Artisan At Home

The guest room for the most part is done! although is it ever really done?   like any room it's going to be an evolving space with a few tweaks here and there, whether it be for aesthetics or function, eg) currently looking for the perfect rug for this room and still waiting on the door handle for the main door to arrive. Things take time but if you have the structure, the look and feel of the room sorted, you will have a clearer idea of what finishing items you need, and be able to shop more specifically for your room and style; (thinking of all our customers/ clients when we were in the gallery who often shared that they had purchased 3 different things that didn't work before finding the one that did) So almost a month since this room was finished  Darrell and I have finally managed to find time to sit down together and do a quick show and tell on Video for you this morning  which we shared over at The Artisan At Home facebook page which delves into things a little  (Video will show below soon), but first some photos taken in the mid morning light.  A room with 4 neutral walls a weird beam in the centre, this is pretty much most bedrooms in NZ homes; it's nothing out of the ordinary except most probably don't have the weird painted beam we had in the middle. It was simple, tidy, and safe. But we wanted to inject personality and life into this room,  and give it a makeover to suit it's function for being a guest room. An escape, a calming sanctuary for our guest. But hey we are "paint people" so it's only right we add a few creative paint finishes and elements to it as well.    So let's take a look at the room before; you can get a better gauge of it in our previous blog post video  the starting point  to see what the initial thinking was; but the photo below is all we have of a photo  of the before! You'd think going into this we would take the time to get before photos  and we would know better, but no.... I think we were a tad little too excited to get started.  Lesson learnt, again!  But we do have it on Video so if you want to see the room before we started click here and here's a list of things we have done in the room as a bit of a summary :  Walls were all hand brushed in Rubbed Sage Matte Estate Wall Paint (click here to watch), a beautifully matte multi-pigmented paint that responds and adjusts beautifully to light and shadow bringing the walls to life, We love this about the Matte Estate, it's  has a beautiful velvety silky soft feel that also wipeable, beautifully Matte hiding imperfections and a great luxury DIY paint for walls. The subtle nuances in colour throughout the day are gorgeous and we love coming into this room at different times of the day to see how it adjusts, I think we walked into this room about 10 times a day when it was first finished just to check out the how the colour adjusts at different times of the day.   The photo below was taken in the late afternoon Vs morning above;  to show just how much it responds to lighting, adding stunning depth and life to walls.  Stencilled Doors:  This photo is taken in the main entrance/ doorway of the room, and we love that when you look in, it has a welcoming restful feel to it, but it also makes you want to go in and explore; the two doors that were a bit odd as you walked into the room before; now work as a beautiful feature, adding pattern and a touch of Art to the room, the metallic gold creme added to the frame of the stencil work provides  a luxe element to an otherwise vintage look, providing balance of Vintage Luxe.  We love that  this whole concept is out of the box and different. With two doors side by side smack in the middle of that wall, it was all we could focus on before;  now they look like they were designed to be that way and we love being greeted by them as you look into the room. You can catch more of the stencilled door video by clicking here   The best Decor is sometimes found in nature We wanted to add natural elements, to the room when it came to decor;  this was collected by miss 9 and I from the fallen fronds off our palm tress and we worked it into artwork for the wall, we left half of it natural and dry brushed the other half with paint and metallic creme. Nature has some wonderful decor around, and with a bit of paint or metallics can become some really beautiful decor for your home, things like rocks, drift wood, leaves can all be reworked to suit a space with a little creativity and becomes bespoke decor or artwork for your space.  Garden rubbish or art?  No lamps in this guest room, we've opted for LED candles by Sirius which runs with a remote... no I would never have candles that close to those fallen fronds :-) on the other side of the room sits a seagrass necklace which we shared with you earlier on our Artisan At Home NZ facebook page   We do love the painted wood effect on that beam which initially was the biggest challenge with how to work with it, in this room; now working beautifully as a feature, we often love taking the worst elements of a room or often furniture and trying to find ways to make them a feature and this is such a great example of this. Always look for the best in things you don't like and you may discover a gem. Motto for decorative painting and life! To see how to do a painted wood effect click here  Remember what they looked like before?  Mirrors: Guest Room needs mirrors right? and really my first thought was I don't have one to suit this room, but the reality is I actually have lots of different odd mirrors, so I've grabbed two, painted them both and layered them on the dresser stretching them out to the perfect width and I love the play on the different  angled reflections from both mirrors, it's interesting and a great way to use up odd mirrors. Painted in Potters clay with dark and black wax and if you like the little one, head to Bach Blue Premium Chalk Paint with Clubhouse grey and Crisp white coloured wax. This whole vignette is a mixture of different elements, gold, cane, mirrors in different colours but it all works, is balanced and creates lovely depth in the room. Can you tell we're big fans of mixing and merging. Too much one way can often fall flat, a careful  balanced mix tells a story and provides depth to your space. Old Chairs are great to do up and pop in the corner, this one was done in crisp white and the seat painted in country Mustard Premium Chalk Paint to link back to the cushions. If you can't find it; paint it and yes you can paint fabric with Artisan Premium Chalk Paint :-) if you didn't already know this before you may be slightly mind blown about now... Details and best buy:  Ok best buy for the room are these curtain rods, from Kmart NZ setting us back around $20 each... bargain.  The ends have been painted in Champagne gold creme, customising it to suit the room as well as adding a bit of a luxe edge to them. The smaller details that catch the eye creates as sense of refinement and becomes a polished finishing touch to both a space and in fact also when working with furniture.  We've also  painted the rustic frames in Metallic Creme in Champagne gold to create this beautiful Vignette.     Layered pieces are a great interior weapon: This creative hand painted finish has many layers and colours; the stencilled doors across the way also have similar tones linking the two together very subtly . But what we love about pieces like this is that it give us freedom to change it up, we can draw upon the many colours throughout different seasons onto cushions, throws, decor, it allows us to work with clashing colours as we please and harmoniously with this piece working as the link. Like great artwork in a room it allows a freedom of colour in an interior space and it completely demands attention, sets the tone and is completely bespoke. It's a great interior weapon in my opinion and I know my clients love this about pieces with layered paint finishes that  I have done for their homes in the past.  Whether it be so they can use freely use colour or creating one as the missing link in the room.  What was just a simple room now has so much character, a strong vibe and earthy link to nature, whilst being soft and restful. It's a room of mix and merge of different styles and designs pulled together through paint finishes.  You have a french style bed, a midcentury light you have odd Vintage mirrors, stencilled doors, contemporary artwork all working together; this is the power of decorative painting, it allows you a complete freedom to create a space. The impact of colour and paint finishes is huge in interior living. Special mention to my banana tree below, who I've named Emmy thriving after a shaky start; that middle leaf has just recently opened looking super beautiful and I'm so proud of it ( bit corny I know) as apart from cacti's I've not had much luck with indoor plants in the past. So this is exciting!  So there you go... Guest Room Tick... and Im sure we'll share a few shots on our facebook page and instagram of changing Vignettes as we update and change things around through. the seasons... but the frame work, the look and feel of this space is complete with a few cans of paints and some creativity, it's turned out how we imagined, it's not constrained, we have the freedom to change it up alot without having to repaint, the neutral box room now has life to it; and we think it's a lovely space for our guests to retreat and escape to :-)  - Dorophya  Take a quick look at the Video we shared on The Artisan At Home page on facebook below   

12 weeks to this day since we moved, and I think I may have discovered a slight OCD about myself with unpacked boxes, there's been a constant tenseness and guilt every time I do anything other than unpacking. The reality is life goes on when you move and you still need to work, school lunches still need to made and you need a break in the weekends to do things so you don't go insane... but those damn boxes they still sit there and taunt me. I haven't watched TV for 12 weeks because every spare moment I get I cut open box after box and walk around like a lost soul trying to put things in place, find a home for it in the best place I can. You move into a home and you have a vision or should I say "dream" of how things should look but you learn a big lesson in patience when you realise that first you may  just need to just unpack and it can't all be done right this minute, next week or even in a month. Like; you can't bang out that wall, install a door, repaint the room, hang new curtains before you unpack unless you want to continue living in boxes for another 3 months. So you weigh it up and  if those boxes are taunting you, then unpack them and pace yourself with everything else you have visually planned for your new home.  Those boxes have been giving me a little anxiety for the last 12 weeks, so today as I sit down and write this entry in the room... the last room that has been unpacked, I feel an absolute weight off my shoulders. We now know the local recycling centre very well with the 8 or so trips there with empty folded up cardboard boxes in the back seat, front seat and trunk of the ute (is that what you call it?) . Still another few trips left to do but I can live with that.  So 12 weeks on, how do we feel about moving out of the big smoke? Well I feel really truly  blessed.... that we could  and did. Life is different for sure, there's no shopping malls which is good and bad, lots of little boutique shops to compensate and one of the things that we've noticed the most is that people seem really happy here... strangers will stop to talk to you because I suppose because they have more time, we've met and spoken to not just our neighbours but everyone in this street! People really smile and greet you in stores, there is a real sense of service in retail and businesses here  (there are a few  who are pretty bad at it I won't lie; but not many) in the most part it's that good old school service that I think is so important as a business to be able to connect with your customers, listen and have a pleasant experience and fun; for both the owner/staff and the customer, theres a real care involved in a retail transaction, it's not scripted but genuine. Everything we have aimed for in our own business.  In a world where everything is becoming all about speed, processes and rigid structures and rules in business,  there is a real loss with our ability to  connect genuinely with each other as human beings.  So it's been a really nice change to be in a place where you receive a smile, genuine approach and personalised service and where people want to go the extra mile.  You also feel better for shopping and parting with your money knowing that  you are supporting a small NZ business which so many need right now.  It's made me realise how much of a consumer I was before, my spare Sunday was spent too much in Shopping malls buying things reactively. With less retail here, you are more considered in your buying, you plan a lot more. Like now that I've unpacked this room;  I now know I am on the hunt for some bright boho/ Persian style cushions for the room (yes I know third world problems)  and because I can't just hop in the car to drive to a large shopping centre and then get distracted by something else that I purchased instead. I am researching more on where I can get it, I search local first and have been going into all the stores the last week to try to  find some,  the downside is when you are after something specific the range of things that are available is a little more limited in smaller towns. But we have technology, so you research who's supplying it, you read the specifications more and you think differently,  should I buy fabric instead...  you connect with the world wide web more for those things. Which is something I suppose people living outside of city couldn't do before internet was a thing so in many ways with technology you get the best of both worlds when living out of the city. With less retail and a general rush to get to places... and less traffic you gain time; so you look for more activities to do, walks, swims, connecting with nature, exploring, you focus on your home more  which is the one of the main drivers for us moving here, connecting and rebalancing family with work. You take notice more of the colours in nature, the birds that are seriously, seriously loud out here...in a good way. The sunsets and the brilliant bright stars, I have never seen stars as bright as I have since we moved here, it... is... spectacular. Pitch black with just bright sparkling glitter in the sky, the air feels cleaner and the skies clearer I don't know much about stars but I am almost certain I can see a milky way most nights. The move has been really great for my soul, and I never felt like we needed to move but now that we're here I think my headspace is so much better for it, I feel more  inspired than I ever have been, I can think clearer and overall just more grounded than I was 12 weeks ago.  Miss 9 is just loving it here, moving her out of the city was my biggest hesitation but seeing her climb trees, run through the paddocks excited by family bush walks and swims makes me realise it's been a great move for her too. I like the idea that she can hold onto her childhood a little bit longer here, appreciating and valuing the simple pleasures of life and nature.  It's a good age I think for moving with kids, Im not so sure it would be the same if she was a teenager.  So, today I am celebrating by sharing a few pics of  the last room that has been unpacked...Although we do have have bigger dreams for this room. This is the downstairs lounge where both guest rooms are and it's the third lounge in this place,  we have had a mammoth job in unpacking and filling the rooms. We had friends over recently and it was really their lounge, the guest lounge if that's a thing;  it's connected to the downstairs deck area so is a social space, and we use it as  a bit of a hangout room and is the room I am sitting in right this moment as I am writing this blog entry with the sunset pouring in...     We plan to knock out one wall in this room,  cut out a doorway to connect it to the the sun room next to it that you currently  can't access  without walking right around and through the house. We're starting to get a good feel of the home and how we want to use it.  I want to re-jig it a bit so there's a bit more colour in the decor, currently looking for bright boho, Persian kilim cushions (I'll let you know when I find some) I want to put some artwork up but I have nothing that works so will look to do some with which I will share, but first I need to find the cushions... I have a serious addiction to cushions I now realise after filling an entire walk in wardrobe with cushions... So Darrell will disagree that I need more cushions lol! So, here are a few shots of the last room that has been unpacked woohooo!   For Mothers Day this year, I received this rather large rattan pottery vase/ urn that's about 1.5m tall, I love the sheer scale of it and proves my family know me so well lol...Give Mum a massive vase and she'll be happy :-)  you can see a  little peek of it sitting at the entrance of this room which helps to connect and flow the different spaces which all have a slightly different look and feel. To the left of that cabinet is where we plan to cut out a door to connect it to the sun room on the other side.  The tops of these coffee tables were glass and in a brownish finish, I've decided to put them in this room because they layer but brown couch with brown tables is a bit much so have painted the glass and lightened with Calicut Premium Chalk Paint & Potters Clay Wax, have yet to decide whether I leave the frame or paint it in a soft gold....but with heavy blocky brown couches changing the coffee tables to something light   has done wonders for the space.... and these couches  Here's a before photo :  Some of you may recognise this head vase, we homed sooooo many of these when we were in retail, this one's been painted in Artisan Starling, we absolutely love this colour, a deep dark almost black green. I love setting rooms with not just visuals but also through senses, with diffusers and scented candles. So you get this slight whiff of a beautiful scent evokes the senses and different feelings from it when you walk from room to room.  We have The Aromatherapy Co scented candle and diffuser in this room, they do some gorgeous scents and it's a NZ company too.  Behind the couch is a weird nook where we've placed a long  hall table to fill this gap in and dress with decor so that the room can be laid out more symmetrically with the two couches across from each other  (you'll see it further below in the before photo)  A little chat about brown leather couches and cushions... I've had so many customers in my time in retail mention how they have given up on "cushioning" their leather couches because they slip off... it's not true,  you can have cushions! :-) choose quality feather inners, they're heavy and they stay put, have them in heavy linens or textured textiles and you can throw as many cushions on without them "slipping" off. Brown sofas are hard to dress, but if you are looking to lighten and soften the heaviness of them use soft pastel tones as we have done so far; they also look great with a couple of bright, printed, embroided or Kilim style cushions to add a little life to them which is what we are on the hunt for. Use your quality cushions to frame that one patterned cushion that you can swap out is our theory and one we've shared with many clients over the years.  Remember that old banged up table we recently posted about, this is where it's positioned under the covered deck connecting the outdoor with the indoor, those trees you spot in the distance... what I love about Autumn! they are on fire! The fabric on those stools are in need of a paint and colour change so you will see them come up shortly on our pages as a project... you can't see much of the table here in this photo, but if you haven't seen the before and after you can catch it on by clicking here a great use of an old battered table.  This is the piece that will probably need repainting depending on what we change the walls too... I've yet to choose what to fill it up with apart from that gold vase... Before photo:  just a blank room with a strange shape, It was a difficult space to fill and dress...How you place things, fill areas,  the soft furnishings, creating  varied heights through layering and drawing the eye around purposely through decor and textiles and paint finishes helps to draw away from the  areas you don't want any focus on...  and here's the room  when the sun set is streaming in.. taken literally about 5 mins ago as I was writing this.  It's a room full of layering for varied heights, depth and interest...In my mind I know it's not exactly how I want it, but this will keep for the next while until we get to painting and adjusting this room. it's easy to feel inspired looking out to this, so this entry is a bit of a long one but if you've read up to here, thank you :-) Hope you enjoyed it and we will catch you on our facebook pages soon! - Dorophya x   

If you caught the video "the starting point"   you would see how this beam had been plastered and painted over to blend in with the original paint finish in this room. A tricky position being straight through the middle of room almost cutting it in half. For our Guest Room Makeover we have decided to make this a feature rather than trying to hide it and as such an Artisan Wood effect paint finish was done on it, probably what it once was once upon a time. The neat thing about being able to create your own wood effect is that you can control just how rustic you want it by the amount of times you pull the paint around and the level of sanding after the paint has dried. This paint finish has really made the room, it's taken a beam that to be honest was a bit of nuisance, and made it part of a design feature in the room. We absolutely love it especially paired with the Matte Estate Wall paint in rubbed sage adding a natural and organic feel to the room, working in with our sanctuary/ escape bedroom that we were looking to achieve. Take a look below at how simple it is to create a painted wood effect. Although we've used this as part of the bedroom, it can easily be created on furniture as well which we've included further below as inspiration for you.        Some furniture inspiration for painted wood Effects To recreate the below use Artisan Potters Clay Premium Chalk Paint, Dark Wax, Old Espresso Wax  and clear wax  Here's the Before Photo which was a plain door purchased from Mitre 10 that was painted over in the Artisan Wood Effect technique  The painted wood effect looks great when paired with the body painted in a white, there are many beautiful whites from the Artisan range to pair with  To recreate this look use, Potters Clay, Dark Wax, Clear Wax with a slight dusting of potters clay coloured wax back over it to create a lighter look. The texture on this is more subdued and you can control this simply by pulling the paint around more (for heavy texture) or less for a more subdued look.  This dining Room Suite is also another stunning example of the Artisan painted wood effect technique. To recreate this look, paint the body in Bach blue with Tahr coloured wax. for the painted wood effect pull the paint around less and in linear type motion use, Potters Clay, dark wax, Old Espresso coloured wax and then gently sweep with potters clay, then use a fine steel wool (ooo grade) to blend and pull it together.  All created with brush work, just take a look at the before photo below. With the Artisan Premium Chalk Paint being able to adhere to almost any surface without preparation, you can use this technique on almost any surface to create your painted wood effect. We're talking lamp bases, pots, vases, veneer, metal, glass, your limited only by your imagination!   

These doors were oddly positioned in the room (as mentioned in the starting point video in our earlier blog), you walk in and straight in front of you there they were, side by side. So we've embraced their position in the room and decided to make them an actual feature in the room. All door frames, doors and window frames were completed in Velvet Luxe first, a super easy paint for colour blocking leaving a beautiful flat matte velvety finish. Take a look at the video on Velvet Luxe:  Going against the grain with these two, as doors  are often painted to blend in /be muted. In our case, we were going to use their exisiting position to make these loud and proud (but still restful) through decorative painting with Artisan Chalk Paint and we absolutely love them in the space, something different a little bespoke and those doors now have some real purpose when it comes to the aesthetics of the room .  Take a look below of when we captured the stencilling  :     Overall we love these doors, they certainly make a statement and really add to the overall look and feel to the  guest room and has turned out to be quite a talking point when we have people over. It's easy to do with a few know hows, and you don't have to be precise, a finish like this works best when your imperfect, and creates  huge visual impact, you can hear me mistakingly calling  the doors , walls many times in the video  lol! but thats because I keep thinking of these as walls as I'm doing this, its a technique that I have done on walls in the past so following the same method you can do some really beautiful feature walls too. The sky is the limit when it comes to overlaying your selection of stencil designs and coming up with a unique design and  colour way to suit your space. My tip would be get a feel for the colour way you have chosen first by doing it on a board, and if you ever need help with selecting colours, our retailers are available as well as us (details on the contact us page) at least once you've watched this video it makes it easier for us to chat with you as you have already gaged how the whole thing works. The framing around the stencil was purchased at Mitre 10 they come in strips and in all types of moulding styles  and all we did was cut it,  paint it in Old Espresso and then in Metallic Creme in Champagne gold, glued and then nailed onto the door with fine nails.  So a complex looking finish like is pretty simple when you break it down and we have helped many customers achieve this on their walls in the past, and if you do ever decide to give this a go make sure you send us some photos we would love to see!   

First up if you haven't seen it let's take a look at the starting point of the Guest/ Spare Bedroom and our thought process of what we're going to do to this room :   The PREP: other than filling in a few holes there's not much else to do, these walls are in okish condition, your average previously painted walls, nice and tidy a few imperfections, holes from picture hangings and the usual orange peel like texture from the walls being rolled. With Matte Estate you can do some remedial work but if your walls are in pretty good knick then just go straight over, no priming or sanding required. and   as you can see in the opening of this video I was super excited to get going, take a look at "The Prep"  Confession, we were too excited to get started so we did do a couple of walls before we recorded "The Painting" so the following video shows how the crafted Multi-pigmented nature of Matte Estate reacts to light and shadow on the walls, captured in the early morning Bay Of Island sunshine, but don't worry we have recorded The actual Painting of it further down for you :  THE PAINTINGand here is the painting video, brace yourselves, yes we painted this wall in various directions and watching back there was a lot of talking we've cut some bits because we thought surely you would not want to watch an hour long  video of us brushing paint out on the walls, but we think we've included all the important bits  :-)  :  THE WALLS: END RESULT This is a few days after painting the walls, it's important to note that you need to leave the paint to settle and really dry and effectively cure. Even 2 hours after painting and the wall is "dry" it will still be "settling" and there will be subtle changes in the colour and finishes as it does this. You can use it and move and place furniture against it gently, just don't go wiping down the walls or knocking it with heavy furniture just yet. We find that leaving the colour to just settle overnight and then looking at it in the morning with fresh eyes is a great way to evaluate the finish and colour.   So in Summary, Matte Estate Wall Paint is developed as a Luxe DIY Wall paint, it's forgiving... really forgiving, dries incredibly Matte so will help to hide or  diminish minor imperfections and dries with a silky velvety touch that is Matte and Wipeable. Available in all 67 Crafted Artisan colours, complex multi-pigmented crafted colour that reacts beautifully to light and shadow creating subtle nuances across the walls that really just brings them to life in a big way. The Video shows a hand brushed finished and how this style of painting will still end with a beautiful flat finish, a hand painted finish will show subtle movement across the walls when you look at it super close and tilt your head to one side but as a whole the colour shadows and highlights itself beautifully when done like this, it's not to say that you can't roll it. Darker colours or neutrals like Carbon Black or Ocean Trench, Starling will show movement a little more, so often will the really dark colours we will roll it out if we are after a "flat" finish, but in some instances we will still brush it out if we are after a little movement and life. Matte Estate we think is the perfect paint for those who want to do up an existing wall and want it to be fast and quick and a paint that is easy to use and transform even for those who have never painted a wall before, with a end finish that looks refined luxurious and polished.    Next up we'll be showing you the doors and trims being painted that's a quick one followed by the painted wood effect on the beam and stencilling the doors! The fun stuff - Stay tuned for the next blog entry  BONUS CLIP : we did this extra Video for our facebook post tonight :-)  

Before we get started : Take a look at "The Starting Point" of the Guest Bedroom, nothing special a few quirky things about it, but pretty much just a box room. We caught Darrell out of the paint room when we recorded this and pretty much gave him 2 seconds to get ready before the record button was pressed hence a bit of giggling... sometimes its good to brainstorm on the spot!