Journal – Page 33 – me & mrs. jones

hey nancy drew

March 2, 2008 by stephanie

this project called for a bit of sleuthing in matching the existing stain, to repair damaged places on the cabinets and new wood that had been added to raise the height of the countertops. a warm sienna glaze was then applied to all the surfaces to even out the color — some of the old pine had faded and dried out — and give everything a consistent finish. my creative clients also requested that a section of the cabinets be given some distressed black paint to camoflauge the appliances and give the kitchen a more furniture-y feeling, in addition to hiding the fact that two of the cabinet doors had been replaced. (bet you can’t guess which ones!)

hey, j., where’d you get that stencil?

February 28, 2008 by Mrs. Jones Admin

if your mailbox caught the most recent catalog to arrive from j. crew, take a peek at the back cover…no, not at the gorgeous girl in the paisley blouse, silly…please notice the extremely cool traditional/modern stenciled walls behind her! you can also see just a snip of another finish below the woodwork. beautiful!

mirror, mirror on new walls

February 22, 2008 by Mrs. Jones Admin

mentioned previously, but worth repeating: mrs. jones totally hearts the talented ladies at a little english interiors. lovely gwen erb needed this mirror (perfect shape and size, wrong finish) to match wallpaper she’d chosen for a client’s powder room.

here it is, before and after, with a sample of the paper for you to see.

travelogue: new orleans

February 21, 2008 by stephanie

what a treat…new orleans for the long weekend. the little joneses soaked it all up: the WWII museum, the sculpture garden at the NOMA, streetcars, beignets, jambalaya, tarot card readers and mimes, gumbo, muffalettas, cemeteries, voodoo, zydeco music — they loved it all.

while my family hunted garden district ghosts (and found gelato instead), mrs. jones had 90 minutes for a parade of her own down a few blocks of magazine street. the colors, finishes, and wonderful shops send me right over the crescent city moon. all that fabulous old plaster and stucco, gold and silver leaf, wrought and cast iron…there is nothing like new orleans. i am craving a chandelier from julie neill designs and an iron bed from aux belles choses.

(ooh – and just one more beignet.)

shelving “blueprint”

February 16, 2008 by Mrs. Jones Admin

such a sad little postcard! another of mrs. jones’s favorite magazines, blueprint, is “ceasing publication”. it’s funny how the shelter publications circle of life works. because of a photograph in a blueprint last spring, i became a tiny bit obsessed with the “expedit” shelves from ikea. had to have them! since shipping would have cost twice the price of the shelves, my darling friend laura nunnally invited us to visit and shop her ikea in atlanta. (back at home, mr. jones took one look at the helpful assembly instructions, and poured himself something tall and cool.)

now the business corner of the studio has at least the illusion of organization and neatness:

but wait, here’s the circular part! in the same bundle of mail that contained the postcard about blueprint, elle decor arrived, featuring a spread on bookshelves (photo on right), including the ikea expedit. coincidence? hmmm.

it’s down the hall on the right

February 13, 2008 by stephanie

they liked new look of their kitchen cabinets, so my very kind clients asked me to stay and put a little glaze on their bathroom cabinets, too. they had recently installed beautiful granite countertops and good-looking hardware.

these began with plain white, glossy paint.

presto change-o fausto!

February 8, 2008 by stephanie

for those needing to re-affirm that anything is possible: these kitchen cabinets are made of melamine foil (yes, that sythetic molded material that is wonderfully wipeable when you have small children, but…) my lovely clients were ready to update the kitchen with gorgeous granite and new appliances. enter the fabulous fausto saldana, mrs. jones’s favorite painter. in just a few short days, he and his crew worked the cabinets over with a super-bonding primer and semi-gloss enamel. mrs. jones does not work quite as quickly, but i’ve applied a layer of glaze to soften them up and age them a little.

here’s one “before”, and two “after“, along with views of the room.

for fausto’s phone number, feel free to contact me.

aura arrives in memphis!

February 1, 2008 by Mrs. Jones Admin

it’s just too thrilling…much sooner than anticipated, our local benjamin moore paint dealer, seabrook, is stocking the super new environmentally kind, high-performance paint line, aura. (and guess who has her hands on the new fan-deck with the 144 gorgeous new aura-exclusive “affinity” colors?) (thank you, seabrook becky, denise & susan!)

mrs. jones spills the beans

January 25, 2008 by Mrs. Jones Admin

after being plied with the most delicious chicken salad ever, i just couldn’t help it…i gave away my secrets to the lovely ladies of the oak grove garden club today. we covered “saturday morning garden ornaments”. and yes, i confess it’s true, i taught them a wax-resist method for painting pots, and disclosed the details on how a slip-layer of glaze applied before a layer of muddy green can make their concrete urns look fabulously, instantly mossy. but please don’t judge mrs. jones too harshly. if you’d tasted one of their incredible key lime squares, you’d have told it all, too.

shabby chic, meet marie antoinette

January 24, 2008 by Mrs. Jones Admin

this curvy-front, drop-leaf desk was built by a client’s great-grandfather. she had a brilliant idea: fix it up and cover the inside with wallpaper! then decided it would be easier to let mrs. jones stencil it in the damask pattern and color she wanted. after cleaning it up, rubbing down the existing paint to enhance its little bumps and flaws, silver-leafing the knobs, and adding a little “graceful aging” glaze, it’s ready for a new life.

some details:

hello, kitty

January 19, 2008 by stephanie

here’s a snippet of a project finished today…the client requested a stippled glaze on the walls of her bathroom to work with this snazzy botanical fabric she’s using. so glad i had my new friends moon pie and peanut (who unfortunately moved too quickly to be photographed) to keep me company and keep an eye on my toolbox.

soul food

January 18, 2008 by stephanie

many thanks to the members of soup for the soul who were kind enough to have mrs. jones as their speaker tonight. we had a great discussion on beautifying our homes using eco-friendly products and materials, the new non-toxic paints and plasters, and re-purposing existing furnishings. for inspiration: take a peek at the book salvage sisters by kathleen hackett & mary ann young, then sign up at freecycle, specify your area, and search under “curb alerts”. you won’t believe the potential treasures that are out there!

it was wonderful to spend an evening with such creative and accomplished women. and, of course, the soup was fantastic!

early bloomer

January 17, 2008 by stephanie

yes, that was a very excited mrs. jones at the prescott street post office the other day, signing for a package from stencil library. after breaking the customs seals, opening the tube, and taking the stencil out of its fancy tissue paper ( i LOVE a package from the UK!) i did a small sample for you to see:

this stencil has 22 separate elements: trunk, branches, leaves, blossoms and even roots, so that your cherry tree can grow and blossom around a room, up a flight of stairs, or on to a piece of furniture in any way you choose. here, it’s branching out on a background of palladian blue (benjamin moore #hc 144) in pearlescent white. imagine the possibilities… gold-leafed on to bright chinese red (or black), pale gold on pear-green, silver on canteloupe-y orange, blossoms in shades of pink on brown branches on the front of a creamy white dresser…

take a chair, macbeth

January 14, 2008 by stephanie

today i snuck out to see the “met at the movies”...verdi’s macbeth. so incredible. greed! ambition! madness! revenge! i could go on and on about the amazing production, the talented cast, the wild re-imagining of the witches (“toil & trouble” etc.) as 1950’s ladies with pearls and kelly handbags, but that is not really what mrs. jones is supposed to be using the journal for. no, what i want to mention here is the beautiful silver-leafed ballroom chairs and bench, upholstered in gold damask, and how gorgeous they looked against the mostly gray and black set. (the only other furnishings on stage were a sleek black four-poster bed and several huge chandeliers.) the chairs and bench were very traditional in style (hepplewhite?) with those little spade feet, but with the silver leaf and gold fabric, they looked very modern and cool…while everyone on stage was all heated up, trying to avoid the daggers and get their spots out!

i’m going to look for a chair to re-do.

a light, a glow

January 11, 2008 by Mrs. Jones Admin

these sconces have been swankified for a young lady’s bathroom with bittersweet-chocolate paint, silver leaf, and tinted wax.

before… and after.