My Latest Project: Fixing Faux Finishes in a Home for Sale

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Sometimes I am called on to fix a faux finish, instead of only just doing one.  This beautiful home is currently for sale in Southampton NY for $6,975,000. There were numerous changes done (adding light fixtures etc) and of course some cracks that resulted over the years and needed to be fixed - and so the owners wanted the faux, that had been done many years ago, fixed rather than go through the expense of painting the entire house.

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Living room before...

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Living room...after

Living room

If you have never tried to fix a faux finish (especially when you didn't do the finish in the first place as in this case), it's one of the hardest things to do well. What happens is that you can't just dot in the color into the patched and primed spot.  It doesn't work.  If you try to do that, it just creates a halo effect and you can see where the "join" is.  You have to create a color that is the closest to the base color and then you swish the color in...blending it in without following the outline of the patch. Then add a little darker glaze and feather that in - as in the drifts that are part of this finish.  Sounds easy but it wasn't at all. 

The Den Wallpaper Fix

I also had to fix many areas in the den.  Oh boy - this was a job.  I had to match a wallpaper of all things.  First, the ceiling above the window seat...

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Since the home sellers did not have the paper that was used, I had to improvise.  I primed the areas, then used gift tissue, slightly wrinkled (like I did on my Bookcase Project) then painted it.  I created a glaze color that matched the color of the paper and then glazed the whole ceiling.

By the other window in the room there was more damage...

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Blending it in without it looking like a different paper/finish was a bit difficult - but it came out better than even I thought it would!  Sometimes - I surprise myself. The room is really a beautiful one - so it was worth the extra effort.

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There were some other areas throughout the room that were discolored and we had to devise a color that would blend in best to disguise it. But - the room looks really great now.

The only full faux finishing that we did in the home was in the dining room.  I just created a very soft, mottled finish that warmed up the space.

The home looks really wonderful and warm so I hope that all of the effort nets the owners a sale. It took us all week to get the work done - so I apologize for not blogging as much last week.  Hopefully this long post will satisfy!

Some knowledge of color theory and faux finishing techniques can really help save time and money.  In this case, the home sellers would have had to have most of their walls re-painted and the den walls would have had to have been stripped of the wall paper, primed and re-painted.  That would have been costly - time and money-wise.  As they were having an open house over the weekend, there wasn't the time to do all that.  So...once again...Faux to the Rescue!

If you are interesting in seeing this beautiful home, please call the realtor, Tim Davis of Corcoran at 631 283-7300.  The website for the listing can be found HERE

You may be interested in another project -  a $3.5 Million home that we staged that sold in 3 1/2 weeks.  Click Here 

Linking this project up to these blogs...

Stuff and Nonsense

Domesblissity