Faux finishes--are they gone yet?

I don't know when faux finishes became popular, but I know the guy decorators of our place were here before 1990. Most of the faux is gone now except for one tiny room. We discovered sanding down a faux comb glaze was virtually impossible and spread dust throughout the house, so we ended up just painting over it and having an odd texture show through the new paint.

The walls used to be the color of the blue carpeting, with a comb glaze.

According to the WSJ, the new color for 2011 is sort of a hot pink; the color for 2010 was turquoise. Not sure what khaki and peanut are, but that and this very pale gold will be with us for awhile.

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Here we go again!

We're closing in on the last room of the home we moved into five years ago. The gay decorators who lived here in the 90s were fabulous and successful, I'm sure, but the brown living room, orange dining room, red family room, and dark hunter green and black guest room (all with a faux glaze with ceilings to match the walls) were a bit over the top for us, especially with enough yards of heavy drapes at the windows to canopy Scioto Downs. Now we're about to tackle the master bedroom which is dark blue with a lighter comb glaze, or maybe it is gray with a dark blue glaze.

This is the new bedspread--sort of a blue and creamy ivory and pale green
It's never easy, is it? There are light fixtures that should be replaced, holes in the walls that will need to be patched from the removed drapery rods, a medicine cabinet that must have cost all of $10 when new, and bathroom marble tile that won't exactly work with the paint I've picked out. I'm guessing the patching and light fixtures and new mirror will run us $1,000, and that's before we even buy the primer. To make matters more complicated, the comb faux glaze has a texture that may not cover properly.

When the painter (recommended by a friend) came by to give us an estimate, he brought his tiny, preemy baby (I weighed more than he does when I was born). Originally, he and his wife were in this business together, but now she has a "regular" job and the baby was a surprise. Then the mother-in-law from out of state to help out until July, but she got sick and was hospitalized and is now in a local nursing home.

Goodness. I guess funny wall colors isn't much of a problem to have, is it?

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It's not easy being Green

But the money's good. All the architectural journals have been green for years. But there's a lot of disagreements--afterall, just the concept of an architect means someone is building something for someone richer than he is. Green can still mean home theater, heated swimming pool and 3-car garage, just ask Al Gore or John Edwards. Think "P". Politicians. Pile-on. Professionals. Preaching. Petroleum-free. Products. Planning. Protection. Program. Projects. Plants. Positive. Profit. Performance. Productivity. No-Problem. Prove-it.

And Paint. There's a company with "gender neutral" paint colors that are also eco-friendly. YOLO Colorhouse comes in six gender-neutral colors, mildew resistant and scrubbable, inspired by spring flora. And you can reuse and recycle the large poster size swatches by converting them to gift wrap. I didn't look up the prices, www.yolocolorhouse.com but I'm guessing only the rich buy this product, and they probably don't recycle gift wrap.

When we were bottom-quintilists, i.e. poor, we used to use old architectural blueprints as gift wrapping paper--with a little white ribbon it was quite attractive, but I think that process isn't used anymore. Too many chemicals probably. If only someone had thought to promote blueprints as gift wrap.

Poetry Thursday #10

This week’s (completely and totally optional) idea is simply: Red.

I was really stumped. It's not a favorite color. The word makes me think Communist, blood, anger, flag and . . . walls. The walls of our condo when we bought it. High-end, very expensive, Architectural Digest walls. Orange dining room, brown living room and red family room--each with multiple faux glazes, each with matching ceilings. So here's some silliness; just some fun about seeing red.



Decorator Red
by Norma Bruce
March 5, 2007

"Do the walls have to be so red?"
she said.

Decorators, a team,
had a bad color scheme
a bit off the beam,
'twas sometime before
we opened the door.

They’d toned it down with faux,
a touch of gold, just so.
"Why didn’t they know
it reflected pink
in the bathroom sink?"

"The floral drapes are mauve and peach,"
she’d screech.

"Carpet is green and thick,
hearth is a reddish brick.
I just might get sick--
clashes so with red
now hurting my head."

"These walls drive me wacky,"
he mumbled, "By cracky,
Let's paint them khaki."
"Good-bye to the red,"
she agreed and said.