As a spin-off of my decorative painting, I work with a few contractor partners who have me help them with unique repair problems. This work has given me the challenge of matching the colors, patterns, texture and sheen of everything from wood to tile to wallpaper. Some of these repairs would be difficult or expensive if I was not able to help — but due to the discontinuation of the original materials, some of them would have been impossible. Hitting the mark on these projects is incredibly rewarding!
The first example is damaged veneer on a kitchen drawer. The veneer had split and peeled off along a seam - and could not be reattached. The big challenge in this scenario is the veneer pattern continued not just on this on drawer - but also all 3 of the drawers above it. To repair this, the contractor would have needed to replace the veneer on all the drawers, while making sure the color was a match to the rest of the cabinets. Instead, they cut the veneer away and filled the void — ready for me to match the wood grain with paint and polyurethane!
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The next example involved specialty wallpaper on a ceiling that was damaged by a water leak. The paper was installed many years ago and was no longer available - so the only fix would have been to take down the paper and start over with a new option. The homeowner very much liked the look that was there, so their contractor called me in to patch and match the repair with paint - including the metallic silver of the original paper!
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For this next job, a new, large industrial door had been mis-drilled for the installation of the door closer. Certainly they could have replaced the door, but this particular example was very costly! Instead, they had me match the patches for a more cost-effective solution.
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In some cases, I hear directly from homeowners with their unique repair challenges - which was the story with this mural fix. During construction to the space above this, a chunk of the mural fell out. The mural had been painted many years before, and the original artists (who were students at the time) were no longer in the area - so I got the call to see if I could repair it. The main challenge with this project (which is hard to see in the photo) was that the glittering color is actually a metallic gold that is under the translucent darker brown color. I was able to get the match and save the client’s mural!
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In another wallpaper example, there were 2 spots of damage (one pictured) where the paper tore off the wall. Rather than re-papering the room, the contractor had me patch and match the colors and sheen to make the problem disappear.
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I can’t even begin to imagine the complications involved with building a new home — including damage that can happen in the transportation of materials. In this case, the wood casing of several of the high-end windows and doors were damaged when they arrived. Due to product shortage, the timing to get replacements would have been extraordinary - so they called me in to do the fixes! Below if just one example of many.
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This last example also helped deal with the lack of product availability. The contractor needed to cut out part of this entry floor to fix a rot problem - which necessitated replacing 2 rows of tiles. The problem was that the terracotta color of the original/surrounding floor was no longer available! To address this, the contractor used the same tile but in a different color (gray)- and then had me make them match. A couple of distinct challenges in this case was durability needs (for which I used a bonding primer and a floor paint) and the the very dull sheen.
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