Faux Finishing, Decorative Plastering and Commissioned Art for
the Del Mar house.
This job started out just as so many of my jobs do. I was called in by Christie a designer I work with to come out and take a look at a beautiful 10,000 square foot home that was under construction among the scenic hills and horse ranches in Del Mar.
A winding road overlooking the valley led me to the house’s gates. As I followed the designer’s through the gates and up to the drive way I could not yet tell that there was just as much house underground as there was above, for there are few homes that are built with basements here in Southern California. Before long, Barbra, the homeowner, greeted us warmly and led us to the areas that she and the designer wanted me to work on.
The entire house was bustling with workers of every trade imaginable. We walked past stacks of walnut flooring ready to be installed in the “great room” – aptly named, as it had thirty foot ceilings and a pair of sliding glass doors that looked out over the hills and out towards the Pacific.
Barbara took us past the formal dining room and I could see that there were three large niches built into the walls. The designer explained that they would like to have these niches painted. They wanted an Old World look with a smoky aged blue background and freehand gilded gold vines moving throughout the niches. During our conversation I pulled out samples of finishes that I had done in the past to show some of the other possibilities for these areas.
Barbra instantly fell in love with my samples of ‘Luster Stone’, a metallic decorative plaster that shimmers depending on how the lighting hits it. ‘Luster Stone’ comes in many different colors. Barbra especially loved the copper and the champagne samples that I had, and I was already planning how I would start this part of the project.
What happened next was quite unexpected.
Barbra told me that she and her husband were looking into doing some faux finishing and possibly a Venetian plaster in parts of the house; she asked if I would be willing to go around the house and talk about the possibilities of what could be done. How could I say no? As we walked around her beautiful home, I offered up numerous ideas. We finally settled on four finishes we felt would be appropriate. I was asked to come back in one week’s time with samples and a bid.
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I returned the next week with samples and bid in hand. I had put a lot of work into creating the finishes, and it showed. Barbra and the designer were thrilled, and they asked me to extend some of the finishes to more areas of the house. The following week Barbra and her husband signed a contract with me and gave me a deposit to start the work. I was thrilled! The job had grown from just a couple of niches to fauxing and plastering just over 4,000 square feet! There was only one problem – and again, what happened next was quite unexpected.
As I stood in the ‘great room’ wondering where I should start this colossal project, I happened to look up at the very high ceiling. I noticed that most of the ceiling was made up of wooden beams; the owners had an old bridge in Canada taken down and the wood was milled and reclaimed. It still had mineral staining form the metal rods, pins, and tension wires that had held it together, giving the wood a lot of character. But because the wood was not stained or sealed, we could not start finishing the walls until this was addressed.
I asked Patrick, the house’s builder, what he had planned for the ceiling. He told me that it would need to be stained and sealed, but he had not yet found a contractor to do it. Here’s the unexpected part: He immediately asked me if my crew and I would be interested in doing this, and to give him a bid on the job.
I thought about it for a minute and figured that even though it wasn’t the type of work we typically do, it would be a great learning experience. I also knew that the ceiling was standing in the way of getting started on the walls, and that we could start on the walls much sooner if we finished the ceiling ourselves rather than waiting for another contractor to come and do it. Within days I had a bid for Patrick, and we got started the on the ceilings the following week.
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This job had grown from niches to wall finishes, and now included ceilings. I didn’t know at the time, but this incredible house in Del Mar would turn out to be one of the biggest jobs I have done to date.
Within three weeks we completed the ceiling, and I looked forward to starting some of the wall finishes. However, as this was a house under construction, things didn’t always go according to plan.
Other contractors had work to do, and this meant pushing back our finishing until they were able to complete their work. During this time Patrick came to me and told me that the parts of the house that weren’t getting wall treatments would need to have regular painting done. There were also endless amounts of wooden base boards and over seventy wooden doors that would need to be stained and sealed. So, once again we were asked if we would be interested in bidding on these other jobs.
Within a week we were off and running, staining and painting the rest of the house. Here’s an idea of what we were in for:
The house consists of six bedrooms, twelve bathrooms, a dining room, and a formal dining room. Then there is the foyer and the ‘great room’; there is also a beautiful gallery/hallway which has sweeping arches that connect the adjoining rooms. Let’s not forget about the kitchen and the office. And that’s just the upstairs!
There is also a basement which has a theater, game room, exercise room, and a wine room with adjoining tasting room. There are also more minor rooms, walk-in closets, and garages that make up the remainder of the house.
As you can see, we had our work cut out for us and we hadn’t even started any of the faux finishing or decorative plaster work we were hired to do in the first place!
Halfway through the regular painting and the staining we got the go ahead to start the faux finishing. By this time the other contractors were primarily done with construction work, leaving the house open for us to move our scaffoldings about the house freely. At this time I brought in another crew to tackle the wall painting. I was now running two crews and working ten to twelve hour days. But we got everything done on time and on budget. All that was left was the faux finishing and the Luster Stone plastering, which turned out to be a unique challenge.
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The homeowners and I had settled on two different shades of faux finishing for the house. The first shade was a golden beige and would be applied in the master bathroom and master bedroom; we also used this color in the theater and in the wine tasting room. The second color, which was more golden ochre with a touch of red, was applied in the great room, dining room, and the kitchen area. This part of the job took us two weeks to complete.
With the faux finishing out of the way we were ready to start on the Luster Stone plaster. This would be the most difficult, laborious, and time-consuming step in the project, since the Luster Stone was going on much of the wall space in the house – including the ceilings throughout the home. Some of the best architectural features of the house are all the different ceilings and archway – and there are plenty of them in this sprawling house. Aside from the open beam wood ceilings there are also coffered, cathedral, barrel, and arched ceilings – all of which received Luster Stone.
Unlike the faux finishing, Luster Stone is a heavy bodied plaster that gets applied with special stainless steel trowels. Two to three coats are required, depending on the depth of color and the outcome you are looking for. But the finished product is worth the effort; there are few finishes that compare with the warmth and elegance of Luster Stone.
Imagine applying plaster on a curved convex surface with straight trowel. It’s like putting a square peg into a round hole. Figuring out how to apply the Luster Stone this way took a lot of ingenuity on our part; however, we figured it out and the outcome is nothing short of spectacular.
[CLICK FOR SOME PHOTOS HERE – MORE IN THE NEXT ENTRY?]
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The Del Mar project took eight months to complete in all – which was right on schedule – and came to an end just before Christmas. My crew and I had much to celebrate. We had just completed the largest residential job we had ever done, during one of the worst recession years in history.
[CLICK FOR PHOTOS OF COMPLETED HOUSE]
I’ve been a decorative artist for over seventeen years, working everywhere from private homes to the Old Globe Theater in San Diego. I have done everything from murals to faux finishing and, in recent years, decorative plasters – the hottest trend in the faux finishing world. But this house will feature the most impressive tribute to my skills so far: The harmonizing of my commercial painting with my fine art painting.
With the house completed and the owners moved in, I have again been commissioned by them to paint fine art that will cover the numerous and large walls throughout the house. The artwork will consist of abstracts and representational work: landscapes, seascape and dreamscape paintings – all of which will use colors that will precisely complement the colors of the home.
To learn more about this home in Del Mar, California or to learn more about my commercial and fine art painting, click [WHATEVER LINKS YOU WANT HERE].
