Kitchen area remodels are among the the most popular dwelling advancement tasks. Painting the cabinets in a superior-gloss lacquer finish is not. Avery Sefcik, a Richmond-centered inside designer, just concluded doing it in his possess kitchen area, and he’s the to start with to acknowledge it is a problem.
“It’s difficult,” he reported.
The approach is sluggish, for starters. Sefcik started the substantial kitchen remodel in the Enthusiast District household he owns with his lover, Andrew Finnan, in November, and a painting crew was still placing the finishing touches on the lacquered-purple cupboards in the butler’s pantry in early June.
Furthermore, it’s an acquired ability.
“You have to have a light-weight contact and not press the brush much too really hard versus the area,” Sefcik stated. “The paint has to just about soften off the brush.”
Persons are also reading…
Then there is the weather.
“Humidity can make the paint dry slower, and it can also give the finish a texture that seems like an alligator’s scales,” Sefcik explained. “If that comes about, you have to sand it clean and paint it once more.”
That transpired when Sefcik’s crew painted the walls and ceiling of his eating home in a putting peacock-blue lacquer finish a number of summers back. A three-week job ended up having three months.
Even when the process goes very well, historic residences like Sefcik and Finnan’s – theirs was crafted in 1908 – need extensive prep get the job done to guarantee the plaster wall or ceiling is as flat as doable to get that mirror-like sheen.
The added trouble is really worth it, although.
“It’s a gorgeous complete,” Sefcik stated. “We love to entertain, and when we transform on the chandelier in the dining room, the walls and ceiling shimmer like a swimming pool.”
Sefcik and Finnan acquired the household in 2014, the very same year Sefcik launched Avery Frank Designs, a entire-service interior style and design agency. Given that then, he has addressed the household as an experiment, of types, occasionally pursuing suggestions that his purchasers may well think about as well challenging on a realistic or aesthetic stage.
“If I’m heading to make a blunder, I want it to be here and not in a client’s property,” he claimed, with a chortle.
The house is also a showroom: If your designer can do it and make it look that great, why shouldn’t you follow his guide?
A customer made a decision to hang custom Gracie wallpaper in his dining place immediately after looking at images of it in Sefcik’s 2nd parlor, for instance. And many customers have integrated lacquer-painted partitions into their styles immediately after observing it in Sefcik’s dwelling.
Sefcik does not restrict his experimenting to wall treatment plans. He’s furnished the home with an eclectic blend of classic and personalized-designed pieces, with a powerful emphasis on European designers and artists. The Art Deco style is properly-represented, much too, in a selection of light-weight fixtures.
Some of the items – like the piano in the entrance parlor, a present from Sefcik’s mother – are lasting fixtures. Other folks rotate, as Sefcik discovers new parts. It’s an ongoing process, and Sefcik explained he isn’t in particular intrigued in observing the household “finished.”
“I continually enjoy attempting new hues, fabrics and furnishings, so it will usually be modifying,”Sefcik explained. “However, right after the kitchen area and then the master tub, most items will be rather slight tweaks below and there.”
All over the renovations, tweaks and changes, Sefcik has targeted on abundant hues and advanced, significant-quality finishes and furnishings. And it’s something he encourages with his customers, as well.
“I’m not frightened of a abundant or dark shade,” he said. “I notify clients, ‘When you vacation or see a gorgeous hotel on-line, why wouldn’t you want your house to glimpse that way? Why make it mix in with absolutely everyone else’s when you can make it rich and unique?’”
Editor’s notice: This is the inaugural installment in an occasional collection, “Interior Designers at Residence.”