A Rustic Plaster Wall, an Antiqued Bookcase and a Great Client and Friend

I love it when one of my clients becomes a friend. She was a great client to work for (a little picky, but  she knows what she wants and she’ll wait to find the right furniture piece, the right wall finish etc).  For her wall finish, I must have created 12 or more samples for her – and she almost chose a rich olive metallic plaster (this was before she got the beautiful bookcase) but decided on this beautiful light and warm  rustic plaster instead.

Here’s a close up. I first repainted the room then applied a rough textured plaster (FauxTex by Faux Effects) here and there around the space – then I troweled on a smooth  plaster (OVilla by Faux Effects) – leaving some of the rough plaster showing.  Then I lightly glazed the entire room with a mix of ochre yellow and raw umber.  The glaze reacts differently on the smooth and rough plaster giving it that crumbling, peeling layer look. Every now and again I had to go back over the rougher plaster with more glaze because it tended to absorb it a bit more.  We then painted and antiqued all the moldings in the room.

When my friend and client, Adele, went down south about 6 months after we did the finish, she found Tara Shaw’s furniture store – and she fell in love with this piece (but the real one, not the replica as this is). She just had to have it.  So, months later after ordering – the piece arrived.  It looked beautiful in this great room, which is a huge space with 20 foot ceilings.  The piece was delivered in the late spring – but by the end of the summer it was cracking in many places.  It must have been the temperature differences – not sure if that was the only reason…but the company made good and delivered another piece to her home and retrieved the damaged one.

The antique books (all faux ones!) look great in the bookcase. You don’t want anything to distract your eyes away from this gorgeous piece.  The finish is a colored gesso, that’s been antiqued (and the moldings drybrushed off-white and gray).  I will be doing a sample of this soon – let me know if you’d be interested in learning how to do the finish on this piece! I’ll be doing it with Annie Sloan’s Chalk Paint and wax.

I will be doing another bathroom in this beautiful home in a week – so be on the lookout for that. It’s a gorgeous guest bath, done in Carrera marble,whites and grays.  I will be adding a Crushed Pearl metallic plaster to the walls.

My friend Adele told me this morning that she is thinking about moving to Florida.  I can’t believe it (and I so hope she changes her mind!). Who will I go to the New York Gift Show with…and all the Designer Showhouses?  She loves to talk design endlessly and we have become so close.  Plus – how can she leave all the beautiful walls I did for her? I have to help her change her mind!