Painted Outdoor Planters - An Experiment

I love warmer weather and all the beauty it brings! This is one of our favorite planters that we fill with annuals every year.

You may remember from this post, my outdoor painted frog that's held up quite well for several years now. Well I had these lightweight planters (made from foam) that we inherited. They were beginning to break down. Of course I didn't think to photograph them but I did find an old photo of them.

They were still in pretty good shape here but the "paint" at the top was really breaking down and exposing the foam. So instead of trashing them, I thought I would try another experiment. The company, Blue Pearl, that makes the Silk Soft paint has really durable products. They are intended for walls, ceilings, trim and furniture but I always push my favorite products to the edge. So I decided to paint these planters and see what would happen.
I did use a spray primer on the exposed foam, but other than that, I just sprayed them off with the hose and let them dry.
Once dry I applied the "Pale Papaya" silk soft. I figured two coats would provide a good film thickness for outside.


Metallic painted planters

That dried overnight. I decided a red glaze would give them a terracotta look. So I use 1 part of "Salsa Red" colorant to 5 parts glaze.

Adding the glaze

I put them out in the sun to dry. BTW, Blue Pearl's colorants are excellent for exterior use so I knew I didn't need to worry about fading. I also decided I wouldn't worry about protecting the finish with polyurethane.

Before and After Red Glaze

I put them in the sun to dry. Later in the afternoon, I put the soil and herbs back in. Then the rain came. I was worried my red glaze would reactivate and run since it hadn't dried overnight. No problem. I guess the sun baked it in.
Here's how they turned out. We just have herbs in them that I transplanted so they aren't too happy right now.

So time will tell how they hold up. My money is on the paint. I'm bettin' many other things will fall apart and be discarded but my newly painted planters will still look awesome for years! I'll let you know how they are doing in a few months.
Although this is a sponsored post, my ideas for crazy uses and my opinions are my own. Thanks for following along!

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Spring Madness Not to Be Confused with March Madness

I know I'm not the only blogger out there feeling the additional pressure that Spring brings. Many of us are publishing fewer posts than normal. Even if you don't blog, this is a high pressure time of year. Pressure to garden, pressure to complete projects before the kids are home for the summer, pressure to enjoy the beautiful weather (Ok, maybe that doesn't count), final exams, school wrap up, weddings, graduations...need I say more? Did your heart race just thinking about it?
So needless to say, I'm way behind. Been busy creating just not posting. My youngest graduates high school in one month. My husband turns 50 at the end of the month. I must be a trophy wife 'cause I'm no where near that age! Ha, I wish. And we typically do a big annual summer party late May. So we need to plan a graduation party, a 50th birthday party and the annual party. My head may explode!
We did get away last weekend with some of our awesome friends. This was our 4th annual wine tour! Fondly called our "One Glass at a Time" tour. Our friends, Terri and David do an incredible job planning this every year.

There are a ton of vineyards/wineries right here in North Carolina. If  you haven't checked them out you really are missing out. We drive a few hours and have lunch, then we start on our pre mapped out tour. We usually hit 3-5 places and do their tour and tasting. A few of our favorites are Laurel Gray and Raffaldini. We always meet great and interesting people.

We end close to our hotel and always have an awesome dinner. This year we dined at 21 & Main in downtown Elkin. I had their lamb chops. They were wonderful! If you find yourself in Elkin you should check it out.

Lamb chops with Mint, Broccolini and Potatoes

Monday, I drove 5 hours to Eastern North Carolina to do the annual faux finish touch up in one of my favorite clients 26,000 sq.ft. home. He is a famous author and most of you can probably guess who it is. Here's a few of my favorite finishes in his home. This is a 22K gold leafed coffered ceiling. My friends at the Gilded Planet were vey helpful on this since I had never used actual gold before. It's MUCH thinner than the imitation stuff.

22Karat Gold Leafed Coffered Ceiling

We embedded the words of the first paragraph of his most popular book in this metallic plaster wall. Very subtle but stunning. With textured products you must use adhesive stencils. Cindy can custom make anything you need over at V-mask Foils and Stencils.

 

You saw this vanity in my last post. We did a champagne leaf finish on the walls in this powder room. Silver leaf with a warm glaze to make it more of a champagne color.

 

 

This powder room was a tissue paper texture with a red metallic paint and umber glaze. We used a graphite glaze on the black trim. 

 

In this bath, we stried a blue metallic plaster, then top trowelled a cream and tan metallic plaster.

 





I spent all day Tuesday touching up minor dings in the finishes, then drove back home. It was a long day and I'm very sad to report my thighs are actually sore from going up and down steps all day. I really need to get back to boot camp.
I have a really cool project I'll be working on this week, so I'll be sure and post about it soon. It involves contemporary circles and silver leaf. Follow me on Twitter or Facebook if you want to see it as it happens.
Then late tomorrow I'm going in for a gastric endoscopy. I've been having some stomach issues for quite some time and am finally frustrated enough to have it checked out. I'll keep you posted on the results.
In closing, I will leave you with this. (My hubby got this for me.. I'm trying not to take it personally.)

 



Silk Soft Metallic Paint

You know how much I love painting with metallic paints and glazes. One of my favorite metallic paints is called Silk Soft.  It's a much softer metallic look than other metallic paints. It has the sheen of silk. I've used it on walls, ceilings, trim, cabinets and furniture.
Silk Soft is what I used on the ceiling in this previous post. I used the "Autumn Berry" color  on my kitchen ceiling a few years ago.

I randomly brushed the first coat on then added a bit of glaze mixed with the same color and ragged off the second coat. All one color but lots of beautiful variation.
I used "Asian Silk" on the chest of drawers in this post. It is beautiful on cabinets as well. Here are some cabinets previously done using silk soft. This gorgeous Bombay style vanity was done in "Cappuccino" with an "Umber" glaze.

Metallic painted vanity

 



These master bath cabinets were done using "Pale Papaya" and a "Caribbean Caramel" glaze.

 

 

 

These laundry room cabinets were a boring white laminate. The client wanted to add some color and drama. These were done in "Pumice" with a black glaze.

 



I always finish my furniture and cabinets with a polyurethane sealer to give extra protection. However this product is incredibly durable, so durable in fact, that we tried an experiment by painting an outdoor cast resin stepping stone. We painted this frog stepping stone 3 years ago. It's been through hot summer's and cold, icy winters and has held up beautifully.

 

Although this is a sponsored post my opinions are my own. I am honored to promote such an awesome product. There is nothing else out there that even compares to this product. I hope you will explore their website and the many products they offer.

Dramatic Dining Room and Foyer Ceiling Makeover

My client of many years wanted to update the painting in her home. When she moved to her new home, for some reason she hired another artist to do some work for her. They did a fabulous job in the powder room, but the dining room was lacking, for a dining room. It would have been super cute for a kids room or a nursery (see cloud mural below). She wanted to paint over it and do something more elegant. There was also a unique trey ceiling in the foyer as well. We had done a metallic wax finish in the coffered ceiling of her family room several years ago. It had a chocolate base with champagne, gold and bronzey red metallic.

All three ceilings needed to work together. We were repainting the walls to have a warmer, copper undertone. So we decided to do a very similar finish in the foyer. Instead of gold we used copper. We also pulled the copper from the foyer into the dining tray ceiling. Treating the trim the trim of both ceilings with copper leafing added more drama and eliminated some white trim with out feeling the need to do all the trim. Here's the before dining and foyer photo.

Dining ceiling before

Foyer ceiling before

 

Both ceilings were taped off and painted a chocolate brown, including the trim. Then we taped off the trim so we could finish the ceilings. 



 

The dining room ceiling was painted a red bronze metallic in a brush metal technique.

 





When that was dry, we added a copper metallic glaze. This added additional dimension to the ceiling and softened the contemporary feel of the brushed metal technique.





After this dried overnight, we were able to tape off the ceiling so that the trim could be completed. We did the dining ceiling trim and the foyer ceiling trim in the same color and technique. I order all of my leafing supplies from The Gilded Planet. They have everything you could ever need for gilding. For all the foodies out there, they even have edible gold leaf! That's something I must try someday!

Back to our trim. We applied one coat of water based size. It goes on milky, but dries clear. Once dry, it will remain tacky for 24 hours. Size is what makes the sheets of leaf stick to your surface. It dries pretty quick, less than 1 hour. Now the fun part.. we start applying each 6" x6" copper leaf square side by side. I love an old worn look so I don't work about cracks and holidays. It adds to the character. You can get total coverage if you want that look.

It's very Las Vegas shiny at this point. You can burnish it to tone it down but I prefer to glaze it with an umber oil glaze or even stain can work. I talk about metal leafing in a bit more detail in my Silver Leafed Chest of Drawers post. The Gilded Planet also has some excellent tutorials.

After painting the foyer ceiling brown, we applied our 3 metallic wax colors, champagne, copper and burnished red with a brush then blended it together with a flexible trowel. If you are curious about the technique, let me know and I'll do a tutorial.

 



We did the trim the same as the dining ceiling trim. Once everything was dry, we glazed the ceiling and the trim with the same umber glaze.


Copper metallic tray ceiling

Metallic wax tray ceiling



So which ceiling do you like best?



 



Stunning Pewter Mid Century Gothic Dresser

This might be my favorite dresser make over yet. I briefly considered refunding my client and keeping it. :)

Gothic Pewter Dresser Mid Century

When I saw this dresser, I knew I had to transform it. It has the coolest architectural  lines! I am constantly on the lookout for unusual pieces with interesting details. Many of my aquisitions I list on Etsy in their original state noting they are to be customized. That's the great thing about Etsy. Artist love to do custom commissions for their clients. I like to ponder how I want to transform the piece, so prelisting it gives me plenty of time for that. My vision for this piece was either gloss white with gold accents or gloss black with silver or gold accents. But at last it sold, and when the new owner contacted me she was thinking pewter like a bookcase I had finished some time ago. She had a cool silver mirror and she sent photos.

It looked to be silver leafed to me with a heavy black glaze. So we decided to do the pewter as the main body color and silver leaf all the accent trim and add a black glaze. As always, photos do not do this piece justice. It is stunning! So this is the piece before.

Gothic Dresser Before

The process for this piece is similar to all pieces I transform. I scuff sanded the entire piece and wiped it down. I used a charcoal tinted primer and base coat.

It's a little creepy looking at this point. Don't worry, it get's worse. :) The previous bookcase had bits off red rubbed through so I randomly added some red splotches here and there.

Doesn't it look beautiful now? NOT!
Next, I applied leafing adhesive to all the ornate accents and after that dried about an hour, I started the silver. Here's another piece I silver leafed showing a bit more detail if needed. Silver leafed Chest of Drawers

Next I added a little beeswax to the red areas to aid in the distressing. Then I custom mixed my metallic pewter tint. It's a blend of a dark charcoal color and a warm silver. I coated the top, sides and flat parts of the drawers in this color. I used two coats. After that dried overnight, I used a sanding block to rub off some of the silver showing hints of red.

We used a black oil wash to tone down and darken the piece and to unify the colors.

I used oil because it seems to tone the leafing better than latex or acrylic glazes.
And we are still not done. The final step as always is a polyurethane or varnish. I used an oil satin varnish since we used an oil glaze. This last step really made the piece glow!

So if you've got a ugly, dated bedroom set that you've considered replacing, you should reconsider. Think green and upcycle it to an updated finish. Those old sets transform beautifully and they certainly don't make them that way anymore!

Animal Print Silver and Gold Leafed Side Table

You may remember the small turquoise table I did a little while back http://savardstudios.blogspot.com/2012/04/vintage-turquoise-console-and-side.html. I decided to be a bit crazy with it's mate (although now they don't go together at all!). Such a simple, classic mission style table.

..until I finished with it! Now it's a truly, unique, one of a kind (ooak) side table.

Parts of it are silver leafed, parts are gold leafed. The top was transformed with a zebra print stencil. The legs and drawer were accented with leopard print. The entire table was glazed with a warm brown glaze. Once dry, I polyurethaned the table for durablity, two coats on the top. I used an old cabinet knob and upcycled it by priming, painting, silver leafing, glazing, sealing, then finished it off with black diamond Swarovski cystals. Talk about a blinged out table!! Do you think I'm crazy?! I would love to hear your opinions on my furniture transformations.
Here are the step by step instructions for this table. First I sanded the table and wiped it down. I base coated it with a chocolate brown, furniture grade priming base coat. Color here is not terribly important since I'm covering it with gold and silver leafing. A little color peaks through here and there, but not much. It's classic to do a red base an let a little more color crack through. Here's how the leafing size looks going on. It's milky white but dries clear and sticky.
I did the silver areas first. Once they were leafed, I came back and did the gold areas of the table. After all the leafing was complete, I added the zebra stencil to the top only. 

I used a black glaze for this step because I didn't want it to be solid black. A little more sheer suites my taste better.

Next, I added the leopard stencil to the gold legs and gold drawer face. I think I've mentioned before, I actually hand cut this leopard stencil, many years ago using an exacto knife. I really need to get a new one. There are many places online that will custom make stencils for you. I must do that soon.

Once the stencil design was complete and dry, I glazed the entire table with a warm umber glaze. Love the way this gives the foil a slightly tarnished looked with years of aged beauty and dimension. (Wish I could rub it on me for aged beauty :) ) Since I used oil for this, I let it dry several days before I varnished with an oil satin varnish. The finishing touch on this piece was the upcycled cabinet knob in silver leaf and black diamond Swarovski crystals!

So once again, here's the finished piece.



It's heading over to the Dilworth Blacklion this week. It will be in Booth 409 Eeeklectic Town, www.eeeklectictown.com.  It's already listed on Etsy at www.etsy.com/shop/savardstudios. Shipping on this piece is included. Here's a sneek preview of another clockface table already listed and heading to my booth this week as well. It will be in one of my upcoming blogs!