Hello All! Happy Monday!

This week will be spent packing up my 4300 square foot home, deciding what to take with me to the much “cozier” home, what to donate to Katy Christian Ministries, and what to trash. I am being pretty ruthless with the trash pile. I’d say if there are any dumpster divers in my neighborhood, they are going to score big time!

My posts this week will probably be pretty short snippets; but short and sweet is good…right?

Please enjoy the before and after shots of the fireplace wall of a wonderful client I had the honor of working with late last year.

Before Shot Of Fireplace

My clients just moved to Houston  and purchased a beautiful home with some great architectural features, but they were just a bit too plain for her as well as for me. She is an avid art collector with some very spectacular pieces that she had collected over the years. It is quite an impressive collection of beautiful framed oils of landscapes and architecture! She wanted the fireplace to be a focal point in the room while complementing the rest of the space. The fireplace is a cast stone, so it was much too blah for me, and with such high ceilings and the fact that the alcove was pretty much defined above the mantle, I didn’t think that a piece of art would be the best option. Besides we already had quite a few pieces of art in the room. I suggested we do a mural above the mantle and faux paint the fireplace surround to look like travertine or limestone….something more natural looking. She loved that idea!

After showing her a few ideas for the subject, we both fell in love with the beautiful peacock perched on a branch. My faux painter and muralist were very excited about this project, and so we set to work creating a masterpiece. I wanted the colors to be subtle and almost have an aged appearance, as if the mural was there for centuries – but still being very elegant and complementary to the updated traditional look of the rest of the space.

During

During

As you can see from the during shots, it was quite a big job that required scaffolding. My client later admitted to me that her husband would come home each evening and look at the unfinished work in progress, and was a bit nervous about the colors. Of course, she shared my vision from the very beginning, and did a great job of assuring him to just hang in there for the finished product.

After Shot Of The Fireplace

Another After Shot Of Fireplace

Voila! This is the finished fireplace! You may notice that the actual fireplace surround was given a glaze treatment to age it just a bit (very subtle but a huge difference). We also added a glaze to the moldings that surround the art niche above the fireplace to make them blend in a bit more. It took a little less than 2 weeks to complete and is simply gorgeous…..expecially when seen in person! My client (husband included) were quite pleased  and very excited with the finished product. The entire room came together beautifully. Stay tuned for pictures of the rest of the room in future posts.

I guess this post isn’t so short after all but hope you enjoyed it!

If you would like a custom mural or paint treatment, or any help with your decor, you can contact me here.

Feel free to leave me a comment with your thoughts on the finished fireplace.

Be inspired!

Veronica Solomon