The Paint Doctor Returns… with a Comb

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art, decorative painting, faux finish, faux wood grain, interior design, painted oak, painting, tools and techniques, trompe l'oeil

Artists use all kinds of tools to get the effects they want, and decorative painting has its own bag of tricks. I remembered this recently when I had to match up a repaired base board to an existing wall which had been wood grained by someone else using some serious comb work.

This woodgraining is part of a fantastic foyer in a client’s apartment. The entire room is faux woodgrain, done in a unique style I’ve never seen before. The combs have created a relief pattern on the surface, so the painted wood is three dimensional, and when you walk into the room, the walls look exactly like real oak.

Here’s a small section of the wall that was painted by another artist. This is a flat wall. The three-dimensional trompe l’oeil effect of the molding is painted.

Here’s a detail. This work is phenomenal. It not only looks like wood, it feels like it, too. The control that the artist had with his combs is impressive. Look at the variations in the colors and how clean and crisp the combing is, with a thin glaze of creamy white on top to knock back the graining and give the effect of whitewashing.

There are all sorts of different combs that can be used to create patterns. Below are a few. The big orange comb on the far left is similar to the one that was used to create the pattern in the walls above. It creates graduating lines that mimic real wood.

Some of the other combs: top left are white and red custom combs that I cut at a specific size for a certain job; the triangular comb has three options; the metal combs come in sets at various tooth widths, and the center bottom orange comb has both pointy and straight teeth.

Below is our patient. A portion of the baseboard has been replaced, and I have to repaint it to match the existing finish. The installers managed to mangle the wall above the baseboard, so that has to be fixed, too. After measuring the comb’s marks, I went home and discovered that I had an almost identical comb. Hooray! If that hadn’t been the case, I would have custom cut a comb to match the pattern.

We start off with taping, floor protection, patch, sand, prime and base coat. Everything in this process is water-based. Next up, a light glaze to create the correct undertone for the combing.

Right away, here we go with the comb. The glaze has to be dark to stand out because there are more layers going on top. I also started filling in the damaged area above the base board using small brushes and liquid acrylics.

The next couple of glaze layers knock back the starkness of the combing while creating an irregular whitewash effect as seen on the rest of the wall.

And here we are, all matched up. That took about two hours and the help of a blow drier.

Combs are commonly used when painting oak, since they break up the figure pattern in a realistic way, mimicking the choppy grain. Below is a sample of painted oak with a very strong figure grain. The vertical lines that scratch through the darker figure pattern and side grain are created by pulling a comb through the wet glaze after the figure pattern and side grain have been completed.

Below is a close up of a European Oak grained door that I’m working on this week. I’m matching this door to the existing wood in a Library. This is the first coat of glaze. The glaze is rolled on, then brushed out with a chip brush. The first comb, a rubber one, has 1/8-inch teeth set 1/8 inch apart. It’s dragged down once, following the curves I’ve created with the brush. This comb is then dragged again at a slightly different angle, which naturally creates moiré patterns. Then a metal comb with much thinner teeth set close together is passed over twice at other slight angles, further breaking down the paint into different organic patterns. This may look complicated, but it’s all done naturally by the combs and perfectly mimics the patterns of the real wood in the rest of the room.

Combs can also be used to create all sorts of pretty patterns that can be glazed onto walls as well. This is a criss-cross combed pattern. First one direction is combed, and after it has dried, the other direction is combed on top. Finishes like this are usually created in muted colors because bright colors would give you a migraine and overwhelm a room. I apologize for all of the beige in this post!

The example below of a striped combed pattern shows a few of the beautiful effects that combs can produce. The irregularity caused by freehand combing is part of the charm. Sometimes levels are used to create perfectly straight combing, especially on large walls. At which point I say, if you want perfection, use wallpaper!

The best part about combs is that if you cut your own, the pattern possibilities are endless.

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A Transformation: From Yellow Sienna Marble to Limestone

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decorative painting, faux finish, faux marble, interior design, marble

Last week, I drew the parameters of a project I was working on in my sketchbook journal. This week, I’ll follow up with the details.

The task: to paint an old marble fireplace to look like limestone, matching stone that was recently installed in the room.

This is the former fireplace. It’s probably a variation of Yellow Sienna marble.

Sorry about the plastic wrap, these are the only photos I have. Here’s a detail.

Still, you can see how strong the yellow and brown marble is, and can probably imagine how this sort of fireplace will insistently draw the eye. If the designer decided to keep this fireplace, he’d have to balance its heavy visual weight with the other elements and furniture in the room, and integrate or balance its color palette.

One way to trick the brain into believing that the soon-to-be painted finish is real is to match a stone that’s in the room. In this case, slabs of limestone were installed in the doorways. This is a shot of the stone.

Since the limestone doorways must be passed through to enter the room, our brains will register their stone, then look at the fireplace and assume it’s real, partly because we’ve just seen the real stone, and partly because we expect a fireplace to be made of stone. Our conscious minds won’t be aware of this process.

Here’s the fireplace, now painted bone white, a blank slate. My two samples are sitting on top, but I’ll work off of the real limestone. My work station is set up off to the right.

The first step, as usual, is to tape off and protect the adjacent surfaces. The base painters, who sprayed on the base coat, had already protected the walls.

Painting most marbles is a process of building up layers of color, which creates visual depth. Marbles can have enormous depth, so generally, the flatter a painted stone looks, the less convincing it will be. That’s why we start with such a light base color, so it can shine up through the translucent layers of darker glaze, creating depth.

Off we go. You’ll see this process from two angles. First, about six or seven layers of acrylic glaze are applied with a damp sponge. The colors are a mix of white, raw umber and raw sienna, with a little black. Here’s the progress of the right-hand column.

Now, the side of the right-hand column. The colors gradually build up, but the base coat needs to show through as well.

Off to a good start. That took a day. Here’s where we stand:

Next up, the detail work that will pull the patterns together and punch up the depth. Out goes the sponge and in comes a little brush. It’s time to link up the patterns of the sponge to create direction and flow. We’re going from general to specific. This will make the stone come to life and will take the better part of a second day.

The blobs are painted with the darkest color that will be used and softened with a badger brush. Then, using a toothbrush, I spatter on the same dark color and a light cream.

Then on top of the dark blobs and the spatter comes the lightest color, a fine web of creamy lines gently pounced on with a barely damp sponge, its patterns joined together with a fine brush. With the darkest and lightest colors right on top of one another, here comes the depth I’ve been working toward.

A coat of matte varnish, and the final result.

It’s hard to see the details of the painted surface in a photo, but it’s easy to see how the mood of the room has completely changed because the stone has changed. We’ve gone from loud to subtle, from old-fashioned to contemporary (well, as contemporary as you can get with columns), and most importantly, we’ve changed the color palette, integrating the fireplace into the room’s new design. Also, we can see the details of the columns caps more clearly, now that they aren’t dominated by the marble’s pattern.

Magic? Not quite. But almost as much fun!

How Do They Do That? Painted Woodgrain

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decorative painting, faux finish, faux woodgrain, interior design, mahogany, oak, rosewood, woodgrain

Apartment doors in New York City have to meet two criteria: they must be fireproof and self closing. A fireproof door can be either a kalamein door, which is wood wrapped in steel, or a hollow core steel door, which is found in newer construction. So no matter where you live, whether on Fifth Avenue or in a tenement building, your front door is made of steel.

What does this have to do with painting wood, you ask? Lots! If you own a gorgeous apartment and your foyer is paneled in mahogany and furnished with all sorts of swanky stuff and your front door is ugly old steel, what do you do? You paint your door to look like the wood in the rest of your foyer, that’s what.

This door has been painted to look like mahogany. The molding is painted as well, to create a 3-D, or trompe l’oeil, effect.

Painting doors as wood grain is one of my favorite projects, and has always been a steady source of work. No matter how much design trends come and go, a front door that’s made of wood (or appears to be) is always beautiful.

This door matches the simple wood closet doors in this entry foyer.

Painting wood seems complicated, but it’s actually not. It’s about two basic things, pattern and color, and once you understand how to see wood in this way, you can imitate almost any wood.

Most woods can be broken down into three layers: the flogging layer, which represents the pore structure, which are the tiny dots that are found in almost every wood; the figure grain, which is the pattern created by the sap; and the toning layer, which is the overall color of the wood. Each layer has a different color and pattern. Therefore, if you can look at the real wood you’re matching and can recognize and visually separate the color and pattern of each of these layers, you can paint them. And if you’ve seen it all correctly, when the layers combine, voila! Wood. Obviously this takes a bit of practice, but once you get it, you’ve got it.

In this working sample, each layer was taped off after completion, so you can see how layers and color build up to create a pattern. In this sample, a fourth layer called the crossfire layer was added. Notice the color of the base coat in relation to the final result. The base coat is always lighter than the final finish while tilting toward the wood’s deepest color. Most woods receive a final coat of varnish as well.

Each layer uses different brushes to create a specific pattern. Here’s a quick sequence of the process of painting a dark straight grain mahogany. I paint wood grain using water-based glaze.

The sample board is painted in a terra cotta colored latex base coat.

The glaze is applied with the chip brush on the right, then flogged with the flogging brush on the left.

The dried flogging layer.

Next, the figure layer glaze is applied. In this case, the figure is a straight grain, so it’s a simple downward drag of the chip brush on the right. The pattern is softened with the badger brush on the left.

Here’s a close up.

The layer needs to dry before continuing. Finally, the overglaze of the toning layer. This is a dark one. The base coat is much lighter so that there’s contrast between the colors, which helps the wood gain depth. The overglaze is applied with a soft spalter brush.

Again, the glaze is softened with the badger brush.

Once the glaze is dry, the surface is varnished with an oil-based satin varnish for more depth and protection.

Here’s another straight grain mahogany in a redder version.

This is a sample of a browner mahogany figure grain.

This wood is anigre. It’s painted with the fourth layer of crossfire over the toning layer.

This is a close up of painted rosewood. I love this wood, it’s so pretty. You can clearly see the specks of the pore structure here.

Wood doors are almost always painted to match other wood in the room and because of this, they are often assumed to be real. Sometimes faux wood molding is painted on as well, as shown in the first photo. Painted wood grain will almost always be mistaken for real wood if it’s painted where one would expect to find real wood. If you’d like to learn more about our lazy brains, it’s explained here in my post about trompe l’oeil.

This is an interior door made of wood. Unfortunately, it was made of the wrong type of wood. I painted it to match the surrounding oak cabinetry of the bathroom. Here you see the completed pore and figure layers.

Here the door is complete, with the final toning layer and varnish.

This is a close up of painted oak.

If you live in an elevator building, the elevator doors are made of steel, too. If you’re lucky enough to have an elevator that opens directly into your apartment, then you may want those doors to match your foyer or entry vestibule as well.

The real wood door is on the left; the painted elevator doors, with faux moldings, on the right.

So the next time you’re in New York, standing in front of an elevator door or an apartment door and you think you’re looking at real wood, look again… you may be wrong!

All in the Family: Inheriting the Paintbrushes

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art, artists tools, craft, family history, faux finishes, fine art, marbling, paintbrushes, wood graining

[I’ll be away on vacation for a short while. Look for my next post in October. Thanks!]

One of the things I like most about decorative painting are the paint brushes. They’re made for every purpose, some designed specifically for certain effects, others so versatile that they can make a wide variety of marks. Here’s my work desk, crammed with cans of chip brushes, fine brushes, stir sticks and a slew of other tools.

When I was in art school about 25 years ago, I received one of my grandfather’s brushes. I don’t remember how it came into my possession, but it’s been with me ever since. It’s huge, with a giant pouff of soft hair.

When I established my business in 1999, I knew that my grandfather and great-grandfather were painters, but I didn’t know that I was a fifth generation painter. I began to get an inkling of the family history when I visited Germany in 2000 for my grandmother’s 90th birthday.

I stopped in to visit my dad’s cousin, Karl Heinz. He said, “Well, if you’re going to continue the family business, there are a few things I need to give you,” and down into the musty old basement we went. Out came a canvas bag full of painting supplies: stipple brushes, boxes of silver leaf, gilding tips, wonderful old brushes with polished wooden handles, metallic powders and hundred of brush tips. Here’s a sample of the bounty. I’ve placed a pencil in the photos for a sense of scale.

I love these old brushes with their wire-wrapped handles.

Although I’ve used a couple of the wire-wrapped brushes for gold leafing, generally I don’t use these brushes at all. They’re more precious to me as keepsakes from my family than they are as tools.

The triple-headed brush on the right is probably for marbling. It has seen better days! Although many of these brushes have been used, the bristles are meticulously clean.

These two brushes are for wood graining, but unfortunately the one on the left is missing one of its heads.

This is a gigantic stipple brush, unused, from its original box. I can’t imagine working with a stipple brush this large — you’d have arm cramps in about ten minutes.

Here comes the avalanche of brushes! I have dozens upon dozens of these brush tips. Each fits into a holder, which I don’t have. I’m not sure what these brushes are for; my instinct is to say for lettering, but if you have other ideas, I’m all ears.

Many of the brush tips were carefully folded inside paper and packed into old cigarette tins.

Another little tin, and a whole variety of brush sizes. It was probably cheaper to buy brush tips than it was to buy an entire brush. Because there are so many tips, it makes me think that they were for one-time use. Otherwise, why have so many? Almost all of them are unused.

When I look at some of the oldest brushes with their weathered handles and little splotches of paint, with their taped up necks and exhausted bristles, I wonder where they spent their days and what has happened to the art they helped create. I think of how far they’ve traveled, from the basement of a house in Bavaria across an ocean to an apartment in New York, that they were purchased to do a job and are now sheltered in old glass jars and little metal tins, retired and admired.

And I think of how odd it is that I became a painter just like my relatives; I decided that a dying profession was the place for me without even knowing the extent of the family history. In the blood? Destiny? Strange coincidence? It remains a mystery.

Start at the Beginning: Basic Decorative Finishes

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color, decorative painting, faux finish, faux finishing, glaze, interior design, parchment, rag, ragging, sponge, sponging, stipple, strie

It’s fun to post photos of challenging glazing projects like marbling fireplaces and wood graining doors. But almost all complex finishes are at least partially based on a few simple techniques.

A glazing technique is either additive or subtractive. An additive glaze is simply applied to a surface with a particular tool, like a sponge. A subtractive glaze is rolled on with a paint roller, then removed with a tool chosen to create a specific pattern. Most glazes are subtractive, and there is variety within each technique. Glazes can be created in any color, and all projects require that the color be custom-mixed for the client.

Above is parchment, where the glaze is removed with cheesecloth. It’s the simplest and most requested finish. Sometimes this is so subtle that I call it The Invisible Glaze. It’s usually painted in a light neutral color as an unobtrusive backdrop to a room’s art, furniture and textiles.

Here’s an example of soft ragging, where the glaze is removed with bunched up cotton rags. That’s followed by a sample of plastic ragging, where the initial cotton ragging is worked over with bunched up plastic to create a harder edge.

The texture of ragging can be very strong and can incorporate more than one color, which is usually not done in a home because it’s overwhelming and draws too much attention to itself. The sample below is a two-color commercial finish, appropriate for a casual restaurant. Ragged finishes are great at hiding an old wall’s less-than-perfect surface.

Above is a strie (French for striped, pronounced “stree-aye”), where glaze is removed by dragging a brush. This can be soft or more pronounced and requires perfect prep on a wall, since every lump, bump and ding will be emphasized by the pattern. Below is steel wool strie, where steel wool is dragged after the brush. This is often used on woodwork.

Below is a stipple, where glaze is removed with a stippling brush, a rectangular or square brush of densely packed hog hair bristles. This is another subtle finish, since the brush creates a pattern without removing much glaze.

And look, it’s in a strong color! For some reason, deep reds are often used in libraries and dining rooms. I’ve tried to use colorful samples in this post, but usually I’m working in a world decorated in shades of pale cream and yellow.

Below, a brushed finish, which is exactly what it sounds like. Love this technique, it’s quick, graceful and playful.

And now the only additive technique, the famous sponging. Sponging was big in the 80s and is still the look many think of when it comes to painted finishes, although I’ve never done it as an overall wall finish. Today, it’s seen more often as a technique used in marbling or faux limestone, as below.

It’s hard to explain how a glazed finish changes a room. Even with a quiet finish, the room feels more alive, the texture creating a layer of movement on the walls. The room feels larger as well, as your eye slows down to acknowledge the pattern, even if your conscious mind doesn’t realize it’s there.

A rare bird: a room with walls glazed in a strong color. Loved this plum! It took two layers of parchment finish to get the depth we wanted, then we varnished it so it was shiny. It was published in House Beautiful magazine in September 2006. I felt like a proud mother!

Setting up an artist’s work space in my apartment

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artists studio, built-in, cabinetry, manhattan, my workspace, new york city, studio, workroom, workspace

I live in a one-bedroom apartment in Manhattan, so needless to say, space is tight. I run my decorative painting business from my place, use the kitchen as a darkroom now and then, and create paper crafts when I have the time. After years of making all of my art on the dining room table and cramming art supplies into tiny closets, it was time to make a decision: either find a studio space to work in that wasn’t on the other side of the river ($$$) , or build something in my apartment to let me work properly. I decided to bite the bullet and build.

I wanted to design a big wall unit for my living room, twelve and a half feet long by eight feet high, and started looking for a cabinet maker. Since it was custom built, here was a chance to get exactly what I needed.

After a lot of sketching and erasing and visiting furniture showrooms to get ideas, I finally saw this piece of furniture below at Room & Board with a 60-inch wide fold-up desk, which sparked a two-desk invisible office idea.

Here was the plan: two work surfaces, a wet desk for making paint samples and a dry desk for computer and paper craft work. Once that was figured out, the rest fell into place.

After starting with the two desks, I added storage space for art and office supplies, file drawers for client files, flat files for pads and decorative papers, a place to hide my printer and scanner, and lots of room for books.

Here’s the wet desk. The white surface is styrene (plastic), easy to wipe and scrape down. The work surface is 20 x 60 inches. I stand when I paint samples.

This is the dry desk. It’s also 20 x 60 inches, but a few inches lower, for sitting.

This is the area between the two desks, with the file drawers, storage for sample boards and skinny drawers for pens and stuff.

Last but not definitely not least, when the day is over, it’s all invisible. The desks fold up so everything can be hidden away and my living room looks like a living room again, although I tend to leave the dry desk open.

I’ve had this now for several years, and it works well for me. The double desk was the answer. As for the darkroom in the kitchen, that’s another story.

Kudos to my awesome cabinet maker, Tyler at Codfish Park Design.

Tools of the Trade

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brushes, decorative painting, faux finishing, painting tools, supplies, tools of the trade

Last year, I decided to it would be fun to keep a sketchbook journal, even though I’ve never been able to maintain a consistent drawing practice for any length of time, despite multiple attempts. I managed to keep it going for about six weeks before I got too busy one week, and then it left my brain forever.

Before that happened, in the flush of enthusiasm during the first week, I drew this diagram of some of my painting tools. The tools change for every job, but the basics are always the same: glaze, solvent, colorant, container, things that put the glaze on the wall, things that take the glaze off the wall, and things that prevent the glaze from getting on things other than the wall.