Category "News"

Choosing Paint Colors

Do you need help choosing paint colors for your home? So often, I see people asking in online forums for help choosing a paint color:

“Please share your suggestions for a nice blue for my son’s room!”

“Does someone have a favorite warm grey color to suggest for my living room?”

“What’s your favorite off-white for trim?”

“Which of these 6 paint swatches should I use on my bedroom walls?”

People ask, and SO many people are quick to answer with SO many photos and color swatches and opinions. It’s overwhelming! How can you choose?  Everyone who responds is looking at different devices with different screens, so the colors you see and the colors they see aren’t the same. No one sees your room and your décor and your natural light conditions or light fixtures. No one sees your style preferences, but they are ready to share theirs. I love my online community!  I’m not knocking this method, sometimes it works really well. But sometimes it doesn’t.

You might think a professional color consultation isn’t necessary. You might think that paying for professional advice is too expensive. But I think what’s too expensive is paying for paint, hiring a painter to do the work (or even spending your time to do it yourself) and then realizing it’s wrong,  you don’t like it and you want to start over.

I am a lifelong painter with a design degree. My business is decorative painting, but COLOR is the basis for every project I do. I can look at your room as it relates to everything in and around it, including you! I can look at your entire house and help you develop a palette that works throughout. I can give you suggestions, options, swatches, and instructions for your painter. I can even give you a lesson in color theory!

But the best part is that because I am a decorative painter, your flat fee will be credited toward any decorative painting project you decide to do in your home within a year! Now THAT’S a great value. So, look through the rest of my website for some great ideas, but if all you really want are solid paint colors, I can help with that too!

Contact me for more information! 908-217-3861 drdesign4u@gmail.com

Sometimes simple, straightforward projects like painting bathroom vanities can make a very big impact.  None of these projects were terribly complicated, but they made a big difference in the look of a bathroom! Sometimes a homeowner is not ready to completely renovate a bathroom, but still cannot live with the current decor! Sometimes a cabinet is beautiful and loved just as it is, but surrounding renovations require an update.

Originally a small desk, this piece was cut apart, rebuilt, and fitted with a sink and plumbing, then painted chocolate brown and rubbed through to reveal bare wood along the edges.

This master bathroom vanity was once a bedroom dresser. Repainted, antiqued and finished in gloss polyurethane, new hardware, and a granite counter top surface and sink replaced the furniture top.

After: Dark antiquing accents were painted in the grooves and edges of the cabinet and mirrors to give them some interest and also disguise some less-than-perfect manufacturing details. New hardware upgrades the look as well.

After: Properly sanded, primed, and painted a bright teal color, this vanity cabinet looks fresh and updated, with new decorative knobs adding the finishing touch!

Before: French carved wood vanity in its original wood tones. Pretty, but could use an update.

Before: Laminate cabinets with rustic wood design look horrible dated!

One of the best things about painting for so many years has been revisiting my clients over time, seeing their style evolve, and helping them as they redecorate or move into new homes. Most rewarding? Painting something sweet for a new baby or young child and then coming back as they grow older to repaint something new! Here are a few of my favorite examples of kid’s room murals that I have painted, and then came back to update!

Cowboy on horse, with rope around the perimeter of the walls.

The rope detail continues around the room and spells out his name. The other end of the rope makes a loop.

World map and painted shelf detail from Bedroom mural.

Additional view of the painted shelf.

Additional view of the painted shelf.

Winnie-the-Pooh themed nursery mural

Train-themed mural. The tunnel was the "headboard" for his bed.

Train mural view next to the entry door. The door's wall protector was made into a signal post.

Star Wars “The Clone Wars” mural.

Clone Wars characters painted on opposite wall.

More Clone Wars details, by the entry door. (note the same wall protector)

Mural with wildflowers and butterflies.

Ocean view with palm trees painted in teen’s bedroom.

Mural with Cinderella and large flowers.

Tropical landscape mural painted throughout bedroom.

Bi-planes and clouds painted around light fixture

Giant soccer ball painted around light fixture.

Soccer-themed alcove painted with stadium and two team logos.

Carrie’s mother didn’t know the gender of her baby yet when she selected this Robert Louis Stevenson-themed mural, which included both a seated girl reading, and a sailor boy and soldier. Nursery mural inspired by Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic “Child’s Garden of Verses.”

Another view of the focal wall.

View of opposite wall.

Detail of reading girl.

Detail of cupids over the crib.

Mural of lavender and blue designs with jewels and glitter.

Floating pointy jeweled shapes painted around the room.

Small writing desk was painted too, to coordinate with the theme.

Young Aaron wanted his favorite computer game characters in his faux-window mural. (the waviness seen here is the actual wall-1920’s era plaster). Right-side faux window painted with disney-style bird and “putt-putt” character.

Left-side window painted with birds and view of lower Manhattan.

New room, new house. A more mature Aaron requested denim striae stripes.

Say good-bye, Cinderella!

Every so often it’s nice to take a break and re-connect with some colleagues and get inspired by some new ideas and materials. October 16th-17th I attended the PDCA Convention 2014, the 60th Annual Convention and Tradeshow of the Middle Atlantic Council of the Painting and Decorating Contractors Of America. (That’s a mouthful)! It’s better known as the MAC/PDCA.  I used to attend this convention regularly and was even an officer of the Decorative Artists chapter in our region for a few years. Now I attend when it is local, as it was this year, in West Orange at the Wilshire Grand Hotel. Thursday there were seminars all day, and Friday was the trade show. I didn’t take advantage of the dinners and shows since I am local and wasn’t staying at the hotel.

Of course, I went to the seminars on the “Decorative Track” versus the ones mainly for General Painting Contractors. Two of them were given by long-time colleagues of mine. Dean Sickler gave a seminar on Color: how it works with light, how the spectrums are broken up, how colors relate and play off of each other, and how to make color corrections with paint and pigments.

Andre Martinez gave a seminar on Decorative Textures for Fun and Profit, and explained the Proceed line of materials and how to market the exclusivity of your work.

Aliya Riaz, also a long-time colleague spoke about Gilding and Gold leaf from an international historic perspective. At the Trade Show on Friday she demonstrated some Gilding techniques.

There was also a lunch-and-learn seminar, given by Ross O’Neal who described his 12-year long restoration project at the Oaks Cloister, built in 1900 by Joseph Huston in Germantown PA. No photos, I was busy eating,  meeting new contacts and catching up with old friends while watching his presentation!

The trade Show on Friday was fun. I got to play around with some new products in the demonstration area, visit with my friends from Dundean at their booth, watch a demonstration on paintbrush construction (by hand!) at Purdy, check in with Benjamin Moore, Sherwin Williams, and other distributors of paints, brushes, rollers, tapes, and other supplies.

Just a few of the goodies I dumped from my bag when I got home!

My sample board as I experimented with Proceed’s rough plaster medium.

Me, with Julia and Andrea Sickler of Dundean Studios.

Aliya Riaz led a Gilding and Metal Leaf seminar, and demonstrated some techniques

Andre Martinez’s seminar on Decorative Textures

Dean Sickler’s seminar on “How Color Works”

My program and name tag.

Not only did I participate in the inaugural Greta’s Run as a runner and donor, I was honored to lead the art program that was funded by Greta’s Run proceeds!

Greta’s Run is a 5K run/walk event held in memory of Greta Schoenemann, a Westfield High School student who died from injuries sustained on 9/11/02. Greta’s Run was created as a tribute to the Schoenemann family and as a fundraiser for programs for people with special needs. This event would have been close to Greta’s heart because her sister Elise has Cerebral Palsy.

All proceeds from Greta’s Run are used to develop and implement programming for young adults with special needs. Young adults aged 18-26 group, including Greta’s sister Elise, age out of most organizational school-based programming. The mission of Greta’s Run is to fix this in Westfield at the Westfield Area Y. A series of sample programs took place in the spring, and I led the Art Program at the Ducret School of Art in Plainfield, NJ

I decided to help the young men and women create a composite mural. Working with Ben Nanna, who founded the Greta’s Run and programs with his friend Jayne Ruotolo, we decided that the mural would be a picture of the Westfield Y building. We took a variety of photos of the building and decided on one. So how did we make this mural with so many students of different abilities? Here’s a step-by-step depiction…..

The participants had a lot of fun. Some worked alone, some needed help from aides. As you can see from the finished project, all of the participant’s different abilities, techniques, and interpretations came together in a creative depiction of the Westfield Y building!

The series of sample programs set up with proceeds from the run.

Step 1: Prime sheets of bristol vellum.

Step 2: Tape them together (on the back).

Step 3: Set up the taped-together sheets and draw the image.

Step 4: After the image is drawn, un-tape everything.

Step 5: We set up the studio so that every artist gets to see the complete image (a picture of the Westfield Y), and a picture of the small section that they are painting.

Step 6: The participants arrived, I mixed up the paint colors, and the fun began!

A composite poster that captures images from the event. I am in the lower right corner!

The finished project!

Storefront window design I painted for the 2014 Greta’s Run.