Monday, August 6, 2012

Client Sneak Peek : Ombre Stairs


We had a wonderful weekend working on a client projects.  We met with a new client on Saturday morning for a consultation and then we had a blast turning my kitchen into a lab! After a trip to the paint store, we spent the afternoon mixing paints to come up with 19 jars of graduated tints for an ombre installation on the stairs of our wonderful yoga client. The entry is an intimidating stack of steps, so we sought out to give them the Powell Brower treatment!

The color mixing was a bit tricky, but with Bethany's biology background, and my art background we turned 3 quarts of color into 19 colors.  It was so much fun!


                                    (I didn't really dip my antique Chinese brush in the paint..)

We bought 3 quarts of color in a coral color palette and labeled them as dark, medium and light "control" color, in addition to a gallon of pure white we used for mixing.  Our client very recently had the stairs professionally painted with Benjamin Moore Floor and Patio paint.  We wanted to use the same paint so as to get the same durability, even though we were just doing the instep. We used Duron's Adhesion Primer, our best friend, to prep the steps.  That was the trick in getting these colors to really pop. Next we applied two coats of the BM Floor and Patio paint. I don't know if you've ever used this kind of paint, but it was very thin, very viscous and dried very quickly.  It's almost like a stain, but is has epoxy in it to ensure the paint really sticks (and stays stuck) to the floor!


From each of the control colors, we added the lighter control to it in tablespoon increments, documenting the recipes all along the way. If we had added white to the darkest "control" color to achieve the graduation of color, we would have lost saturation in each mix and the colors would become muddy.  So we added the next lightest control color to each new mix.



Our lab notebook with all of our dilutions.



There are 19 steps total and we did a new color or degradation for every two steps.  Since there is an odd number of steps, we used the lightest mix (pure white with a tablespoon of the lightest control color, a light pink) on the last step only.  To keep it all straight, we mixed our colors in mason jars and labeled them for each step. 

And on Sunday, we painted.

The before.



The after.




We took the last shot as we were finishing up Sunday evening.  The light wasn't great, but we'll show you better pics when we reveal the Yoga Studio Project next month!  We're exhausted from dangling from these concrete steps all day yesterday and doing some precarious yoga-esque poses to get the undersides of the lip of the tread.  But we've so thrilled with the outcome, the perfect touch of whimsy for some sad stairs, and hopefully a peek of what's to come once the students reach the top and enter the inner sanctum.  

Tell us what you think!  And what you got into this past weekend.

- Nancy

I just posted this on a Before and After Link Party over at:


TDC Before and After


If you are looking for help with your home, we'd love to work with you! Contact us for a listing of our services and prices. 
Nancy and Bethany

39 comments:

  1. Genius!!! What a smart and inventive idea. And it looks AMAZING!!! PIN!!

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  2. I just love it! It has such a dramatic effect, and makes you smile all a the same time! Perfect colors and perfect graduation from dark to light! Well done ladies!

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  3. It looks awesome! The colors look perfect and the ombre effect is right on point!

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  4. Fabulous look. I never would have thought of this.

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  5. I love them! Great idea, and I know that they will be so happy!
    Happy Monday.
    Teresa
    xoxo

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  6. Wow..you too really made this look great!! I love the prep you did on shades too...very smart! Can't wait to see the "big reveal".

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  7. This is awesome! I love it. Very creative and well-executed.

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  8. I want to go do yoga there!! You girls are GOOD, what a fabulous first impression!

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  9. Such a great idea! I have been trying to decide what to do with our blah stairs and this definitely gives me some ideas!

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  10. Oh my gosh! I think that's about the coolest thing I've ever seen!

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  11. Wow, that is spectacular! Looks like it would love been a lot of work, but the results are stunning!

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  12. Hey, there you are mixing paint. I love all things ombre. Well done.

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  13. I absolutely love this. What a fabulous idea. I will HAVE to try it at some point! Thank you for some great inspiration...

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  14. Unbelievably gorgeous, stunning, dramatic, striking....can I find any more words!
    Patty

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  15. I absolutely love it! So fun and the colors are perfect!

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  16. Oh my! What a project! It looks fantastic!

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  17. Now that is cool!! Love, love, love it!!! My neighbor painted her garage doors in a similar way....all the paneled squares on the doors were done in tone-on-tone taupes.
    xoxo,
    Loi

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  18. Great idea...I could totally see this in Martha Stewart Living!

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  19. what a fun idea!

    http://thewearwithal.blogspot.com/

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  20. I just love this idea!!! I have taught my art students the concept and I use the same color swatch all over my house, but this stair idea is very neat!

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  21. Wow...this is amazing...fabulous transformation!!

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  22. oh my gosh! this is such a great idea, but way to tech-y for me - you lost me at "control" and "saturation" :-) cant wait to see more pics of the space!

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  23. Oooh-la-la! I love those stairs! I've seen paint swatches in similar tones done on walls over at Houzz.com, however, I understand that for stairs, buying paint for every 2 steps would be costly! I love that you experimented and still cmae up with a wonderful outcome! Keep em' coming ladies! :-)

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  24. I love love love these stairs! Nicely done! Can't wait for the big reveal.

    Holly

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    1. And thanks for sharing at the All Star Block Party.

      Holly

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  25. OMG. That's one of the coolest staircases I've ever seen!
    What a way to get your zen on.

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  26. An amazing transformation!

    I've nominated you guys for a blog award.Check it out here...http://www.harlowsexclusive.com/2012/08/the-liebster-award.html

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    1. Darci, that is so sweet of you! Thank you so much! One of us will answer those questions!
      Nancy

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  27. Fabulous!!! Such a great change for what should be a warm, welcoming, happy space!! I would have needed my stepmom the artist to help me with all of that mixing!!

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  28. WOW!!! How cool is that!!!!! Love it!

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  29. Ombre love! Great idea using the mason jars to hold all of the colors. I'm featuring your stairs on my facebook page today. Thanks for the inspiration!

    Shasta @InTheOldRoad
    All Star Block Party

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    1. Shasta, Thank you so much, and thanks for sharing our post. I hope people will give it a try; it wasn't hard at all once you have all the colors mixed.
      Nancy

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  30. Oh my word. Wow. Just, WOW!!! Shared on my Facebook page as well!

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  31. These stairs are so cool. I would have just added white to the darker colors. The whole saturation aspect is great to know. Thanks for sharing.

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  32. I just wanted to let you know that I featured your stairs this week. Stop by and grab a button.

    Holly

    http://fullcirclecreations.blogspot.com/2012/08/its-feature-time_14.html

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  33. Such a cool look! And I love how shared the mason jar saturation tips too, great info to know.

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  34. The gorgeous post learned a great deal Thanks greatly!
    bubblegum casting

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