Transformations - Before and After

Fireplace Remodel 

The objective of this project was to refinish a brick fireplace to make it cleaner and lighter. The brick fireplace was making the room dated and too dark. The best and simplest solution was to create a stone look in a light color to make the room lighter and fairly smooth to make the over all look a little more modern. 

Exterior Mural 

                                         Before ornament was painted. 

After ornament added around the door. Look much better right? 

Turning Sheetrock into Wood 

This was a fun project. Sheetrock ceilings were supposed to look like they have seamless wood paneling installed. We worked on three different ceilings. Ceilings 1 and 2 continue behind the glass, in conference rooms. The entire building has a very creative modern design with simple lines and vibrant colors. The wood imitation ceilings added  warmth and a different dimension to it. Faux wood can be used in many many ways, helping to save financial and environmental resources.
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                                         Ceiling 1

Sheetrock turned wood. :)

                                          Ceiling 2

Faux wood grain on sheet rock. 

                                          Ceiling 3

(Before sheetrock installation)

                                          Ceiling 3 (different angle)

(Before sheetrock installation) 

Custom Fiberglass Door Finishes 

This is our latest fiberglass door refinish. This front door came unfinished with wood grain. We used some of the wood grain already on the door. Most of the wood grain was, however faux painted. A huge difference between what it was and what it is now.

Advantages of wood grain painted doors fiberglass doors:

1. Savings: saving the environment, saving your money as fiberglass doors are less expensive and last longer.
2. The finish is custom and much more authentic looking than factory painted doors.
3. More savings: you can have a custom finished door for about as much as standard factory finish. More authentic factory finishes cost a lot more non factory finished doors.

 

Cabinetry Finishes 

Below is an example of simple cabinetry refinish. Our job was to make the cabinet look new.

Entrance Door Finishes 

This is a mahogany door that completely faded and the varnish got damaged from too much sun. We removed all varnish, stained it and varnished it again. Looks like new. :)

Bathroom Remodel 

Everything in this bathroom needed to be changed, but the floors. The finish is fairly neutral to allow using various accessories and to highlight them. 

1. Walls - gray strie.

2. Ceiling - high gloss dark gray metallic.

3. Dark gray cabinets to matching the ceiling. 

4. Counter top - stone imitation. 

      Counter top before.  

Counter top after. 

   

                             Walls before.                                    Cabinets before.

 

Cabinets after. 

                                                     High gloss ceiling we added.

                 View of the entire bathroom.                          Wall detail. 



Another bathroom needed new tiles. This is how we solved the problem. 

This is a great bathroom remodel idea  if you are not intending to spend a lot of money, but just simply make the tiles look like new. The surface is very smooth, not brush strokes. The final coat is a counter top varnish that is very durable. 

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Saving Remodel Costs with Decorative Finishes

Decorative finishes are generally considered to be a very costly endeavor, however many decorative finish styles can keep your money in your pocket. Below are a few examples demonstrating the use of decorative paint rollers to create a new look and feel without paying for a complete remodel. 

1. Using decorative paint rollers instead of wallpaper. The finish can be very simple, or more artistic, and practically any color, or even multicolor. This method saves money twice: 

• Faster thus less expensive application/no nasty glues and consumers can choose a "green" paint. 
• No need to remove the "wallpaper", when you are ready for a new look. 

2. Using decorative paint rollers to cover uneven walls with hairline cracks: it's less expensive to cover up imperfections with decorative paint rollers than have the wall completely resurfaced; this could be a perfect temporary solution with our earthquake prone geography. Not all patterns would do the job, but the one below is outstanding. 

3. Kitchen remodel: no need to throw the old cabinets out, it's cheaper and faster to have them refinished with an artistic touch such as antiquing. This paint technique allows for use of environmentally friendly paints. Don't send your old kitchen to the dump!!

Overall, simple decorative finishes (ex: an inspiring mural, ornamental designs on a wall or around a fireplace or window, kitchen cabinet refinish) allow home owners to achieve dramatic changes in their living areas, save time and avoid the possible frustration of a complete remodel in addition to saving money and staying green. 

Old and mismatched tiles? Instead of putting in new tiles, you can just repaint the tiles you have. The surface is very smooth, not brush strokes. The final coat is a counter top varnish that is very durable. 

Related blogs:

Saving with decorative finishes 2
Saving with decorative finishes 3


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Furniture Antiquing

We are often asked to create old from new, which is so much different from what we used to do in Europe. In Europe the trend was the other way: the old was turned new or just restored to it's original look. 

Antiquing  is a lot of fun, it's one of my favorite faux finishes. 

In this project we worked on three different pieces of furniture: a dining room cabinet, a bathroom cabinet, and a desk with a hanging cabinet. 

The goal was to make all cabinets look like they used to have several coats of paint. We put on four coats: orange, brown, gray, and dark brown. We used dark soft wax for the final coat. 

Dining room cabinet before finishing. 

.....and this is the final look. 

Drawer detail - we added some gentle crackle effect in some places. 

Cabinet door detail. 

The bathroom cabinet before refinishing. 

.......and when it's done. There was marble counter top added later and nice tiles, which further enhanced the look of the cabinet. 

The bathroom cabinet door detail. 

......and here a  little step by step showing the desk. 

The desk before.....

After the first coat of paint. 

After the final coat of dark brown. 

.....and the final look. 

eva@decorpaintingbyjozef.com

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Sherwin Williams Colormix 2014

I really like color stories by Sherwin Williams created for 2014. Sherwin Williams introduced four color stories: Reasoned, Intrinsic, Curiosity, and Diaphanous. We created some color combination ideas using these colors. We chose Curiosity color story to start with.

We used Show Stopper with Sealskin for this example. Sealskin is a very dark brown color. When we combined it with red, it appeared rather charcoal gray.

For this fun pattern we used the following colors: Sealskin (dark brown), Peacock Blue (teal), Anew Gray (light gray), Library Pewter (light brown). As you can see Sealskin appears to be much lighter and a bit more brown in this color combination. 

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