Chicago My Kind of Town

 

Buon giorno!  Our latest project found us in Chicago during the months of July and August. We were commissioned to create custom plaster finishes throughout a residence located on the fourteenth floor of the prestigious Palmolive Building on Lake Michigan.

Our clients are Northern California residents who spent quite a bit of time in Chicago in business so they decided to invest in some real estate there. The Palmolive Building is a beautifully renovated 100-year-old building  with an art deco motif.  Our task was to create wall finishes throughout the residence that reflected this look.

We hear from designers and homeowners who have a misconception about what we do.   When they think of plaster finishes they think of a Tuscan look only.  Many people will call saying they want Venetian plaster, which in their mind is only the average smooth shiny marble like polished finish, something you might see in an Italian decor.  The reality is telling us you want plaster is like telling us you want to buy a pair of shoes. We will work with you to determine what color, what texture, shiny, polished, etc. We create custom finishes for each job we do.

 It is like the difference between fast food and a gourmet meal.   Being that Art is the Quality of Communication, we try to take in all factors from the space, furniture, lighting, architecture, materials, as well as the desires of the clients, and then create textured plaster finishes that greatly enhance that space without overpowering it.

 For Chicago, we had dark hardwood floors, large windows that let in lots of light, high ceilings, and oversized doors and trim in white. The space had just been completed; we were starting with plain white walls. We wanted to use some colors and applications that separated each area, while still transitioning well one room to the next. The theme was Art Deco.  If your exposure to Art Deco is limited to Fred and Ginger movies or other photographs, you can miss that typically there was a lot of vibrant color.

 We created a number of special finishes for this. We started in the entry with an iridescent dark olive plaster overlaid with a thin layer of gold plaster. This led into the main room where we wanted to create a champagne look, so we created a smooth finish with a champagne color that tied into the modern furniture and materials chosen for the room.  For the ceiling finish, we needed to create something special to tie in wit the walls while also creating depth and pushing the ceiling up. For the entry and main room ceilings we created a three layer iridescent finish. A lace color followed with white and then gold, which complimented the walls, the floor and looked stunning. We liked this finish so much we used it in the guest bathroom as well as an accent wall.  For the master bedroom we created a color using eggplant and cantaloupe to create a unique color that we trowelled on with a special technique so that the color would play differently at different times of day.  For the guest bedroom we came up with a completely different finish, very smooth and shiny distressed metallic plaster – the color of a shiny penny. For the hall powder room we used a copper iridescent plaster overlaid with a gold plaster for a very contemporary finish. 

In this newsletter, you can see pictures of a few of these finishes, taken when we finished the project, before all the furniture was in place. We will follow up with more in following newsletters, so you can see more how these sorts of finishes work in an Art Deco décor. I also will be telling you more about a series of new finishes that I am creating that will work in the retro modern decors and other contemporary spaces you see in the shelter magazines right now.

We will be accepting a limited amount of commissions for these finishes this fall, so call right now to get on the schedule.

For finishes for every decor, Call us today at 408 448 1683, or email us at molto@earthlink.net.

      Molto Bene License No. 739710