Nancy Golden shows how she transformed wasted space (figure A) in a newly built home into a wine storage room that's loaded with Old World charm and character (figure B). The homeowners knew that the space would be put to a better use someday, so they had the builder install brick pavers in the area. Golden's biggest challenge, therefore, would be to make it look old, since the home was newly built. (Incidentally, Golden stresses, the room is not a true wine cellar, as it isn't temperature-controlled. Such a project would have required more time and expense.) On a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being the greatest degree of difficulty, this project rates a solid 3. It took 15 hours, spread over the course of two and a half days, to complete (it would have taken longer had most of the prep work not been done earlier in the week), and the total cost for materials was $200. The first step in a project of this sort is to measure the space carefully. In this particular case, the room was small and irregularly shaped, so Golden had to know in advance what would go where. After taking the room measurements, Golden created a sketch of the room to scale and attached paint-chip samples in the colors she had chosen. Decorative painter Gigi Turpin suggests using an eggshell or semigloss paint for the base coat. It will provide the best foundation for future coats of paint and glaze. Materials:
Buckets
Paint (wall paint, stencil paint, acrylic paint, etc.)
Paintbrushes and stencil brushes
Wood stain
Glaze
Artist pencil and paper or canvas
Level
Sponges (sea and household sponges)
Plaster
Trowels
Painters tape
Stencil
Measuring tape
Plastic gloves
Ragging mitts
Protective glasses or goggles
Faux beams
Blocks of wood
Toggle bolts
Electric drill and/or screwdriver and 1/4" drill bit
5/8" paddle bolts
1-1/2" trim screws
Wine racks
Preparation: Paint the base coat on walls and stain the wine racks. Then let both dry overnight. Beginning the Transformation - Practice the design you'll be using for the mural (figure C). The design used in this instance came from a travel magazine; other sources may include travel brochures, books or vacation photographs. If you aren't an artist, or if you don't feel comfortable with this aspect of the project, keep in mind that many wallpaper stores stock murals you can fasten to the wall with wallpaper adhesive.
- To begin the outlines for the "brick" area of the wall, draw random waves on the wall to indicate where the "plaster" is peeling. Don't pay too much attention to detail at this point -- you simply want to make a rough outline sketch.
- Mix a glaze for the bricks using 1 part acrylic paint to 1 part water and 2 parts glaze. Fill in the brick area by dabbing a sea sponge in the mixture and then onto the wall (figure D), using a fairly light touch. The key to making this look more realistic is to use the clean side of the sponge to blend the glaze.
- Once the brick color has been painted in, add a top coat for more depth (1 part paint to 3 parts glaze). Dab over the first color (figure E) and allow to dry 30 minutes.
Tip: You don't want the sponge to be too saturated with glaze or paint.
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