Geometric Painting for Bathroom

The bathroom in my loft is stark white. It was done up really spa like when we were house hunting. We moved in and put up a white shower curtain and our set of towels in two colors that don't match the bath mat we had (didn't get the upgrade for the mat when we got married). At best the room felt spartan, at the worst if felt like a bachelor pad. Oh, and the cat box had to go in here too.

I wanted to paint the whole room a warming taupe. My husband disagreed. With family coming to stay for the first time at the end of summer, I knew I had to do something. One of the biggest problems was tying the colors in the room together to each other and also the rest of our loft. After being inspired by another blogger's geometric painting, I decided to do a painting similar to a type of project I would do with my art students. Instead, this time I would keep my lines white by employing painters tape. 

If you saw my painting post, you know I have 13 paint samples leftover from our "great indecision".  I decided to put some of them to good use for m painting. I only had to buy a canvas from my local art supply store, the rest of my supplies included the paint samples and leftover painters tape and or course my own brushes.

I chose four colors: the gray from the TV area and a small accent wall, the deep teal in the entryway, the taupe I wanted for the bathroom, and a muted purple (we love purple).

Tips: Use different thicknesses of tape for interest. Trust your instincts and your eye for your own composition.

The whole process took me just a couple hours.

at the beginning, used a chair for an easel 

just starting to paint

done!

After hanging it in the bathroom, I upgraded the shower curtain to match the taupe in the painting and now even have a matching bathmat. 

before...all white

 Now where the painting is installed, across from the mirror

Weekend Street Fair and 2nd Bedroom Sneak Peak

I went to one of Chicago's summer street fairs this past weekend. I just love summer in this city. Each neighborhood will host it's own festival one weekend of summer. This one was in Wicker Park. One of the most memorable things I saw was this beautiful booth. Not only was the handmade jewelry pretty, but the booth itself had a great set up. It has inspired me to make more jewelry!

 I just love the natural stone!

Aqua Jewelry's Etsy

Here's a sneak peak at what's been going on in the second bedroom! (by no means a finished and staged shot) It's still a work in progress. Whenever you reorganize all your clothes, things have to get messier before they get cleaner.

This work surface was created using our two file cabinets and the door to the laundry closet that we have removed. Like many second bedrooms, ours is filled with mismatched furniture. I'm going to be sewing in here this summer, so I need a big clean space. All I did was re-purpose furniture we already had and used some textbooks to even it out. (The grey cabinet is a bit shorter.) This project was free! It also makes the room feel bigger for some reason; I think it's the long white surface that unifies the pieces into one.

Notice the black frames above? That's one of my eco-friendly, DIY, cost saving projects. I had white frames from our wedding and one other, so I painted them black (artist paint and brush, I can't spray paint in Chicago). Then I scanned pictures I had used previously for my "family wall" and sent them to Walgreens to print out black and white. Plus, I ordered a few wedding pictures in black and white as well. Because they were all just 5x7, I went for symmetry, something I've avoided in the past. It took lots of measuring, a little math, and a level to get them up. But now the small frames seem to function as one larger piece. The total cost of this project was free for the frames and only about $8 for the 5x7 BW enlargements.

Framing a Print

I have a ton of artwork I created in college. I had always wanted to get some of the best work up on the wall in my home, but it took buying a place before that happened.

My favorite piece is a copper plate etching of Big Ben. It is not a normal size, so it would require a custom frame and mat. Even with the online options for custom frames, this was too expensive of an option when I was trying to get so many other projects done in time for my friend's visit. Luckily, I'm resourceful. I thought of just buying the best size possible and having just the mat cut. Michael's had frames on sale, but the mat would be way too much money and take 2 weeks. What was that about? So then I thought of how I loved the torn edges of the paper and how I should display the whole piece, so it wasn't just a picture, but an object. Shadow boxes that big were once again way out of the picture.

Then I thought floating frame, you know glass front and back so you see the wall through it. I found a tutorial and thought I could pull it off. Getting a backing glass cut was out (money), so I ended up buying a cheap poster frame in the same size as the frame I was buying on sale. The tutorial I had seen online was for a much smaller frame that didn't involve real artwork. I didn't want to completely glue and seal in my print, so I thought of using tiny nails like the brackets that hold the back of a frame in. I took precautions and went slowly with my nailing. I got almost done, we are talking the last nail, and it was too much. The front glass got a hairline crack that spread. I can't begin to describe the utter frustration I felt. I had spent hours planning, researching, going back and forth to different art stores to get frames and the right acid free adhesive for the print. All without a car. Do you know what it's like hauling a 2' x 3' frame on a city bus.

"Fail"

So I was left with a frame, a plexiglass front from a poster frame (what was going to be my back) and a print needing a home. Back to the local art store (no more Michael's for me), I got a coordinating color of mat board and they cut it to size for the frame (only 50 cents a cut thank you local art store). Back to carefully lining up my print on the mat, always leave more room at the bottom, and taping down with a stronger hold then my first go around. Now it hangs right by the front door, hiding the fuse box. It's the first thing you see when you open the door.

"Success"

I posted a link to a link up party on GetOuttaMyHeadPlease for my Family Name Eye Chart and accidentally posted this link.

New Twist on the Family Name

Here's another project I completed in time for my friend's visit. I was inspired by David Bromstad from "Color Splash". He always does a painting for any room he makes over. In this one, he created a painting with the names of all the family members in the style of a eye chart. I thought it was a great twist on how to have a personal, family name painting. It's a bit more subtle, and therefor, I daresay, a little more sophisticated (which is what my loft likes).

I first created the image in photoshop, and agonized over the font choice (as I tend to do). Then, using my projector again (I did this the same weekend as the mural) I traced the text onto a stretched canvas in pencil. I will note, this project is not for the faint of heart, it takes a crazy steady hand and super patience. My skills from typography class finally paid off (we did every project my hand). After I finally finished tracing, I used a variety of brush sizes and shapes to fill in the letters in a very dark grey. My advise, go slow and take breaks. I ended up leaving the background completely white. I may eventually add the hint of a gradient in the corners, as if it were illuminated from behind, but I'm not sure.

Here's the final result.

It sits on the brick in the black nook that used to be an original window because the 3M picture hanging strips won't stick to the concrete we have no intention of trying to drill into. It's next to our vintage 1920's dinning room set.

           

Understated, Modern Family Room Mural

I'm an artist, when I have the time. So even before we moved into our new loft last year, I knew I wanted to paint a mural. In the TV area was a big beautiful (at the time white) wall. It spoke to me. It wanted something inspired by the city, not an ordinary framed picture, but an abstract painting right on it. I decided to do a contour outline of downtown Chicago. The adjacent wall was back at the time, so I first thought continue the black as the line to help tie the two together. Then we decided to paint both walls grey (see the post here). The mural kept getting put off.

About a month out from my best friend's visit for the first time since we moved in, I decided it was time to get lots of projects finished, including the mural. (Nothing like company coming to get you to finally check off your to do list. ;) ) I searched all over the internet for a great reference picture and finally went with a photo my husband took while on a sailboat in Lake Michigan. 

I brought my projector from school home for a long weekend. I set it up on one of our height-adjustable stools and plugged it into the computer. I had to play with the sizing on the screen till I got it just right, and then it was just a matter of tracing on the wall in pencil. Pretty easy, just don't rush. I was going to go with a  white paint for the line, but my husband convinced me to use the gold paint that was left over from our paint sample buying extravaganza. I tested it out just behind the tall shelf on the side. IT WAS HOT! I ended up having to do two very careful coats of the gold to get an even consistency, but it was worth it. We love the result so much that we are going to continue the mural to the wall behind the TV (eventually).

Eco-Friendly Picture Frame Updates

This past winter I was back in Dallas for my  visit to my Mom's house. She always has projects for me to do around the house. While growing up, I was the one who acted like the handy man in the family (and also the geek squad and interior decorator). I love helping my mom any way that I can.

Anyways, back to this past winter, she was working on creating a family wall (you know the large grouping of family portraits). We went through the large collection of photos, old and new, and started taking pictures out of frames and picking and choosing the keepers. My mom had a large collection of frames in all sizes and finishes, metal, wood, and black. We wanted to create a more cohesive look, so we decided on silver and black. So many of the old frames were natural oak and dated looking, but we hated just wasting them. It finally dawned on me, why buy new ones, just paint the old ones, "duh". 

The summer before, I had spent the better part of my month home spray painting branches and other things for my wedding; so I was a pro. 

We went to HD and bought a can of good quality, glossy finish, black spray paint. 

I removed the glass from the frames.

Sanded the wood.

Placed them on plastic garbage bags in the driveway.

Painted backs first and let dry.

Turned over and painted fronts. (you may need to sand paint drips like in photo) Did a second coat on front as needed.

Wash glass and put back in. Frame pictures.

Easy. Cheap. Less than $5 got us 6 new-looking frames.

I highly suggest the investment (like $2) in a nozzle gun thingy. Saves your fingers alot of pain.

It was dark when I finally got the fronts done so no pictures, sorry. I'm sure you get the idea.

The Painting Post

Picking out paint colors with my new husband for our new loft, should be fun and easy. Turned out to be the complete opposite. Creating our own style for scratch when we both have strong opinions and our place is a beautiful empty canvas that could go so many ways was frustrating. Also having champagne taste a a beer budget doesn't help. I'll talk about the furniture decisions later. This post is about the system I created for choosing paint samples.

Step 1:
Go to your choice of paint supply store and pick up a ton of sample swatches in the range of colors you are considering and in a good paint brand. When it comes to paint, spending a little more money per gallon will save you time and number of coats, saving you money in the end.

Step 2:
Take your samples home and at different times of day hold them up to the wall, next to any furniture and draperies, next to and wall art, against the floor and in my case even against the ceiling, making notes directly on the sample cards as to what works where. Like I tell my art students, everyone has an eye for what looks good. Pick out your top favorites.

Step 3:
Go back to the store and buy samples in your favorites. In our case that was 6 total for our 4 areas.

Step 4:
Paint sample squares of the paint at different parts of the wall. Since we had so many we made counting marks under the squares and wrote the corresponding number on the sample jar. I just used my artist brushes to paint the squares. Live with the samples for a while and see what works in all different times of day. If you are lucky, you will pick a winner for your wall and move on to step 6.

Step 5 (in my case):
Attend your condo association board meeting where they discuss the new design plans for all the common areas. Turns out their color pallet is way too similar to what we had picked. My husband decided we had to revisit all our color choices. So we repeated steps 1-4 and even made a few last minute choices for samples to buy while we were there ready for them to be whipped up. We ended up getting 7 more samples. I don't suggest ever getting this many samples, it got way too expensive. We also had to switch to roman numerals to keep track.

(The Kitchen stumped us, I just decided to go back to white.)

Step 6:
Go buy your paint and supplies. We went with a paint that has primer in it. It took one good solid coat and one light touch up coat to do the job. The second coat is mostly to go over those few spots that show after the first coat is dry. Word to the wise, the eco friendly roller sponges don't spread paint nicely. When rolling back and forth, they tended to pick the paint back up. Also, buy an angled brush for the edging, it's the only way to go.

Step 7:
Show it off. So happy with the grey, it's what's going in the TV area as well.

-Home Sweet Loft