Makeover Magic

What happens when stuff gets old...do you throw it out? Sometimes yes if it's broken, that's the best thing to do. What if an item has still got life in it and it's just a bit tired or dated? I think we all feel these days that we should try and reuse or recycle it. There are lots of ways to reuse, you can give things away through Freegle and Freecycle, you can recycle if it is made of a recycleable material or you can "upcycle"...which means to change it and make it better than it was.

The painted revolution has made many of us think again about throwing useful things out - even an old bike can get painted turquoise and popped in the garden as a feature - this one aint too shabby and is pretty chic in my opinion.....recycling it took not much effort as you will see from the link below.

pop over to I Love That Junk to see how this was achieved

So if we love saving the small stuff, why do we throw the big stuff......clever paint finishes can turn something like this from ebay

To this at Carte Blanche Studios and you can learn how this was done on our  

Ultimate Furniture Painting Class

But people are ready to throw out much bigger purchases, like a full blown kitchen, even a well designed one. Lucky for us a few people who see the opportunity to save money and create something new and fresh from the old  

This couple could see that opportunity and with a little colour help and a lot of labour we gave them a totally new space.

This is what they had - a really high quality well designed kitchen that used the space well. Not everyone has as good quality cabinetry as this but often there are very few designs that can be executed in someone's space and if you have solid units  and a good layout, why go through the upheaval and cost of a new kitchen

 and this is what we left them with. Now we didn't manage this alone - we did it with the help of our lovely friend and colleague Andrew Fizpatrick the most laid back, easy to work with, super cool cabinet maker and kitchen maker that I have worked with ever (testament is I've worked with him for 17 years!!!). He made new doors, tightened hinges and we got going with the paintwork.

A fresh new space!!!

Now none of this is rocket science but it is a LOT of work and not everyone has time to do it themselves - you can give us a call or drop us an email with images and we'll send you a price. Alternatively come on one of our classes and learn how to do it yourself.

Guest Blogger - Jo Lee of Swedish Interior Design

I am delighted to announce that we have a new series of guest writers who will appear on Carte Blanche's blog periodically.
Our first is Jo Lee of Swedish Interior Design. Jo and Madeleine have the largest, most beautiful and best range of Swedish furniture both original and recreated that I have ever come across and their technical knowledge and understanding of this field is outstanding.
In conversation Jo and I were discussing the quality and properties of modern paints. We also discussed the "Greenwash" regarding some of the Eco Paint claims today and if you decide to go Green (not literally of course) it can be hard to find your way to a paint with really good Eco-credentials. However when I asked Jo if he could perhaps give us some background the paints they used to showcase painted furniture so beautifully in their showroom home near Brighton, he was able to give us a great report on a range of  truly organic paints, the advantages of them and their application.

Swedish Interior Design – Going Organic

 

When planning a design project, one of the items you need to consider very carefully is the paint you are going to use.

The rise of “designer” paints over the last 10-15 years have given us access to an unprecedented array of colours and finishes so you can have pretty much whatever you want. But this has come (certainly to my mind) as a triumph of marketing often  at the expense of product quality and usability.

So you can have chalk paints, dead flat paints, milk paints, iridescent paints, super chalky paints, organic paints, emulsions, acrylics and much more. It’s great having such a choice but how easy is your chosen paint for you to apply?  How long will it last? Is it good for you?

When we restored our glorious 1886 apartment that became the Swedish Interior Design  showroom, we had to consider a number of questions in choosing our paints.

Firstly, the apartment was full of complex original wall and ceiling mouldings, elaborately hand carved door frames and architraves, double original sash windows and flamed oak parquet flooring.

Stunning sea view from those 13 ft windows casts great light into this delightful room

We wanted to restore this faded beauty to her former glory and be faithful to the original design but at the same time put our own stamp on it as our home. Our desire was to create a Swedish Gustavian look and feel using our antique Swedish furniture, Mora Clocks & bespoke Swedish furniture. It would be a sanctuary from the outside world and also showcase our design ethos and furniture. At the same time we also needed to highlight the craftsmanship and extraordinary level of original detail evident in the original interior.

Another consideration was that since we face onto the sea; we have the most marvellous light bouncing through the 13’ high sash windows and being ‘sea light’ it changes in intensity according to time of day, the season and the prevailing weather.

Antique Gustavian dining table, Antique Mora Clock (1800's) and Antique Gustavian Cabinet

We always concentrate on best use of light in our design work and so we needed careful thought on using our paint choice as an ‘interactive’ medium rather than a flat surface.

Next we had to look at the health aspect – Madeleine Lee, our creative director, has ME/CFS and so is very susceptible to paint fumes. You would be amazed if you look into paint specifications in detail, just how many ‘nasties’ still reside in different paints even with the recent and ongoing changes in paint formulation due to environmental laws.

Madeleine

So many paints still ‘leech’ into the atmosphere for a significant period after painting and will therefore affect anyone who is in any way sensitive – This is a serious consideration when you think about bedrooms, children's rooms, spaces with poor ventilation. There’s already too much toxicity in the world outside our homes, in the air, the water supply and so on. Why add to it in your own home? Don’t believe the sales hype and I would urge you to investigate the health properties of your chosen paint before buying to make sure you make the right choice for you.

So what about the finish? It needed to be in keeping with the feel of the apartment and since we don’t have kids (or at least only Norwegian forest cat furry ones) it didn’t need to be particularly strong, washable or non marking. It was definitely more about texture for us than anything else.

Purrfect appreciation of the paint

Never forget the next point on the checklist as it will hit you directly in the pocket: application and coverage.

With all the changes in formulation due to environmental rules, some well known major brand name designer paints have become really difficult to use on a professional basis. The coverage is poor (and certainly not what they claim) and the end result can be really streaky and patchy which necessitates more coats than you should really need to provide the quality finish that you would want.

At least if you are doing it yourself, its only extra time spent and general frustration.

But where you are employing someone to decorate for you, the added time and extra product required to achieve a top level finish can take 2-3 times as long to do which means significantly more cost to you. We now refuse to use certain brands of paints for clients because of this.

Also be careful to choose the right paint for your woodwork – especially in the level of ‘sheen’. Gloss, satin, matt and dead flat all have their advantages and it depends on your interior and the look you want to create but making the wrong choice can kill a design and look really out of place. Do you want the woodwork to blend in and support the overall colour scheme or work as accenting?

For example in our bedroom and living room we kept the woodwork muted in a matt finish so it played second fiddle to the main wall colour and trompe l’oeil but we used a stronger custom colour on the dado rail and to pick out the wall mouldings to provide a visual accent.

So what did we choose?

For health reasons, it needed to be an organic non toxic paint so that narrowed the field immediately. We wanted a super chalky finish and one that would change color according to how the light hit it to make the most of being by the sea. It needed to be go on well and not clog up the delicate cornices and mouldings in the various rooms.

We chose a fantastic color called dawn mist from EcosOrganic Paints – it goes from off white through a touch of light blue to a violet according to the light and time of day so that come evening time you have a wonderful relaxing tone to the walls which earlier in the day had been more vibrant and full of light.

Different light can change the look entirely

The super chalky texture (while not overly practical) looks amazing with lots of grain and a 3D quality to it and in use, while drying it smelled of oranges and had absolutely no side effects for Madeleine’s ME which was great.

It took a little longer to go on than standard ‘trade’ emulsions but we budgeted for that, so it wasn’t an issue. Most importantly  it was neither gloopy nor too watery so we could get exactly the right consistency to work with both wide wall expanses and detailed mouldings.

Jo Lee  is a director of Swedish Interior Design.

Swedish Interior Design has Europe’s largest selection of Swedish antiques, over 60 antique mora clocks and a beautiful range of bespoke furniture which can be viewed at www.swedishinteriordesign.co.uk or do follow the blog at www.swedishinteriordesign.co.uk/blog    

Join them on Facebook too
                      

Would you just pick a BLOOMIN Colour!!!!

Why is it so hard? Why do so many people struggle with choosing colour? Why do I hear the phrase "how many shades of cream do they need! No wonder it takes the Mrs that long to choose a colour for the walls..."
It's because most people cannot imagine how the room will look when it is done and because it is a big commitment. Paint is cheap (per sq metre/ft it is still the cheapest thing you will put in your home) but labour is expensive. Whether you are having a professional do the work or whether you are spending your hard earned holiday time doing it yourself, if you get it wrong it is either way a costly mistake. It is also always the largest area in a single material....which seems like a big thing to get wrong.

Dulux's latest advert shows us how the wrong colour can make you want to leave home ...

At Carte Blanche we offer a colour consultancy service and  the service is there to help people through the mire of colours and finishes and to save them from a million sample pots and when we first arrive a wall like this is often what we are greeted by

Thank you to FiELDy for this photo

This invariably doesn't help...and actually if you read the great blog post that I took this photo from you will see that the owner of the room found the colour a totally different way....by being in a space painted in it.

So why get a professional to help from Carte Blanche. Well first of all we paint out all your splodges and we ban you from sample pots and then we help you define what you want. We find a starting point - some people start with a totally blank canvas but this is rare most people have chosen some items already that they have decided will go into or will remain in the room. It is then a matter of getting inside the client's head and discovering what their taste is.

Here is an example of our work. This couple came to us with the kitchen that needed updating. The kitchen was a really good quality one and it was well designed but the doors were very dated. We enlisted Andrew Fitzpatrick, our favourite cabinet maker to design, make and fit new doors and update a few of the more outdated elements like the cooker hood.

Here are the befores -

The client had Italian tiles on countertops and backsplash and really good quality terracotta tiles on the floor that they wanted to keep but it is a little dated that look...and we really needed to think of a good colour combo to make this look contemporary. Crisp off-white cabinets and ceiling and a surprising soft heathery, slightly pinky grey helps tie the warm wooden knobs and the terracotta floor looks sharp and new. It also picks up on the terracotta background that the Italian tiles have - they are glazed but you can just see the terracotta hue shining through..

I think we achieved a clean and contemporary look and the client is delighted.

If you would like us to help then give us a call 01738 587600 - we charge between £50 and £150 per room for colours, depending on how complex the scheme elements are. Some rooms might need many colours to make the best of architectural features. We produce large painted samples of the colours and suggested accent colours and guide you through choice of paint too to suit your lifestyle.

If you don't want professional help here are a few tips:

• Start with things that are known facts...what will be in the room? Try to make sure that you have the lighting as it will be when the room is complete - lighting can totally change a colour
• Cut your choices down to 3 colours. More than 3 colours becomes a mish-mash...and confuses the eye.
• Paint 3 large (A2 paper size if possible, definitely no smaller than A4) samples of each colour. Apply 2 coats to each sample and paint to the very edge. 
• One colour at a time, place one sample in a dark part of the room and one in a light and one in area where artificial light plays a large part.
• Keep them up there so you can see them in different lights, day time, day time with artificial light and evening
• Immediately discard one colour...this is an imperative. Choosing between 2 colours is a lot simpler
• Put two samples of the same colour either side of the darkest corner of the room and you will see how the internal reflection will give you the colour at its most intense.
• MAKE A DECISION!

 Here are a few toys to help you understand how colour works and how it might affect your room.

Color Scheme Designer is a great toy - it's actually meant to be used for designing websites but it really helps to understand how colour works together. Here you can see a complementary colour scheme - where opposites are used together to great effect

go and  try the colour scheme designer

Another fun toy is from Crown - not that I am endorsing their paint or otherwise, but this wee tool is great for getting ideas http://www.crownpaint.co.uk/scheme/957/magnolia.htm

Crown's Colour Tools

This tool takes a photo of a fairly standard room.....there are a number covering the whole house and lets you change the colours of each of the elements of the room. . Be careful though - the colours you see on the computer screen are potentially very far from the actual paint colours. Tester pots are probably essential for most people to make a final comparison (just as the printed catalogues aren't 100% accurate to the paints)

This is my final tip.......it's a biggy

Q.What happens if I get it wrong....what if after all that I don't like the colour?
A. Change your lighting before you start changing the colour....you will be amazed how a different coloured bulb can dramatically change a room.



Best of luck!! And have fun.