We discovered decorative painter Deirdre Newman when she reached out on Facebook to say “I can paint a lot (all) of the painted floors and walls you suggest! Would love to execute some of your amazing ideas!”.  We poked around her huge portfolio of projects and found a trove of clever, meticulously-executed ideas. We especially like her faux parquet stained floors which could be a great solution to chic-ing up inexpensive short-cut oak flooring that is in so many spaces these days.  

Deirdre Newman
Deirdre Newman

There are lots of possibilities for designs, from the more classic ones Newman created, to more modern ones.

Deirdre Newman
Deirdre Newman

We’re hoping to meet for Deirdre soon to find out more about her work, how she did her fab faux parquet, and possibly hatch plots for some interesting collaborations.

In the meantime, we poked around the internet and found that Faux House published a PDF of their process of creating faux parquet. The gist seems to be sanding (and possibly bleaching) the floor to make it more uniform, (sanding again if it was bleached), then using a stencil with various tones of gel stain to make the pattern before sealing the floor.

Unwilling to rip out the original parquet if there was any hope, Ann Bayer and husband Carl decided to tackle it. By sanding and then applying wood bleach, they were able to lessen the contrast between the dark pet stains and lighter woods. They then applied wood putty to fill the cracks. This was followed by more sanding, a sealer and light stain.

Melanie Royals, artist, author and founder of Modello Designs flew from San Diego and taught a group of volunteers how to apply a 6’ x 8’ Modello Decorative Masking Pattern.. The one-time-use, adhesive vinyl stencil was custom sized to fit the room. Modellos have revolutionized the faux world by allowing intricate patterns to be produced less expensively and on a large scale. Further, the self-adhesive prevents against the bleed under that can be problematic when using mylar stencils.

Once the pattern was applied to the floor, Melanie and her team of volunteers used water-based gel Stain and Seal. to stencil the various colors through the elaborate pattern.

Was it worth it? While a huge amount of work, the reward was an eco-friendly and truly unique patterned floor plus a huge sense of accomplishment.

fauxhouse.com
fauxhouse.com

It’s no doubt a lot of work with a learning curve, but Faux House makes the payoff clear: “truly unique patterned floor plus a huge sense of accomplishment”. And if you don’t want to DIY, Deirdre can do it for you. Check out her portfolio for possibilities in the realm of decorative painting and beautiful “faux”.

 

 

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