Personal Touches Make All The Difference!

If you’re a regular reader of DesignTies you’ll know that I’ve been having a lot of fun remodelling and decorating my first client’s condo. So far I’ve remodelled the fireplace and kitchen, and have had the whole condo painted in two tones of beautiful grey (Benjamin Moore’s Silver Fox and Abalone [the wall in this post is Abalone]). If you’re new to DesignTies, I hope you’ll take the time to check out these two remodels (linked above) because I think you’ll like them!

Now that all the hard physical work is done, Kate and I have been working on decorating her great space.

Recently Kate came home with a little inexpensive print (about $11); black faux suede stretched on a frame and printed with flowers in grey and white. She liked the print (she especially liked the price!) but didn’t know how she wanted to use it.

I took one look at the print… and had an idea!

I asked Kate to buy two more identical prints so that she had 3 in total… and I told her where to hang them. Here’s a photo of the prints hung on the perfect wall next to her kitchen.

Urban contemporary with a feminine twist is the look we’re trying to achieve in Kate’s condo so we’re working with black and grey as the dominant neutrals in the space, with orange (dictated by the fir floors & doors… and Kate’s dog Sanja… HaHa!!) and a fresh apple green as the accent colours on the main floor. The upper loft – black, grey & purple as the accent, and of course a touch of that orange again.

With these 3 accent colours in mind (orange, green, purple)… I decided to paint the white-outlined flowers to coordinate! So off I go to the art supply store where I purchased some fabric paint.

How disappointing! I painted each of those darn colours on the suede prints and the colours didn’t show at all! What a waste of time. I needed a solution. So… rather then head back to the art store I pulled out some old cans of wall paint and started mixing!

With a little of my dining room colour, mixed with some white, I came up with a perfect orange for one print.

But what about the green & purple flowers?

I had several cans of green paint in the basement but they all had grey undertones so the resulting mixed colour was very “dirty”. And I didn’t have anything in purple.

So… off I go to Benjamin Moore for sample pots!! Perfect solution!

And I set to painting the final two prints…

Kate loves the final results… and hopefully you will too!

I had a lot of fun with this little project! What a great way to take a simple and inexpensive set of prints and make them unique and special – just for Kate’s space!!

Hope you enjoyed this crafty transformation!