# ? for painting247 - torn paper



## daArch (Mar 15, 2008)

I saw your gallery of hand painted/torn paper.

Are you painting those yourself? Or are they Vahallan or even Stony Brook ?

(I figured Vahallen since Lincoln is two hours away from you)

Would be interested in hearing more if you are making those yourself.

Gorgeous stuff, whichever. I have not been spec'ed any yet, but am eagerly awaiting the day. 

thanks

-Bill


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## painting247 (Mar 18, 2009)

painting the paper myself. The beauty of this is that the possibilities are unlimited. I do custom orders, using the clients colors and the clients love it! The metallics are becoming very popular right now and using different shapes such as circles or squares with rectangles (this is sharp)!


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## daArch (Mar 15, 2008)

I am TRULY impressed.

I see you "will ship world wide". With that in mind, and with your permission, I would like to include what you do in an issue of the NGPP Boston Chapter newsletter, Pulp Fusion. (can't guarantee it will be the next one - I'm a little bit of a procrastinator.......OK OK, I'm ADD)

Some of our members do Stoney Brook and Vahallen (or as I like to mis-print it - Van Halen), but I have a feeling some would be very impressed by what you do. I also email it out to about fifty member across the country and put it on the NGPP website, so it MIGHT (no guarantees) give a bit of free "exposure". 

Heck, I may even ask you to write a short blurb (don't worry, "our editorial staff" can turn drek into gold) about how you do it and what you CAN do. 

again, IMPRESSIVE. You deserve a little exposure. 

-Bill


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## painting247 (Mar 18, 2009)

thank you daArch for the kind words


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## painting247 (Mar 18, 2009)

It's quite interesting how this all came about. I was painting an office building for a client, I would paint an office with his color choice and he would come in and say the color is all wrong and I would re-paint. I tried this color and that before he was satisfied with "The Look". I would get samples of colors on the walls before he would chose a color. This 5 day job ended up taking 3 weeks. 

Anyways....the paper. Well, it was time to paint the conference room, the walls were covered with paper and the original drywall had not been preped prior to hanging the paper. 

Therefore removing the paper was going to require the walls then be skimmed. He did not want to go to this much trouble and asked if I could paint the existing paper and not remove it. I told him I could but that it would look like the wallpaper was painted and any imperfections in or under the paper would show through, he said that was okay to go ahead and paint the room. I painted, he came in and said "I can still see the seams" (well da......) and wasnt sure if the (solid) color was right. Definately not the look he was after...so he asked if I could do a faux finish on *A* walls to give him a better idea of what it might look like if the entire room was faux. So I did. 

Keep in mind that I started my day at 8:30 am working on an exterior project in the hot summer sun until I ran out of daylight, around 9pm then moved indoors to begin doing some faux finish SAMPLES on a wall. I did 5 or 6 faux samples and left around 3 or 4am. I got a call that next morning indicating this was once again "NOT THE LOOK" he was after. 

OMG, I wondered what more could I do to please this guy? Later that day I asked him to come with me, around town and I would show him do things I've seen and maybe I could get a better idea of "THE LOOK" he was after. I took him to several businesses around town and showed him some papers that were used and finally he said: *that's it...that's what I am looking* *for!* So I made some calls and got some prices and shared this with him. He said that's too much, way too expensive...you can do this, he told me. I replied: Well I never have, I have wanted to just don't have the time to play around with it. I really tried to discourage him from having me make the paper mostly because he is so picky and I've had to re-paint and re-do before we achieved "The Look" that he was after. I was just afraid that (once again) he may not be satisfied. 

Anyway, After working on the other exterior project during the day I returned to the office to attempt the paper, by the way he wanted one wall done by open of business the next day so they could decide if that was truly what they wanted. So I played around with color, texture and style (must have made a half dozen attempts) before I was satisfied with "THE LOOK". I left at 5:30 am, one wall was completely done and I was dead tried.

Evidently, this was "THE LOOK" he was after so he asked me to finish the entire room in this hand painted paper. I was relieved......but, I had tried so many things with this paper the night before I couldn't remember how I did it. Once again trial and error before I got it right, made enough paper for the entire room and "THE LOOK" I must say was and still is absolutely gorgous! 

I have had more complements and referals off this paper than I have with any of my other projects. Glad you like it!


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## daArch (Mar 15, 2008)

and ain't that the way so many new techniques and products are developed.

There's a lady hanger down in Texas that started tearing up brown paper bags and hand pasting them to walls and then coating them with Draw-Tite (the orginal from which Gardz was copied). Much for the same reason. Now she's big at marketting her "Brown Bag Walls". Actually saved her paperhanging business.


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## painting247 (Mar 18, 2009)

that's funny, I have done the same thing with brown paper bags!


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