Often, the work I do is referred to as “specialty painting”, which of course includes the decorative finishes I create – but also includes my use of paint to make repairs disappear!
This first example is on stairs that were part of a renovation project. The old spindles were removed and replaced with new ones, but the holes from the old spindles needed to be plugged. The contractor used the same wood, but of course the grain and coloration could not line up perfectly --- which is where I came in! I painted over all these circle patches to match the surrounding wood grain of the stairs and make the patches disappear!
The next example is over four windows in a bedroom. The contractor installed power shades, but unfortunately the process required creating holes in the existing wallpaper – wallpaper that is no longer available of course! To match wallpaper without being able to use the same paper, they called me in to paint the patches so they blend away.
In this case, my client had brought this statue back from a trip to Bhutan – but unfortunately it was left outside, and the original finish largely shipped away. It was my job to match what little was left of the original finish to paint the rest of the statue to look like it did originally.
Back to wood repairs with this one! There used to be a lock in this section of the door that was removed. The contractor filled the hole with this wood patch, but again, the color and grain could not line up perfectly. I painted the woodgrain over this patch to blend in with the surrounding door and then clear-coated the entire door (the clear-coat is why the “after” picture is slightly darker)
Sometimes, my specialty paint work is to match older specialty paint! That was the situation for this job, where old curtain rods were taken down over 4 bedroom windows, leaving 8 sets of holes to patch. After patching the, I was able to match the old decorative finish to make it look like there were never any holes!
In this last example, I used not only paint but a gel to match the pattern and texture (!) of the surrounding grasscloth to make this electrical panel blend in.
Enjoy!
Jason