Faux finish projects
Powder Room Completed
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 Backsplash Coming Soon
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
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.
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| 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.
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| From MorningStar Studio |
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| From MorningStar Studio |
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| 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.