Like plaster finishes? Join the Club!

Whew!  Just got home from a couple of weeks at the country club...

Mid and upper walls are a velvet finish done with a Woolie tool.  The base is a troweled plaster marble.  The accent band of cast bronze is actually stencilled joint compound with a metallic glaze.

 If you know me at all, you're waiting for clarification of that unlikely statement.


The new sconce lighting and artwork haven't arrived yet, but there's lots to see already.



Okay, I just spent the last couple of weeks completely transforming the walls of the Fireside Room at the Minnetonka Country Club, just west of Minneapolis, in Excelsior, Minnesota.

I just can't get enough of playing in the mud!  More uses for joint compound:  faux marble, and faux cast bronze.

They got the room primed before I had a chance to get a "before" shot, but picture that '80s classic combination of teal and mauve, with brick painted to match hunter green wallpaper, and a floral wallpaper border heavy on the pink cabbage roses.  It was lovely in it's day, but the effect was always dark, and somewhat at odds with the architecture of the space, which I believe was built in the 1970's, but could lean toward the Arts and Crafts era, without too big a nudge.

I've done troweled marble finishes before, but on a tip from my big brother, Jesse, I added about 1 part latex paint to 2 parts joint compound, threw in a splash of concrete bonding agent, and tinted the colors deeper with universal tints.  I used four shades:  umber, raw sienna, burnt sienna, and white.  The paint gives the mixture a lot more slipperiness, which makes the patterns much more interesting than without it.  This did mean I spent about double the expected time creating this wainscoting, but it just wouldn't be a Dawn-Marie job without a "hike through the brambles", now would it?

To minimize the very maxi-sized radiators, I took the finish right down across them.   Even though the latex paint increases the durability, you still have to topcoat this finish with two coats of Polycrylic. 

We started with a basic plan and color scheme for the space, but they kindly (bravely?) let me do my thing, which involves letting the design evolve one element at a time.  Paint and plaster are so spectacularly flexible that we were able to tweak and tint and rethink each part, to get a result that should be pretty timeless.  A room design is rarely meant to last forever, but this one is classic enough, and relates well enough to the architecture of the space to hold up for a good long while.

This technique was done very much like the dragonfly tiles I featured a while back, in a post called "Playing in the (drywall) mud, again".  You can scroll down for the basic directions.  The finish is Modern Masters English Brown metallic paint, topped with McClosky's bronze glaze.

The one "before" picture I managed to get was the fireplace, which featured more of the green-painted brick that I covered up elsewhere in the room.  Although I didn't work on it, the fireplace underwent a transformation at the same time.  Mike Thompson, who happens to moonlight as one of their bartenders, is a remodeling contractor specializing in tile.  He did a beautiful job of precision fitting the irregular stone tiles, and incorporating slate and ceramic tiles into the design.  You can check out his website mikethompsonconstructioninc.com.  I've only worked with him this one time, but management told me that the club members he has worked for have all been well pleased.


Fireplace "Before".  There are no words...



Way much better!  The photo doesn't really do it justice.  Seen in the scope of the room, it now creates a warm, inviting corner, and the fire isn't even installed, yet.

If you live around here, you can check out this room in person.  In fact, you might want to have your next event there (non-members can rent the space).  Linette, whose home kitchen sports some of my trompe l'oeil painted "tile", is your contact for that.  If you are into golf or tennis, or the social life a country club affords, you might want to consider membership, which is extra affordable until the end of March, as they have a zero-entry fee special, right now.  To learn more about this, you can talk to Mark (Mr. calm voice on the phone, no matter how rushed I was when calling them) and Steph, who calls me Kiddo (this is always good for my vanity, tho perhaps it refers more to my Tigger-like lack of sophistication, than any possibility that I actually look younger than him...it's good either way).  These three, along with all the staff, were really nice to work with, and you can find their contact info at minnetonkacc.com.

Ready for an artistic transformation of your space?  Click on over to theartofthehome.com, where you can see more of my work, along with the info on how to hire me, references, links to other artists, and if you are a new reader to this blog, my bio, which should clarify for you the first few sentences of this post.

Want to try this yourself?  If the overview isn't enough information, you can request more info by clicking on the comments below, or email me at dawnmariedelara@gmail.com.