the more fun!

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These goodies where all at a local consignment store in Encinitas, Consignment Classics...a treasure trove of furniture and really great finds !
I purchased two of the green upholstered chairs and have big plans for them which I'll share in an upcoming post.





This is a collection of furniture I pulled together on the project I'm working on now up in LA. I do the design and set up for a wonderful showroom getting them ready for the gift show in mid July. It's another place full of goodies just waiting to be painted !



Love this little salmon Bombay chest


Great little nesting tables


I love this little metal cabinet.


An large ornate mirror



When I pull it all together, add in my vintage pillows...creative juices just start flowing! Although I do have some great ideas, I'm open to suggestions as to where to take it from here...please chime in !