Waiting for Volvoic

[MordEth]

...I suppose I'll paint the existing door deep green . . . haven't made up my mind, yet. Any suggestions?

John,

If you would like to share photos of the other ‘final’ colors, I can always put color swatches together in one of my graphics apps and try to offer suggestions. I’m terrible at color advice without doing a mock-up.

And Brian had a good point about the sunlight, but I think you’re aware of it.

I also think at least some of us would be interested in seeing progress shots of your painting—especially people like me whose painting skill is pretty much limited to getting a wall or ceiling a solid color without painting things that shouldn’t get painted.

It sounds like you’re lining yourself up for a fair bit of work, though.

Good luck with it!

— MordEth

[JohnM]

Actually, we should be done with everything but the gilding by the time the sun goes down today. I have to order gold leaf and size today. I had a general contractor license in California and a professional attitude that goes along with it, and while I am far from lazy, I have enough respect/distaste/appreciation for work to know that I like to get it out of the way with no delay so I can either get on to the next thing or relax, one or the other. April 1 starts tourist season here for all intents and purposes, so I want the place looking spruce asap.
John M

[JohnM]

A late afternoon rain and a couple of design changes before that kept us from finishing, but we are about 90% done. We are closed tomorrow, but have to run errands in Louisville which is a 100-mile round trip. I wish we could just stay here and finish!
So close!
It is looking very Victorian! I think it will be the nicest storefront in town!

John M

[wjw]

John and Lauri, that is a wonderful building. Good luck with the business!

[JohnM]

Thank you, my friend!
J & L

[JohnM]

Came another fierce afternoon thunderstorm yesterday afternoon, so the only thing I gilded was the address numbers over the door because they are removable. It is still rainy this morning but will get sunny this afternoon and all day tomorrow. I'll start gilding the front later today and hopefully post pix of the finished front tomorrow. We've got nothing but compliments including from the woman who teaches historic preservation at the local college.
John M

[MordEth]

We've got nothing but compliments including from the woman who teaches historic preservation at the local college.

John,

I’m not surprised—you certainly seem to care about doing things right.

I caught Wyatt briefly on IM, and he stated that he had a fabulous time during his visit, and was impressed with your new location.

I can’t wait to see the ‘after’ pictures!

— MordEth

[JohnM]

Well . . . here's the finished product. One can see the gold leaf -- especially the shells -- a block away. The red fascia also helps draw the eye over parked cars and trucks, etc. I'll be installing a really nice 3D shingle sign over the door sometime soon, which is why I didn't letter the red. I also gilded several of the smaller, more subtle design elements such as the centers of the uppermost rosettes, the ring around the center of the sunflower and the three bands that bind those stems together, the rounded tips of the poppies, and the center of the lowest flower. Just enough golden gleam to catch the eye in the way paint simply cannot. The sun was striking the sides of the shells yesterday in such a way that from a block away and across the street it looked like flares burning. How do you all like it? Flash is cash!



And here is how it used to look:



John M

[MordEth]

I think it’s quite eye-catching; more so than the ‘before’ color scheme. (re-posted below for easy comparison) (Edit: Nevermind, John posted the ‘before’ photo in his post above.)

Are you going to paint the door green (it looks unpainted in that photo) or just wait until you replace it?

And even in a photo, the gilded building number pops out a lot more than it did before.

— MordEth

[schweg]

Fantastic John! I think it looks amazing! I had a 100 yr old home in OK that we re-painted in Victorian style. It was plain white when we bought it and we re-did it in gray (main color) trimmed in blue and white. It looked really cool, at least that's what we thought. There were 52 cornices (is that what they are called?) up under the eaves that my wife thought would look cool in blue. Well, guess who got to climb up the 30' ladder to do each and every one of those dang things!! But I must admit, it was worth it. We sold the house in 2003 when we moved and I'm told it has been returned to boring white... Boo!!