Lovely Rita!

When the Harris's stopped by Revelation boutique in Mill Valley, they didn't realize I was there teaching my first HUE color workshop, and I couldn't have guessed I'd end up working with them and my hero designer, Rita Konig, painting two floor designs for this ELLE DECOR cover story house.

 

Much of the main living part of the house was done, but here's what the newly renovated game room below the detached garage looked like (below) when I showed up.

Rita wanted an over-sized checker pattern on the salvaged wood floors. I took care of that with off black porch paint and Modern Masters Dead Flat Varnish (my sweetheart keeps forgetting and calling it Drop Dead Varnish- either way, I'm a loyal fan to this varnish and he's their newest devotee)

Getting in the corners and working around the details is always the most maddening and time consuming part...

It's also the most gratifying when it's done and the pattern is seamless. I was blissed out on this floor long before the rest of the decor came in.

 

 The other floor I painted wasn't published, so I only have my pictures to show you here. Maybe we'll see the room finished in a future publication...

Thanks to Royal Stencils, I custom ordered this massive and unusual octagon stencil- unusual because there are no connectors to hold the center piece of the stencil. I needed to hand place each piece for a seamless one-layer that completely hid the fact that stencils were used.

I love being sneaky like that with stencils. You know it's a stencil but you can't quite figure out how it was done. I love cutting my own stencils with poster board because it's biodegradable and less resource intensive. But, I've enjoyed working with Melanie Royal for years (since my Fresh Coat days on DIY Channel!) for custom finishes that need her expertise to make my work look amazing.