Stuff I Painted

Ocean Blue with an aged finish

2010-01-08T20:42:00.005-06:00

Husband wants a sky blue laundry room with clouds. Wife wants the laundry room to flow with the rest of the house.

Compromise?

Take the subtle teal-blue tones from the faux tile fireplace niche I painted for them in the family room into the laundry room,

then give it an aged finish that will somewhat mimic the faux finish I painted for them in the kitchen.

The picutres aren't great, and I want to get some more after they decorate in there. I suggested a travel theme with vintage, aged travel posters and old maps. If I get back over there, I'll post some updated shots.

The finish is pretty straight forward. Base coat with blue satin paint, then glaze over with burnt umber glaze. Moving the washer and dryer and getting behind there? Not so easy...

American Girl Outfits

2009-12-13T21:44:00.019-06:00

We interrupt the regularly scheduled (okay not regular or scheduled) painting posts to post some doll clothes pictures.

I promised some friends that I would post the clothes here so I wouldn't be sending one giant picture laden mass email. If you're interested in any of these, please email me at katdishrich@gmail.com

My mom made all of the outfits shown here. My daughter has MANY outfits and I can attest to the fact that they are beautifully made with amazing attention to detail.

And now for the doll clothes...

This is for display only...

Kimono $25

Kimono $25

2 piece pj set $15

3 piece pj set $25

3 piece pj set $20

2 piece pj set $15

3 piece pj set $20

poodle skirt and top $15

green dress $15

2 piece set orange $15 SOLD

2 piece set coral $15 SOLD

purple gingham $15

red pindot dress $15

Dorothy Dress 1 $15

Dorothy Dress 2 $15

teal and white suit $15

purple dress $15

tan and blue check dress $15

black and pink party dress w/petticoat $25

denim outfit $15

back detail on jacket

div>fiesta set $15

poodle skirt and top $15

flower girl dress $35

back view

petticoat

dressy dress (back) $20

front view

Spring dress Size 7 w/matching doll dress $50

Space Cadet

2009-10-03T15:45:00.004-05:00

It's been a long time since I posted anything here. I've really cut back on my painting jobs, but I really enjoyed this last one. The room was already painted light blue, so we simply did a dark blue wash over the walls.

The room is rather small, so I decided to use only three rather large elements - the moon, a space shuttle and a fun little rocket ship:

Football Room

2009-05-21T00:06:00.003-05:00

My client wanted something to reflect her son's love of football, but not anything overpowering. Good advice, by the way - kids grow out of themed styled room.

This is a super easy project. One wall painted red. Overhead projector with a football player. Black paint and brushes. Done.

Faux Wood Finish

2009-05-06T19:54:00.003-05:00

Problem: Dark room with rich, earthtones all around save for a white closet that sticks out like a sore thumb.

Solution: Work with the fake woodgrain texture on the door to create something that fits into the room better.

Elephants!

2009-05-02T21:18:00.002-05:00

This room was already painted. The little girl just wanted some elephants and a small color change. I'll post the accessories on a later post.

Bunny Nursery

2009-04-26T23:33:00.004-05:00

Bunny on cavas that I gave as a baby gift to my neighbor.

Isaiah Nursery

2009-04-25T13:55:00.003-05:00

This is one of three nurseries I painted at Grace Presbyterian Church and by far my favorite one. I have included some before pictures here:

And here's some after pictures:

No Girls Allowed

2009-04-23T23:23:00.006-05:00

This is a room makeover for my friend's son. I also stripped wallpaper and retextured the walls in the bathroom and bedroom with a sand finish. (Kind of a Desert Storm thing going on there.) I can't say this enough - Wallpaper, nothing personal, but I hate you.

I think it's funny that he was pretty insistent on having the "No girls allowed" sign in his room. In a couple of years, he's going to want to paint over it, and his mom is going to be saying, "No...I actually like that."

Second Grade Musical!

2009-04-22T21:06:00.006-05:00

For those of you who wandered over here from my other blog, this is the stage where I death gripped a ladder as it slid down the giant wall of paper. How high was I? Let me put it this way - If I was in the below picture on said ladder, you could only see my calves and feet sticking out from that tan curtain on the top of the photo. That's also why the paper is a tad wrinkly.

And yes, that adorable little gal followed by three boys is my daughter and one of the stars of the show. No, she's not short. Those boys are just freakishly tall. I suppose that's why they were cast in the roles as teachers. I think my daughter got the role because she's really bossy.

Everything piece of scenery you see here was created with giant rolls of paper, paint, staples, velcro tape, pink insulating 4' x 8' foam sheets from Home Depot and an overhead projector. Except for a little bit of shading here and there, it takes no great artistic skills to create this set - just a little imagination and several boxes of staples. The car, beach ball, tent and "Play Ball" sign are all cut out of the foam sheets with a box cutter. It gives the set dimension. It also allows me to work on stuff in my garage instead of the school gym. Today was the first performance. Tomorrow night is the big show. Can't wait!

This looks way cuter when it's covered with kids wearing baseball uniforms.

Here's the tent in progress.

Pink, pink and Zebra = Girly Room!

2009-04-22T00:01:00.002-05:00

Generally speaking, my clients don't employ the services of a decorator. One of my favorite things about what I do is the brainstorming process. If the client has already selected bedding for the space, it's usually smooth sailing. It wasn't exactly a giant leap to figure out how this room would be painted. The previous owners of this house had already installed the border trim, so after a coat of primer to cover the dark blue and dark green paint on the walls, we simply color matched the two pinks from the comforter.

I spray painted the iron bed black. The side table is from IKEA. To make the zebra print on the top, I covered it with clear contact paper, drew the zebra stripes with a sharpie, cut out every other stripe with an exacto knife, then spray painted it white. When I removed the remaining contact paper -- presto! Zebra top table!

I did not want to paint the furniture. It was beautiful, high quality oak furniture in perfect condition. But in the end, the girl needed furniture, the client was downsizing to a smaller house, and it actually turned out much better than I expected. Since this was one of several projects I was working on for this particular client, and she wanted it all finished before she moved in, I subcontracted out the painting of the furniture to a friend. He was more appauled at the thought of painting it black than I was, but he did it. He was a life saver! The drawer pulls were originally brass, but I've found this amazing little product called "Rub-n-Buff" that I used for the new patina.

The last little project to finish with this room were some zebra stripes painted on some white, Pottery Barn letters:

Dumpster diving with Katdish

2009-04-21T00:01:00.001-05:00

I suppose there's a certain gift to being able to look at something (or someone for that matter) and be able to see what might be; to be able to see a diamond in the rough. I find myself doing this all the time.

Check out these before and after pics:

Why the color scheme? It was going back into this room:

In my defense, I know the border looks unfinished, but she actually wanted it that way! (Just saying...) I know better than to argue with a teenage girl. Whatever!

The "All things Jack" table and chairs

2009-04-20T00:01:00.003-05:00

New clients are fabulous. Having said that, there's something to be said for doing work for a friend that knows you well enough to give you an unfinished kids table and chairs set from IKEA, a favorite picture of a nursery rhyme, and tells you, "I trust you." That's just all kinds of awesome.

My friend Sherrie wanted to get her grandson a very special gift for his first birthday. His name is Jack. Sherrie is a teacher. Several years ago, a mom gave her a picture of the Jack and Jill nursery rhyme. That was the inspiration for this table and chair set.

I took the pictures of this work in my dining room. I realize the red is a bit overwhelming, but imagine the table in a little boy's room or in a kitchen.

A word of advice: If you use paint pens, be careful! I found out the hard way that some of them will bleed horribly when you clear coat the piece. I had to remove all the wording and hand paint it all over again! The pens ended up costing me more time in the long run.

Sharkbait's Reef

2009-04-19T20:29:00.009-05:00

I did this mural last summer for my friend Julie's daughter. The sea turtle is my favorite, the mermaid is my least favorite. But her daughter loved all of it, so that makes me happy.

Noah's Ark Church Nursery

2009-04-19T00:01:00.003-05:00

This was by far my most ambitious project to date. This was done before I had anyone to help me. Fortunately, the director of the church's nursery rooms is a very good friend of mine, and she pretty much told me to take all the time I needed to finish. Good thing. It took awhile...

I painted three nurseries, all with bible themes. Here's the first one.

1) Noah's Ark:

The worst part about taking pictures at public building is the lighting. It's really hard to get a picture that doesn't look all washed out a greenish-yellow. Plus, the camera I took the pics with isn't great. Oh well, enough excuses! I still think it came out pretty cute! This was the first of three nurseries. I'll post the other two soon...

Ralph Lauren Leather Finish

2009-04-18T13:58:00.002-05:00

This master bedroom was my first attempt at a leather faux finish. If you're going to attempt this, I have a bit of advice before you get started:

If you tend to be a perfectionist; a detail oriented person, attempting this finish may drive you a little crazy. Different parts of the wall are going to look different -- that's sort of the point.

Ralph Lauren makes a quality product, but the glaze dries very quickly. It is nearly impossible to do this finish by yourself. It's really a two person job: One person to apply the paint, and another to use the stipple tool to work the glaze into the wall. I think I may have given up had my friend and fellow painter Desiree not been there to help and encourage me.

Even with two painters and a good system worked out, there will still be some places where you will have to go back and feather out the lines.

Have I talked you out of it yet? I hope not! But seriously, do a rather large sample board before you attempt to tackle this project on a large scale!

First, you apply the base coat:

I forget the name of this color, but it is a really great shade.

Then you must complete the dreaded and horrid task of taping the molding. I HATE taping! But you just have to tape when you're doing a faux finish. If someone knows a way around it, please let me know! After that treachery is finished, your ready to faux. The stippling tools are VERY EXPENSIVE, but you only have to buy them once. Bite the bullet and get quality tools. That goes for brushes and paint, too. I'm all about finding bargains, but cheap paint and brushes end up making more work for you in the long run. My favorite paint? Benjamin Moore, baby!

I think we should have painted the ceiling, too. But time was of the essence as they were moving in the following day. I may give the client a call back when I slow down a bit and see if they are willing to let me paint it. I would probably recommend a lighter or contrasting shade up there. Maybe even a lightish shade of blue. What do you think?

I Wanna be a Cowgirl!

2009-04-18T10:56:00.004-05:00

I really regret not taking pictures of the little girl's room that I made all these pieces for. But it was really cute. The wall color is similar to what you see in the first picture, and color scheme in all the pieces were inspired by a bedding collection from Target, which unfortunately is no longer available.

Whenever I go to a craft store, one of the first things I do is rummage through the clearance aisle, which is where I found this little metal sign (unfinished). I think I paid about 35 cents for it. The client didn't ask for it, but she really liked it, and it was an easy little project.

This is a large canvas to hang over the bed. Very simple design. The most time consuming part of the entire project was hand painting all the paisley designs.

The boots were cut out of MDF (medium density fiberboard) that was left over after making the mirror frames.

I wish the quality of the pictures were better for these mirrors. I was really pleased with how they turned out, and the client was thrilled. If you attempt a project like this, make sure you use a strong bonding agent to adhere the mirrors to the MDF and use mirror clips for extra support - especially if it's something that will go in a child's room. The rope trim was purchased at a home improvement store and hot glued onto the edges. You definitely want to line the rope up exactly where it needs to go before you bust out the old glue gun. Once it's on there, it's on there!

This stool was sitting in the girl's closet. It was originally a different shade of pink and was in pretty sad shape. The designs were taken directly from the bedding. I love the rope as a decorative touch, but it also serves to reinforce the stability of the stool. The client handed the stool almost as an afterthought, asking if I could do anything with it. It's probably my favorite piece of the entire project. When painting furniture for kids, make sure to apply several coats of water based sealer. The water based is safer than traditional coatings, and it will preserve your hard work.

My lame excuse post

2009-02-22T20:26:00.027-06:00

I know I haven't posted anything here in awhile. Frankly, I find that when I come over here, it seems too slow. I find this annoying. I am going to be working on a better way to post pictures in the future. In the meantime, enjoy these fabulous pieces of laundry art:

Oh, sure...Don't mention it.

For the full stories behind these functional pieces of art, please visit What I learned this Week at "The Fellowship of the Traveling Smartypants" and
The Creative Process: A Step by Step Guide at "Hey Look, a Chicken".

Polka Dot Surprise

2008-12-05T20:55:00.003-06:00

If you read my other blog Hey look a chicken! you probably know that I am part of a church plant (C3). (Either that or you're just not paying attention.) Anyway, Jeff (our pastor), Tamara and the girls were living back in Ohio with Tam's parents for awhile so that Jeff could work on his masters at Cincinnati Bible College. After a long and complicated, frustrating, exhilarating, frustrating again, and "a total God thing" series of events, they began to plan their move back to Houston to plant a church. Jeff came down for a brief visit to do some church business and to attempt to find a house. Before and after his visit, I looked at a bunch of houses with their realtor. I took a bunch of pictures and videos and sent them to Ohio via computer. (Don't you just love technology?) As a matter of fact, here's a brief snippet of one such home tour. Please note my obnoxious gum smacking and talking smack about the person WHO I AM MAKING THE VIDEO FOR:

They didn't end up choosing that house. They placed a bid on another house (sight unseen) based on the video I sent them, a visual inspection by my husband of "guy stuff" like the roof, electrical, plumbing, a/c, etc. and my personal judgement about the house overall. That's a fairly big leap of faith, people! Jeff flew down ahead of the family to buy the house and do some more church stuff. During that time, Tam and I were back and forth on the phone trying to plan a surprise house warming gift for the girls -- their own custom decorated rooms. Even though they were welcome in their grandparents home in Ohio, it was, after all, not their home. They were ready to have their own rooms again. It was a labor of love and I was so happy to be involved in the process. Tamara had the girls select a couple of different bedding options on the Internet. The girls thought that the surprise was that once they got down here, they would get their new bedding. They had no idea the rooms would already be painted. I designed the walls based on the bedding. Here are pictures of the bedding:

And here are the rooms:

By the way, bargain shoppers, The bedding for the first room I bought at Marshall's for $29.99. The other set came from Target and also comes in pink and brown. If you have access to an overhead projector, circles are easy to paint. The lines are a bit trickier (especially on highly textured walls), but if you think you want to try it, let me know and I'll talk you through it. Obviously, the rooms are way cuter now that the girls have put all their furniture and personal effects in there, I just haven't had my camera handy when I've been over there!

I also painted the bathroom that the girls share. Tamara ended up finding a shower curtain a Kohl's that we used as the inspiration for wall and cabinet colors, but before she had made a final decision, here are a few options I suggested:

I think Jeff was really favoring the second one, but he got overruled.

One more reason I'm not a decorator...

2008-11-08T00:16:00.002-06:00

I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but typically I only take jobs for people I know or referrals by people who know the potential client. I want to know that when I walk into someone's house, Tamara and I are in a safe working environment. So, when I got a call a couple of weeks ago from a guy I'd never heard of, I was hesitant to meet with him. But I checked him out and I felt reasonably sure that I could work for him. Since I have a hard and fast rule about not being alone with a male who is not my husband, I dragged Tamara along to take a look at his dining room that he wanted faux finished.

Turns out he had already had a crew paint over the existing brownish red with a color called "soft glow". He saw a picture in a magazine, got the color matched at the paint store and hired some painters. When we arrived, there was 2 coats of "soft glow" on the walls. Oh who are we kidding? It's pinky-orange! And since some of the red was still visible, the overall effect was kinda like a really thin-skinned blood orange. I've painted a bunch of rooms, done my fair share of faux finishes, but I was a little nervous about pulling this one off. He wanted a metallic finish. He wanted it to be stunning and high impact. As he put it, he wanted people to walk into his dining room and say, "Dam*". (To which Tam told me later, "People are saying that now, just not in a good way".) Now, I'm fairly confident in my abilities as a faux finisher, but here was the problem. He wanted it to flow with the rest of his house, and he was dead set on keeping the orange. What's that term they use in politics? "You can put lipstick on a pig..."

After several sample boards, I think I finally got one that kept his "soft glow" (not really, but it's close) yet still flowed with the rest of the house and complimented his existing window treatments. I'm happy with the results. What I'm not happy with is my attempt to decorate his art niches. His office is near a Tuesday Morning, so I popped in there to see if I could find something to put inside the niches. I found two fireplace screens that had a Tuscan look. I bought them figuring that if he liked them he could reimburse me. I was all proud of myself. I hung them up nice and even, borrowed some greenery from other parts of the house and "staged" the room to take pictures.

When I got home, I downloaded the pictures from my camera. In my excitement, I failed to see what is so obvious after viewing the pictures. Those fireplace screens look like giant bats. Giant bats with gold medallion necklaces. Giant bats who, if they had fingers, would be wearing diamond pinky rings. I immediately emailed him and apologized for hanging them. I really should stick to painting...

My funky laundry room

2008-11-07T08:29:00.003-06:00

With the exception of my kid's rooms, most of my house is some shade of red, sage green or tan. The common areas are muted shades, but I wanted to go bright in the laundry room.

Second Grade Surfer

2008-11-04T17:21:00.003-06:00

If you read my last post, you may remember that I donated a mural for my kids' silent auction and that I am a sucker. A teacher was the high bidder and I painted this room for her son. Actually, since the prize was for 10 hours of mural work, she painted the background colors (light blue sky, navy ocean, and tan sand). Then I came back in and added the shading and details. I still went well over 10 hours (with the help of another mural artist friend), but that's partly my fault because I'm really bad at estimating how long something is going to take me. Her son loves it. So that's pretty cool...

Rhino Pop Art

2008-11-02T16:02:00.003-06:00

Most schools have fundraisers. My kids' school has two: selling cookie dough (weird, I know) and a silent auction. The auction is a big money maker for the PTA. We live in a fairly affluent neighborhood, and the donated auction items are usually pretty impressive. Last year some of the items donated were: a Wii system, Hannah Montana tickets, a mosquito misting system (a very nice thing to have here), free orthodontics and a custom painted mural. (Yeah, I donated that last one. I'm such a sucker.)

Anyway, I wanted to donate something unique. Several years ago during the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo (it's huge down here), someone came up with the idea to paint these large cow statues with different themes. I wanted to do something along the same lines only using our school's mascot (you guessed it) a Rhino. That was 4 years ago. It's sort of taken on a life of its own. I donate about 10 canvases every year and I get a lot of requests for personalized rhinos and other work. How many ways can you paint a rhino? I'll let you know when I run out of ideas...

Elementary School Musical: Fun with Paper

2008-10-16T09:19:00.005-05:00

Warning: If you have school aged children and word gets out that you can make stuff out of paper, your home and cell phone numbers will be on the speed dial of every music teacher, homeroom parent and overzealous PTA member from now until your kids graduate from high school. After my friend Desiree and I created the set for "Bugz! The Musical" for our kids' second grade performance, suddenly I was to go-to gal for projects involving large amounts of colored paper. Last year, I got a call from a 5th grade mom asking if I could make a woody station wagon for the surf themed, end of the year 5th grade party. Thinking she must have mistaken me for another mom, I said, "You do know that I don't have a child in 5th grade?". "Yes", she said. From that moment on, I have honed my skills in the art of "Just Say No". It's not that I didn't want to help, but I know that I'm not the only creative-type parent who has kids at that school. Besides, being a good Christian and all, I didn't want to "steal any one's blessing" by doing something someone else could do.

This was my first hands-on experience working with those big rolls of paper that teachers use to cover bulletin boards in their classrooms. With the exception of a few purple balloons, a couple sheets of tissue paper, and a small amount of craft paint, this entire set is made of paper. And staples -- lots and lots of staples! Oh wait, I forgot the pb&j sandwich. This was made out of upholstery foam, purple satin and brown felt. (That sandwich was pretty awesome, if I do say so myself.) The red and white picnic blanket was weaved out of two sheets of paper. I gotta give props to Desiree for that one: cutting straight lines is not my strongest attribute. Speaking of Desiree, she is one of the most creative people I know, and she was such an encourager during the creation of this set. When I was up on a ladder with 20 feet of scrunched up paper atop my head, she kept saying, "It will be fine. We just need more staples!" Love that gal!

Because I was also in charge of costumes, I had to figure out how to create roughly 300 pairs of wings for various type of bugs. After pricing pre-made fairy wings, I concluded that option was not in the budget. My solution? White pantyhose, Rit dye in an assortment of colors and wire coat hangers. We dyed the hose and stretched them over the coat hangers (shaped in the form of wings). Oh, and safety pins -- we used lots and lots of safety pins!

I hope that this has stirred your creative juices and perhaps inspired you volunteer your creative services to your local school or church. That creative mom they always call needs a break, and she doesn't want to steal your blessing!

A Different Kind of Blog

2008-10-15T06:56:00.002-05:00

If you follow my other blog, "Hey look, a chicken" then you may know that I'm a painter. Clients and potential clients are always asking me if I have a website. To which I tell them no, but I plan to someday. Right now, I'm doing well just to blog a little here and there between family life, home projects and paying gigs.

But I thought it might be cool to share some of the projects I've done and perhaps inspire some of you to take on a project or two yourselves. Sometimes I will give step-by-step instructions, sometimes I'll just post pictures. If you ever have any questions, feel free to leave a comment and I will try my best to answer them. While I'm sure I'll add some stupid commentary here and there, this will primarily be a painting/home decorating/diy blog; as opposed to "Hey look, a chicken", a blog about, well, whatever that blog is about...

I've done a bunch of projects -- some for paying customers, some for charity, and some just because I wanted to create something (the latter fall under the category of home projects or gifts for friends). I didn't know where to start, so I thought I would post my most recent projects and work backwards. That's not nearly as overwhelming as trying to post everything I've done.

So without further adieu, I give you "Audrey's Kitchen".

Audrey is a friend of a friend. She has a beautiful home. What I especially like about her home is that it reflects her personality. One of my big complaints about homes that are professionally decorated is that while they are usually tastefully done and well thought out, they tend to reflect the taste of the decorator, not the lives of the homeowners. I'm sure there are professional designers that can pull this off; I just haven't run across any.

Audrey was looking to update the outdated wallpaper in her kitchen. If you know me, you know that I deplore wallpaper. It may look great for years, but eventually it's going to date the space. And once it's up, you either have to paper over it, pull it off and re-float the walls, or do what I did. Namely, check to see if all the seams are tight, put an oil-based primer over it and paint it - preferably a faux finish.

Why a faux finish? Because straight painting is rather unforgiving when it comes to hiding seams. The finish itself is fairly easy, it just takes some practice. The treacherous part is the prep work - especially taping off everything, which I hate almost as much as wallpaper.

I love the way this turned out. Her kitchen was nice before, but now it ties in with the rest of rooms adjacent to it. She really likes it too -- which is what matters most.

Audrey's Kitchen Before:

Audrey's Kitchen After:

I love the splash of red here. It's also easier to touch up scuff marks.