Paint Transformations!

I love painting, absolutely love it! My favorite is taking an old space and making it feel new simply by choosing great colors and using quality paint. Here are some fun places I have done recently.
(All paints colors are made by Benjamin Moore)

PROJECT 1:
This home is absolutely beautiful with wonderful architecture and gorgeous furnishings.  The owners had opted for a very simply palette (and by simple, I mean white) when they built 11 years ago. Since it needed new paint anyway they decided it was time for a change and were willing to take some bold steps. The results were stunning!

Master: The loft style master suite sits a top a flight of stairs. It held some great art but needed some color to really showcase it.

A vibrant red-orange (Salsa Dancing) paired with a green-grey (Meditation) are the perfect compliments. 

The staircase wall wraps around and becomes the feature wall behind the bed. The red carried all the wall through and down the hall creating a lovely backdrop. 

The Meditation color is carried throughout the rest of the room.

Living Room:

The staircase to the master was beautiful but left the rest of the house looking very, very white.

We carried the Meditation color down from the stairs and warmed up the room with a rich cream (Flawless) all round. The splash of red above the built in bar ties it all together.

PROJECT 2:
This other place is an older condo that desperately need some updating. The new owners opted to replace the old carpet with nice new bamboo flooring in the living room and master bedroom along with some fresh paint.
The results are a nice clean palette that renters are sure to enjoy.

Master before: The headboard had grasscloth wallpaper on it that had been painted over with sunshine yellow. The texture was nice so we decided to keep the paper and avoid any costly surprises about the condition of the wall underneath.

Master After: We chose neutrals-Frappe and Butte Rock, for the bedroom to keep it clean and calm. A zen style platform bed will be filling the space soon. (curtains were already there)

Living Room Before:

The living room had furniture that was way to large for the space and didn't allow for any eating area. The Paint was yellow as well (hard to see but was actually quite bright)

                               

Living Room After: A fun red accent wall (Salsa Dancing) added life and style to the space and paired nicely with the new neutral wall color. (Frappe)

I was only involved in picking the colors and doing the painting but it was really fun to see this place transformed!

The Power of Staining

I have been doing quite a lot of refinishing projects lately. I'm not a big fan of all the sanding involved, but it really pays off when you can breath new life into something old and worn out.
This lounger was in pretty good shape, but to protect it from the weather it needed to have a good coat of stain and a UV protectant top coat.

These teak benches were in desperate need of TLC. They had been sitting on a front lanai for a looong time and as a result turned grey and water stained. Behold the power of sanding! and a beautiful finish of course

These chairs were in a similar condition to the benches and even had some paint splatter to boot!

Entry way stairs

HOW TO: Refinishing Basics 

Step 1: Sand! This can be with a power sander or by hand depending on the size and condition of your project. I usually start with 220 but when it is really bad 120-150 can be a good starting point. 

Use a mask-your nose will thank you :) Sanding away from the place that you want to stain will make clean up easier. 

TIP-pick a place to start and a direction to work and try to follow that same process for each step.  Example-turn chair upside down, do everything you can reach, do sides. Flip it over, work from top of chair to feet or left to right. Do that when you sand, stain, clear coat. Hopefully you won't miss anything if you follow the same pattern rather than jumping around. 

Clean your area thoroughly before staining. Vacuum area and furniture and then wipe furniture down with a soft cloth to make sure there is no extra dust. 

Step 2: Apply Stain- this is the pretty part. Using a good quality ox hair brush will ensure that you get a nice even finish. Apply stain in the same direction as the wood grain. Once stain is tacky do not try to fix anything you will have to wait for it to dry and then sand it down. Let dry thoroughly, usually overnight. 

Step 3: More Sanding! Finish sanding is key to getting a nice silky smooth finished piece. Using 400 sand paper rub lightly over entire piece. Don't spend too much time in one spot. Usually 1 time back and forth in one location is just right. Use your fingers to feel where you have sanded, it will be nice a soft where you have finish sanded. 

Don't worry if it turns white, that will disappear when you apply the clear coat. 

Clean area thoroughly again. Vacuum & wipe down. 

Step 4: Clear coat. Apply clear coat over entire piece following the wood grain. Check for dry spots. Let dry! 

Voila!! You have a  beautiful like-new piece of furniture! 

Happy Staining!!

Heart Palpitations

Most people would associate heart palpitations with either a medical condition, or romance. I have to say there is at least one more category. Good design.
My favorite car is the Mini Cooper S.

I have always loved minis, even before they were reinvented by BMW. Some people, my hubby for example, would be hard pressed to pick a favorite car. Not me, it was love at first sight. When I see a particularly beautiful one driving down the road, sometimes my heart literally skips a beat. My heart races and my stomach does a flip flop.
That is what good design does to you. It stirs passion, makes your heart race, and makes you wish for more.
Other things that make my heart race:

Books, lots of them:

Garage Doors inside:

Big Rustic beams in a modern room:

Brick walls, earthy colors and exotic influences

Pau'ole Gallery

I am sipping my morning tea in a delightful little art gallery in Holualoa. Colorful Hawaiian scenes adorn the walls, fun jewelry, purses and pieces of furniture are scattered purposefully throughout. My chair is next to an open window where the breeze blows gently through, clouds float lazily by and the blue ocean glows on the horizon. It is peaceful. The radio is playing in the background and a rooster is crowing incessantly somewhere down the road. As I sit here it is easy to imagine that this is my gallery, and my job is to fill the walls with my creations.

I am sitting in for the real artist, Sunny Pau'ole, that owns all this beauty while she gets some other projects done. It isn’t a paying job, but I have my basket of art prints sitting near by and the opportunity to paint if I feel inspired.

Sunny’s spot by the window is equipped with a small table covered in old paint and all the supplies necessary to whip up a small masterpiece.

Sunny opened her new gallery, Pau’ole, in 2010. She paints with oil in strong colors reflecting the sunsets, lava fields and palm trees that grace our island. Her husband is a koa woodworker and some of his paddles and frames are feautured as well.

Pau’ole is one of about 8 galleries nestled in the tiny town of Holualoa, a quaint place on Hualalai mountain. The gallery sits next to the famous Pink Kona Hotel and a coffee shop close by provides me with tea and tempts me with yummy treats. Surrounded by coffee plantations and tropical foliage it is a beautiful and inspirational place to be. An empty little building sits across the road and I imagine setting up shop there, making a studio and joining into the relaxed flow of this artist community.

sunnypauole.com

The Grand Finale

Who would have imagined we would finally come to this day. After months and months of work we have a finished product.

It is amazing what can be accomplished with a little fire under your butt! We were working hard every night when we got off work trying to get it all done. The condo was already on the market but not even close to being shown. Then we got the call. We scheduled our first showing. On our way to work Saturday morning we got the call someone wanted to see it at noon the next day. Okay, I said. And then when I hung up...oh my gosh, what are we going to do!! The race was on. The amount of work that got done from the time we were off work that evening was amazing! We started with a 2 column TO DO list on our white board and 1 by 1 things got crossed off. This doesn't even show how bad it looked the night before.

But finally things were falling into place the way they are supposed to. Aaron got the bullnose tile cut to finish off the counter -1 major project done.

And then the vent hole in the ceiling drywalled and re-vented (creative solution). We got the ceiling spray textured, painted, doors hung, trim mounted and on and on...til 1 AM and then back at it at 7AM.

But we made it. By 11:30 we were mopping ourselves out of an incredibly immaculate condo.

Here it is....

Not so quick...

When I left off last time I thought we were getting pretty close to finishing the bathroom. No such luck. We ended up having a few issues that required removing our lovely surround, taking out the bath tub, and putting it all back together again. Not fun. That meant not having a shower again for I don't even remember how long! Fortunately my brother moved in to the apt building next door and we could make the trek over to his place when necessary. I must have had the neighbors wondering why I was walking down the street with a towel on my head.
The shower finally went back together and then it was time for drywall. Yay! Now we could see some progress. Sorry about the lack of photos- I was at work while my brother slaved away on the bathroom and so I missed all the good photo opps.
Once the drywall went on we had to re-texture the walls. Man that stuff was toxic! Aaron (Hanson) got this job and had a jolly time :) He even developed his own tool for blending it- A roll of toilet paper. :)
Once that dried it was time for the good stuff! The paint. After only about 5 samples I picked one. In one day I got the whole bathroom painted, walls, ceiling, shelves-everything! Whew-not a fan of edging. We put up the new light, hung the curtain rod, scrubbed the floor...then came the vanity. We went with a skinny one so we could show off our beautiful tile. A little alteration here and there and voila! After a month of renovating we are done with the bathroom!
Correction...Almost done...still needs trim, a switch cover and the over-spray scrubbed off the shower. Minor details compared to what we have just been through. :)

Putting it back together

After ripping out the shower Aaron (Allen) and I were covered in drywall dust and scum, desperately in need of a shower. Good thing the beach has one :) It was a bit chilly showering after dark, but it sure felt nice!
The most important step in getting it back together was making sure the mold didn't come back. We put plastic behind mold resistant drywall.

Hopefully that'll do the trick. Once the tub was back in place and leveled it was time for the fun part- putting the surround up. We were originally going to do tile, but after all that extra work, something simple seemed like a good idea. And it was. It looks great!

I thought not having a shower was bad! Next the TOILET had to come out! Good thing McDonald's is right around the corner- We had to take a little family trip down there before bed. :)
Fortunately the toilet went back on first thing in the morning once the grout was dry.


I love the tile we picked! I don't even want to put the vanity back in cuz it'll cover up part of the floor.