Haight Street Paint Co - San Francisco Painting Company PaintDeco.com specializes in decorative painting and artistic wall treatments - faux finishes, Venetian plaster, stencils, wallpaper. This blog is to chronicle online our adventures in faux paint and decorative finish techniques. All images copyright Haight Street Paint Company, 1388 Haight St #193, San Francisco, 94117. Telephone 415.845.7479 - call us for a free consultation, appointment.

Monday, June 22, 2009

The Green Room

This color - call it 'Toothpaste Green' - is not used by decorators and painters anymore.







Our client - 'Jane' - wants it painted before she moves in, and has already decided the colors: gray, with a rich red accent wall.










It is typical to use very rich colors on the accent wall, bold color will compliment the surrounding decor. The results are visually stunning:


Monday, May 18, 2009

Fleur De Lis

With modern photo-copy magic, we can transform any desired image into a stencil, any size. These photos are from a job completed recently, is this too much fun?





Copyright doesn't cover personal use, imagine transforming one of your walls into a trademark piece like this: anything is possible. The design was photocopied, enlarged, then stenciled onto the walls of the wardrobe. You probably recognize the Louis Vuitton motif.






Here are more photos of the drag effect, our paint is metallic as you can see in the close-up.




Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Stencils & Faux Pics

These are pictures from our portfolio, some from San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego. All of them taken before we started keeping this online journal:







I really love this faux bamboo jungle, and some more pics of the finished room will be posted (hopefully) soon.





The following pictures are from an exceptional drag finish (18' tall!) and a closet stenciled with the trademark Louis Vuitton pattern - wow! Because of our modern advances in photocopy technology, any design you want can be easily transformed into a stencil.






And some beautiful faux finishes, simple and elegant:


Monday, April 13, 2009

43 Downey

To protect the innocent, we usually don't publish real names or addresses, but this place is going up for sale as soon as we're finished. Its a vacant old apartment building, of course there is old peeling wallpaper, painted and repainted over the years:




After cutting out the loose areas, we prime, with Zinsser white pigmented Shellac (primer) then patch:





The house has been neglected for years, and look at these cabinets!






Everything must be done, the hinges are corroded, rusted and greasy. The cabinets must be washed thoroughly, they're covered in dust and old kitchen goo!




Like much of SF's classic architecture, this building was created before the turn of the century - so many of the walls and cielings have sagging, cracking lathe & plaster. Of course, we could demolish and replace with drywall, but only if absolutely necessary. I prefer plaster personally, and so does the "builder" at askthebuilder.com.


Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Stencil Designs

Here are some more ideas stencils designs, found on the web.
The first two were found on decorative blog website: designinspiration.typepad.com








This one is an historic wallpaper design found at fitzdecarts.com.

Sunday, April 5, 2009

"Casey's" Crib

"Casey's" crib nearly sits on the front lawn of the venerable Jesuit founded USF - University of San Francisco, a beautiful neighborhood that lies adjacent to Haight Ashbury - so when he called me to look at some samples I was thrilled.

After arriving, I was greeted by a wonderful husband and a beautiful, ankle biter - a Cavalier Cocker Spaniel. "Casey's" computer screen was nearly filled by a zingy paint sample - color from the bright side of citrus - with wavelengths pulsing in the orange/red spectrum:




Our first inspiration was, for the crown molding, to match the copper verdigris from a local eatery "The Crepe House" on Grove and Gough streets - but our local talent pool eventually reached a consensus: the cieling trim would have to match the antique and copper leaf patina of the credenza - which would stretch along one of the walls when the job was complete.



"Casey's" color selection was bright and juicy - but alas the first set of sample were pale, buttery and brown. After increasing the octane, a suitable color scheme was obtained:



The crown molding came out wonderful - "Casey" installed it himself:




A photo taken just days after the job: