Shades of Blue Gray

How do I know what to paint on my furniture?

The pieces of furniture that I paint are meant to find a home, YOUR home, and I paint them in a way that might match your taste or decor style.  A lot of the time, the pieces lend themselves to certain designs based on their lines or function.  Sometimes there is a trend I want to try out.  Sometimes I feel like painting a bunny or frog on something.  Regardless, they all turn out unique & and serve as focal points in any room.

Sometimes they become inspiration for pieces you might already have.

This end table I picked up at a garage sale.  Everyone can use a stand like this SOMEWHERE in their place, right?  And I recently bought a copper/patina faux finish kit that I wanted to try out on something small and safe.  This stand seemed to be the perfect guinea pig.

It invloved painting a layer of copper metallic paint, spraying it with the magic potion it came with & then watching the copper paint turn turquoise.  Except the turquoise was a little ugly, so I blended it down with some sea foam blue paint & came up with this pretty cool faux finish. 

 

 Because I wanted to feature the finish, I didn't do a lot of decorative painting, just linear flowers. 

 

But I did add something else I wanted to try: a top full of text.  I have been saving quotes & decided to run them all together to fill the top surface completely.  Notice the touches of copper, too.

 

The sea glass knob was a perfect touch (purchased at Anthropologie- an AMAZING store).

A customer saw this piece & decided it wouldn't work for her, but loved the finish and the simple painting style...and the glass knob.  This gal went home, looked at her old buffet in the breakfast room & decided I better paint it for her.  I'm ticked that I forgot to snap a before picture, but it was stained a dark brown with gold hardware.  Not too exciting, but very functional in the space she had.

I visited her house and memorized the shade of blue she needed, while still planning to replicate the copper/turquoise faux finished from the nightstand she liked so much.  I took a few pics of her rug and existing furniture & hoped for a good match once I walked out of there with her piece.

Here's the final.  She was thrilled and admittedly relieved.  In her words, I "nailed it."  Whew!

Hello Kitty!

Let me know if there's something I can paint up for you!

Recycled Ornaments

I'm very excited about my spoons.

I have painted Santa and snowman spoons, forks, and knives for several years now and always enjoy their unique expressions. 

 

 

I eventually branched out to Santa keys and the eventually the sought after skeleton keys.

 Each key is so cool and unique, I love to feature them as an ornament.

Then I stumbled upon souvenir spoons, you know, the ones that old ladies have on display in their dining rooms showing all of their places of travel?  

 

 I decided to paint those up for the holidays too, featuring little scenes on the spoon tip.

Beach scenes for the Florida, Hawaii spoons, lighthouses for the Maine spoon, Central Park ice skater for the New York spoon.

It is addicting to hunt for the spoons & then paint them up as one of a kind keepsakes, souvenirs all over again!

Stop by my show this weekend in Loveland, September 9, 2012, 11-5pm to pick one up for yourself!

Loveland Art Show

Sept 9, 2012

11-5pm

Nisbet Park, Loveland Ohio

Or you can purchase one from my etsy store: www.coriekline.etsy.com!

 Thanks for looking!

Fantastic House Bed

I recently had the pleasure of working with a family who has a daughter with special needs.  Kendall has Angelman's Syndrome and for her health and safety, she needs to be confined to her bed overnight.  Because she outgrew her crib, her parents needed her to have a fun and loving place to sleep without it seeming like she was in a cage.  

The family had carpenter friends who were able to build them this amazing house bed.  Pretty cool, huh?  It houses a twin sized bed, ventilation fan, and is equipped with all of Kendall's overnight medical needs.  

Kendall's dad base coated the house.  A ton of work!

 

 One of the carpenter friends knew me, so he contacted me to come in and paint the fun, decorative stuff.  I painted the stoop to look like stone and roses growing up the chimney.  

 

The dormer windows are removable, but for now feature a bird and a sleeping calico cat.

 

 

There is an actual flower box (they plan to fill with silk flowers) that sits below a dog greeting all visitors.  There is even a side storage closet that I painted with a topiary tree.

     

 The finished product!

Her initials on the front door finish the look and the house is absolutely charming!  An amazing project for an amazing little girl!

 

Thanks for looking!

Subway Signs

I jumped on the trend wagon and now offer custom painted Subway Signs.  They fit perfectly with any decor and look great in almost any room.  So simple, yet striking!

 

 

Mine are created on canvas and can include any street, city, park, or meaningful location of your choice.  I can also paint family names and include dates.  

The possibilities are endless!

There is also a variety of sizes available: 10"x24", 12"x36", 18"x 36."  

This one is 12"x36."

Contact me at coriekline@mac.com if you live in the Cincinnati area and are interested!

Space Mural

 A great room theme for kids of all ages is outer space.  Because this bedroom had a lot of nice furniture pieces, I had to squeeze in the space elements in the corners or upper walls.  

I think it worked out great, as I was able to place a large moon and astronaut in the corner and feature a Star Wars ship and planets above the dresser.  

 Although the photo doesn't really show it well, I added glitter paint to the planets and splattered it around them to resemble stars.  

 

And a light saber by the door is a nice touch to tie in another Star Wars element.  Thanks for looking and be inspired!