Desert Motor Speedway!

This was Tuesday...a fun one day job...painting a racetrack with speeding cars! The walls were already basecoated yellow which made this look like it was in a desert landscape - further accentuated by the hints of greenery and lofty clouds.





I'm off to Panama tomorrow...time to visit 'home' again :o) Hopefully I'll return with tons of photos that I can use for delicious tropical scenes in future murals! I'll be back next week!

Paris Princess Bedroom

These are the rooms I worked on Thursday and Friday. The first one is a bedroom for a little girl and her soon to arrive sister. It turned out sooo cute, yet quite sophisticated with the color palette and clean, playful design. The swirls and borders are actually a deep chocolate brown with a nice pink as a base and a softer pink above within the borders. Above all that is a gorgeous cream that flows up to the ceiling. I think of a few different things when I stare at the swirls - racetracks, lassos, meandering thoughts...I think it's so fun :o)




The other room will be used as a playroom for the girls. This design is a harlequin pattern that I painted more as squares on their points rather than long diamonds. It's not yet finished as there will eventually be a picture rail molding applied at the top of the diamonds and then a very pale purple will be painted above the molding all the up and on to the ceiling. This pattern looks so simple and pretty but don't fall for it! It takes quite a bit of time to figure out how to make all these diamonds the same size and have them all line up perfectly around the room (the pattern covers all 4 walls). I used lots of careful measuring, a 36" ruler, a 4' level, a pencil & eraser. It was also helpful to have the deep purple paint for touch up after I was all finished.



Next up for tomorrow...race car bedroom!

Rolling Italian Countryside (just inside the office!)

A detail of the Italian Countryside mural.

This was such a fun mural project for me - it was so easy to imagine being in this place and what the light and colors would look like. Really, when am I going to Italy??


...a grove of cypress in the distance with warmly lit mountains far behind.


Full view of the Italian Countryside mural (painted frame is cropped out).



My mural sketch...



The mural in process...I measure and tape, then sketch in and start adding layers.


About halfway completed...


The finished mural...

This ended up being such a nice space to paint this mural. It fit so well and really is like having a window into the countryside...not bad for an office in a basement!

Such an elegant, warm, & colorful niche.

Shelter Network Family House Project

I had the pleasure of doing a little volunteer work for Shelter Network Family House in Redwood City this past spring. Working with design firm, Innovative Spaces, we put together some plans for the teen & kid spaces that would serve as play, study, and hang out areas. Then I popped in for a fairly intense 6 hours to paint up all the fun patterns & colors. The folks who work at this nonprofit are so lovely and it was a joy to help them get this space put together. I know it's being put to good use!


Some of the sketches...

New Projects for July

Some fun stuff coming up...a race car themed bedroom, a sophisticated girls' playroom, a harlequin patterned bedroom, some cute room accessories. Right now I'm working on a colorful wooden alphabet for a little boy's room.