Blog

Getting Bids: A View From the Other Side of the Fence

December 13, 2011 by Eric Deeter

When people ask us to give them a bid we sometimes correct them and say that we call it a “proposal”. The idea of “bidding” feels like one of those cheesy TV shows like “The Bachelor” where women compete to be chosen for a marriage proposal. Usually people getting bids look for the lowest price first & foremost. So we usually respond that we won’t be the lowest in price for faux finishing their home. But if someone is looking for value for their money, we can give them plenty of reasons why we should do the job.

We have seen some of the nightmares people have gone through because they chose the lowest price bid. We’ve had to go in a fix some of those jobs too. The job then ends up costing more because we have to undo the mistakes of the low bid faux finish & then start fresh and do the job right.

And now we are on the other side of the fence as we rehab our new place in Kansas City. We are almost ready to hang the sheetrock. We’re not going to do it ourselves this time, so we’re talking to drywall contractors. We are also working with a tight budget, so price is important. We’ve received 2 proposals and are waiting on 2 more. The second proposal we received was double the cost of the first. This would have been a concern for us, but the lower proposal came from a referral. The second proposal came from a social media contact–one step above picking a name out of the Yellow Pages.

I asked questions about the lower priced contractor from my referral source. What quality of work do they do? Do they work quickly? Are they messy? The higher priced contractor didn’t have that kind of referral, but then again, he didn’t try to sell me on his value either. In fact, some of the things he said about the job put Brenda off even before we knew the price. We weren’t likely to use him even if he had the lower proposal.

The two other contractors we’re talking to are also from referrals. We shall see where they come in on the price vs. value scale. We will make our decision the way that we ask our clients to decide if we can create a faux finish for them–who will give us quality workmanship and get the job done with the least amount of hassle for us and with the least amount of mess in our home?

Powder Room Completed

December 9, 2011 by Eric Deeter

Brenda completed the Luster Stone faux finish in the Overland Park home. The first steps were in a previous post. The final finish is so subtle that video didn’t do it justice.

The picture above was taken with indoor light and no flash. The orange tone isn’t so prominent in real life. The pictures that follow were taken with a flash and with sunlight coming in the window. These colors are a little more true.

There is a slight texture underlying this faux finish. In the picture above it is more prominent because of the angle of the light coming in the window.

The clients are happy and this faux finish will give them a lot of years of good looks and style.

Faux Finish Update for Refaced Kitchen Cabinets

December 7, 2011 by Eric Deeter

Have you ever made a decision you really knew you shouldn’t have? And then sometime later you realize your gut instincts were correct and now you’re stuck with the result of a bad decision. This was the problem our clients faced.

Several years before they had their kitchen cabinets refaced. They used a local Kansas City company for the job. Refacing is a process that overlays the base cabinets with a veneer of wood and then puts on new doors and drawers in the same new wood. The advantage is that the cost is usually less than totally replacing your kitchen cabinets.

Our clients had ordered the new doors and drawers & were excited to get an updated look for their kitchen. But there was a problem when the order arrived. The color wasn’t quite right–it was lighter than what they had ordered. So the company gave them a discount because of the error & the decided they could live with the lighter color.

But after a few years they realized they should have stuck with the color they originally wanted. They felt stuck. The cabinets were still in good shape. They didn’t want to spend the money for another cabinet refacing job. So they called Brenda and asked what a faux finish might do to help them fall in love with their kitchen cabinets again.

The faux finish glazing process we use was a perfect solution for them. Our cost is much less than cabinet refacing, and they decided it was worth the investment to have us transform their kitchen cabinets.

The faux finish overglaze process we use keeps the wood grain of the kitchen cabinet doors visible. There is no stripping of the finish and no heavy sanding involved. Our glaze and clearcoats are water based and low odor. We saw that our faux finish process was perfect for these previously refaced cabinets. We saw that the new doors that had been installed in the cabinet refacing were not as high a quality as the typical kitchen cabinet doors we see on new or even most existing cabinets. Instead of real wood, they were a composite material with a veneer overlay. If we had tried to strip off the finish or do much sanding we would probably have ruined the veneer and been in serous trouble.

Our clients were thrilled with the result and loved the fact that they finally had the kitchen they dreamed of.

New Faux Finish Over Old Faux Finish

December 6, 2011 by Eric Deeter

When we started doing faux finishes “sponge painting” was the all the rage. We took training and practiced a lot so that we could produce quality faux finishes with a sea sponge. And we saw a lot of other people’s finishes that were just ugly. Even faux finishes that use simple tools have to be done with skill and an artist’s eye. We saw faux finish trends change and evolve over the years. And we’ve worked to stay ahead of the faux finish trends. Usually by the time a faux finish trend became the hot new thing in Kansas City we had already been doing it for months.

This week Brenda is painting over a faux finish in a powder room in an Overland Park, KS, neighborhood. It was a faux finish that was popular 10 years ago or so.

Brenda painted the ceiling gold and is painting a red base coat over the old faux finish. The next layer is Luster Stone rolled on. Brenda says that the process looks deceptively easy because it uses a sea sponge roller. However, if she doesn’t use the right touch the Luster Stone will go on the wall in blobs rather than the random pattern she needs.

She has 2 more layers to complete. This layer looks like the old sponge painting we used to do, but the pattern of this layer will add subtle variations in the final look. The next 2 layers will be a troweled finish using red Luster Stone. Luster Stone is a metallic plaster product that has a slight, soft shimmer and a smooth, soft finish to the touch. It is super durable and sticks to almost anything. We’ve used it on floors and counter tops. With this kind of durability I’m sure that the final finish will be looking good even into the next faux finish decorating trend. Perhaps we’ll be around to re-faux this bathroom again.

Family Room Transformation

December 4, 2011 by Eric Deeter

Usually our faux finish projects deal with one or two elements of a room, such as walls or kitchen cabinets. But sometimes we get to transform an entire room. That’s what we got to do on this project. Our client was ready for a new look in her family room. Her house was a 1960s or so vintage raised ranch in Liberty, MO. She was tired of the dark wood in the family room as well as the wall color.

She was also tired of the red brick on the fireplace and the rough cedar beam that served as a mantle.

The walls had a heavy texture that must have been a stucco or concrete material because sandpaper wouldn’t touch it. We scrapped the sharp edges off and painted it a neutral color. We also worked on the ceiling beams and did a faux finish glaze to lighten them up.

The entertainment center got some modifications in the trim–we took down some of the rough cedar and put up a simple crown molding. This took away the rustic look and fit in with our plan to give it a cleaner appearance.

We did our typical prep work of cleaning, sanding, priming. But in this project we had to do the same to the masonry of the fireplace as well. Eric was also at work crafting a new mantle to slide over the rough cedar beam. The mantle was prepped in the same way as the rest of the cabinets.

After painting and the faux finish glaze, the mantle and entertainment center looked totally different.

The brick on the fireplace didn’t receive an overall faux finish. We merely painted them with a white semi-gloss paint. Except for the bricks around the hearth. Those got a faux finish treatment of a bronze metallic. The contrast really sets off the hearth giving a clean, modern look.

In addition to all of this, we painted the chair rail and added baseboard in place of the quarter-round trim that was there previously.

Our client finished off the transformation with a new area rug. We had a lot of fun working on this project. It’s great to see this kind of decorative makeover. It’s even better when we get to help our client put the ideas together so we can create it.

Faux Finish Backsplash Coming Soon

December 1, 2011 by Eric Deeter

Brenda is working with a client in the south part of the Kansas City metro, planning for a faux finish backsplash over existing ceramic tile. So in this blog post we won’t have pictures, but I’m excited about this project because I think it will be cool. Our client has builder-grade white 4′-square tile for her backsplash. We did a faux finish on the cabinets a while back & our client made plans to update the tile back then. Well–the time has come!

Some people think that you can’t put anything over the top of ceramic tile. This may have been true years ago, but no longer. We have products to prime ceramic tile so that we can do our faux finish magic and give almost any look. Brenda used the same process on the faux finish limestone mantle we talked about in a previous post.

Back to the upcoming project: Brenda has a particular dislike for 4″ white tile for a kitchen backsplash. “It looks cheap” is her feeling about it. And we lived with it for far too long at our last house, so she really, really dislikes it. In our house we didn’t do a faux finish over the tile, but now, looking back, we probably would.

So our client is ready to change her tile. We have 2 options. We can leave the layout of the tile the same–square. Or we can use a special compound to fill in the grout lines and start with a flat surface. This will give us the freedom to lay out and tape new “grout lines” on a diagonal and then add some 2″ square button tiles as accents. Of course, the “tile” will be our own creation using faux finishing techniques.

As always, during this time of year, we will get this done for our client so they are ready for Christmas and New Years celebrations. And because we will be doing faux finish tile, our clients won’t have to live through the mess of tearing out the old tile and drywall.

Faux Finished Fireplace Mantle Goes From French Chateau to French Country

November 22, 2011 by Eric Deeter

We have been privileged to work with some great interior designers. George Steele owner of George Steele Interiors is one of the most knowledgeable ones we know. He recently called us to journey from Kansas City to Topeka to see a fireplace mantle.

From MorningStar Studio

He explained to us that this style was close to “French Chateau”: it had marble tile. He wanted a look that was “country French”: all limestone. But his clients didn’t want to go to the expense and mess of tearing out the old fireplace and installing new limestone. George explained some history of French design and how the French never made mantles out of wood (because of the fire risk). Then he took us to a local company that carved amazing shapes out of the Kansas limestone. Brenda got a good idea of what he wanted as we oohed & ahhed over the craftsmanship of these pieces.

Brenda began the job by using a special primer to adhere to the marble tile. Then she used a texture to mimic the feel of carved and polished limestone. Layers of glaze followed, making it look like the limestone had been there for years.

From MorningStar Studio

After a couple of coats of dead flat varnish it is ready to go. The clients and designer are happy. And it looks just like the carved limestone pieces we saw at the stone company.

We’ve Moved to Kansas City

November 11, 2011 by Eric Deeter

Picture of a moving truck should be here

We’ve moved. We didn’t leave the Kansas City metro, but we moved from Shawnee to Kansas City, KS. Since MorningStar Faux Finish Studio is a home-based business, we doubled our work in the process. We faced a lot of difficulties along the way and emotional ups and downs. If you ask, we’ll tell you the story sometime.

We bought a bank-owned house just north of the Legends in Wyandotte county. The neighborhood is 20 years old and many of the original owners still live here. The house was full of mold and needed a lot of work. Brenda used her unique vision for renovation and design to plan some extensive changes. We filled a 30-yard dumpster just to get rid of the mold.

From Rehab

There are a lot of faux finish artists in the Kansas City metro who don’t truly understand the emotional stress that their clients go through by having their living space renovated. Change is hard. And having your living space out of whack isn’t easy. But we aren’t like those folks. We’ve lived through extensive renovations before & we’re doing it again. We won’t have a kitchen here for a couple more months.

From Rehab

Brenda has a temporary studio in what will be the family room. We are able to still serve our clients and give good quality service and workmanship. We just have a project of our own.