Faux Painted Italian Bricks

 Good Afternoon from Umbria

I finished a job yesterday, painting a kitchen and I had done a lot of the work in my studio and then the client put it all the cabinet doors back on, when I went into the space yesterday I actually exclaimed wow, man oh man oh man- spectaculare!  I will share the work with you later in the week because it really is a good example of what a lot of paint can do.  Now I get to come back to my diario di design for a moment.  I have my 2^nd cappuccino (cappuch) by my side like a loyal dog watching me with loving eyes.

faux brick and olive green shutters

Today I want to share painted bricks on this palazzo.  Honestly I think it is kind of silly-crazy to paint fake bricks over a centuries old palazzo.  But I want to show it as an idea actually to use in the garden.  If anyone has an ugly concrete wall, or a side of the garage (or the neighbors house?) something that needs enhancing.  I think it could be quite cool with vines and bougainvillea growing over it.  This process of painted brick adds depth and can actually make the space seem bigger and also more intimate.  Painting always makes a space feel more special.

If you look closely you can see this is done simply with charcoal grey or black lines and then on certain sides they do a parallel white line, and this gives the perspective.  Imagine it done with grey and white or shades of brown, or taupe and cream something less graphic, subtler.  If you paint the wall in a couple of colors first as a base coat, note the 2-3 shades of ochre, brown here. Then I would suggest sanding it, or maybe painting on some bleach to eat away some of the finish to distress it a bit.

Here are some examples of real brick wall, vines, flowers and all.

Roman wall and a fig tree

If say your neighbor's house just isn't up to par then you might consider a James Bond 007 move and swing cable yourself on to their roof and plant a bunch of jasmine, a few years and it will be all covered up, like this gorgeous brick wall.

jasmine and brick

What do you think, is fake painted brick silly or gorgeous?  I do like it here in Italy when they have a brick Palazzo and they cover up a window with concrete, then they just faux paint the brick right over the window space, to match the rest of the brick.  This I love.  I believe they cover the windows to heat the space better.  I would rather be cold with lots of light, then warm and dark!

faux painted brick, I love the ochre and white

With affection,

Natalie

I'm linking to:

Romantic Home

French Country Cottage

Between Naps on the Porch

Bohemian Italian Bedroom

a little shabby chic a little Italian bohemian

The other day I woke up with a great idea, at least I thought it was just brilliant.  Normally I’m a believer that morning ideas are good ones and often the late night bright ideas, in the morning light just don’t seem so hot.  Anyway creative people actually process their bright ideas during the night as they sleep so that our subconscious mind is working over time for us.  Isn’t that just lovely!

So my problem is I have a really ugly bed, I think it is even some famous Italian design.  I did not buy this bed.  But hey they do not do everything right over here let me tell you. 

penso e' bruto, I think it is hideous silly design

My bright idea was that I would cover my headboard with Italian lace embroidery and safety pin on and hanging all over from the headboard crystals with with sheer blue ribbon.

Alfredo (my darling) came over later, as I was obsessively working on this project.  I got some of the crystals on there and I must give him credit he didn’t say anything derogatory, he did make a face like let’s wait and see and then instead he took me out and away from my project for a prosecco in the warm evening air.  He did make the joke that the blue ribbons were a little like I had just had a baby boy.  In Italy when someone has a baby they attach a huge bow, blue or pink on the front door of the house to tell everyone what sex the baby is.  I love this tradition and sure enough when we went out for our walk we kept running into big blue bows everywhere!

bohemian italian mixed style

Later when we came home, the prosecco had cleared my mind and I could see it was not a wonderful idea, it did not look cool.  It just looked weird.  I was even able to show my girls how it is important to fail, in order to simplify the idea to the point where you like it.  

rumpled old bed linens and faded shabby chic design

Here's what I did do.  I covered the metal headboard with an old baby crib runner.

here's another before shot

Then I covered that with a cotton sheet.  Then I lay an embroidered lace work table cloth over the cotton sheet and fastened the the sides with 1 crystal and 1 blue ribbon.  

crystal and italian lace

It feels simple and pretty.  What do you think?  Could you live with a bed padded with an old baby crib runner?  

Cheers prosecco anyone?

Natalie

I'm linking with these link parties:
Miss Mustard Seed
French Country Cottage
Romantic Home
Between Naps on the Porch

Styling Empty Frames

candles, little bottles and pink flowers 

It is going to be a gorgeous day here in Umbria.  I’m silly about the weather and think about it way too much.  When I was young I wanted to be a meteorologist.  I’m really glad I changed my mind.   I have one friend who thinks what you wanted to be as a child does reflect who you become.  He says, "I should have known I would be gay when I was always rearranging my bedroom at 8 years old!"  He became a photographer.

I go crazy for the this pink and gold 

if only  I could have an armoire or dresser
 in the same chippy style

Today I want to do a post of showing how I love empty picture frames.  I have done this for years way before it was in style (hasn’t it always been in style?).  Well before people used to come into our home and say, “What’s going on?”  I would respond, “There you can see the future”.

old antique frame from from the 1700's
with little mirrors and chalk drawn on the wall

this is where we leave our keys

cool reflection

and reflecting the painting in front of it.

Plus I love the massiveness of empty walls and I believe in lots of good art and beautiful photographs. 

This gorgeous little gold frame I brought in Ecuador with the same friend who became a photographer.  He was such a jerk, when I said I didn't want to buy it because I would have to carry it all the way home.  He said, "You can enjoy it for the rest of your life, or regret it for the rest of your life".

gold frame and hand painted walls

painted olives bring peace

Sometimes I put this little photo I took of Elisa, she was so tiny then.

To me empty frames are just fun to play around with.

here's in my studio with a inner frame,
photo, plus wire, crystal and ripped velvet ball

that's me at 13.  I'm glad I didn't become a meteorologist
or a ballerina

Empty frames they may be temporary and on their way to becoming part of something more important.

Cheers,

Natalie

I'm linking with:

Between Naps on the Porch

The Shabby Creek Cottage

Savvy Southern Style

French Country Cottage

Romantic Home

French Style with a Modern Twist

French Style painted credenza

Happy Weekend everyone!

It is a gorgeous autumn day here in Umbria, cool in the morning and probably will get hot later.

We could call this Italian Style if we wanted to because it sure is an old piece of country Italian furniture. 

Here I took this old dark wood credenza or hutch and gave it a freshening up.  It is amazing to me how this helps to lighten up a room.  Now the piece glows!

I sanded the piece a bit, to clean it up.

here is the before shot

First I painted on some anti termite solution, because as you can see there are little pinholes in the wood.  It may not have been necessary because I did not see wood dust.  If you see wood dust in little piles then it means your furniture is being eaten by termites.  This can spread all through your house if you are unlucky.  The best idea is to then suffocate the piece of furniture in plastic for two weeks to be extra safe.  It is really easy to paint on but stinky, so do it outside if possible.

Then I painted two base coats of white.

painted with primer

Then two coats of this gorgeous light gray acrylic paint.

I painted the detailing an ice-gray-blue.

Then on the corners and edges of the detailing and moldings, I irregularly painted and rubbed on pearl acrylic paint.

painted furniture in pearl and ice blue

 What do you think?  Did it come out pretty?

Enjoy the fresh Autumn air because here we are in fall.

Cup of tea…anyone?  Makes me think I should host a little tea party with my girls.

With affection,

Natalie

I'm linking with these lovely ladies and their link parties:

Miss Mustard Seed

Between Naps on the Porch

French Country Cottage

Mod Vintage Life

Romantic Home

The Shabby Creek Cottage

How To Paint French Provincial Style

I love the French Provincial look because to me it is timeless and easy to do.  It is a bit time consuming but this is the game with painting furniture.  The key is to just bring it a long slowly and do other work or have fun in between.

french provincial style painted furniture 

I like this French Provincial style mixed with modern bright pieces, colorful upholstered furniture.  It also looks good with bare Swedish furniture and Shabby Chic American type furniture.  Mix it up, you can’t go wrong. 

I have also done this look with a very architectural armoire with finials and arches, in gray with black dry brush and it looked gorgeous.

admit it this was just GROSS before

Here I choose a really creamy vanilla color as the base color.

I sanded the piece some.

I painted it with a base coat of white 1 or 2 times, only because I didn’t have tons of the creamy color, you go straight to painting without the base coat if you want.

Then I painted the creamy white color another 2 times.

This piece actually has a glass cabinet that I painted too and left out of the photos because I like the piece better just a credenza.

here's what it looks like with just cream colored paint

Once all the coats had dried I went over the piece with a dry brush of raw umber oil color.  A tiny tube I bought at the art store.  I mixed this dark color with turpentine and brushed it on a separate piece of wood (or cardboard) anything to take off the excess of the oil paint to make the paint sparse.  You can also add a drying medium to this mixture to make the oil paint dry faster.  Oil paint usually takes about 4 days to dry.

oil color even over the key and hardware

I paint with the dry brush only on the moldings
and detailing and slightly over the top

If you want you can add a clear coat of polyurethane over  it all to protect it, but it does make the look a little less antique.  I would wait 4 or 5 days for the oil paint to dry.

If this was going to be mine and not going to a client I would love to save it for my future loft.  I could cut two holes in the top and turn it into a double basined bathroom sink.  Put some curved silver 

faucets.  It would be so pretty with all the fluffy towels stacked on the shelves below.

I just love what a drastic change this look can accomplish.

Cheers,

Natalie

I'm linking with:

Between Naps on the Porch

French Country Cottage

Miss Mustard Seed
The Shabby Creek Cottage

Silver Leaf Vs. Copper Leaf

silver leaf with copper leaf panels

Last Fall I was up in the hills of Umbria working on a house and I did this wonderful Silver Leaf Door HERE is the link to that post.  It came out great, yet the clients felt it could be better.  These clients are so cool and smart and like to talk about light and color and design (they work in film) so I was actually happy to work on it again, plus they would pay me, plus there would be many months before I attached the project again, fresh start... ahhh.

here is what it looked like before

silver leaf door

These clients it turns out had a love of copper leaf, not a favorite of mine, because I feel like it is just too pink and glary, picture copper tubing or the bottoms of kitchen pans to get the image of the color I mean.  But guess what, it turned out that the dark red brick floor reflected so much onto the pink-orange of the copper leaf that it toned down the pink and it became this color.  What the *** color is it?  Shall we call it burnt orange?  Not really!  Doesn’t it look great with the stairs and tile work?  I know it isn’t really a fair competition because these present photos are better then the Silver Leaf photos and there are more of them.

I got to say it looks glamorous

You know what I learned again that environment matters.  You can pick a design because you love it.  I think the Silver Leaf Door worked really well with the color of the grout in the flooring, it has a more uniform effect.  The Copper Leaf Door pops, it looks more designed and articulated.  On the latter I also darkened the color of the hardware and did the frame that surrounds the door in silver leaf also, this makes more contrast.

and yes there is a loft space and huge skylight above,
could you just cry with envy

hardware is looking pretty good huh?

I do believe that if the design makes you happy then it is a success.  Yet we must think about the environment around the project and even the other rooms in the house.  I believe there should be congruency.  What do you think?  Do you have a preference?

Happy Weekend

Natalie

I'm linking with:

Between Naps on the Porch

French Country Cottage

Romantic Home
DIY Vintage Chic
Oh My - Creative