Decorating With Class

A Concrete Floor Make-over

Visit the VictoriaLarsen.com website for new stencil designs, plaster molds for gorgeous ornamental plaster ceilings and walls, and so many ideas for making your home the dream home you have always wanted.

A Concrete Floor Make-over: When going "Green" isn't so Great

Preparing our Northern Idaho home for sale is a daunting task. Naturally, we want to get as much for it as we can.
Tackling an ugly basement floor was the order of business this past weekend.
Friend husband thought he was doing me a favor by painting it brilliant green. NOT! Who wouldn't look at that floor and think it resembled a football field!

After a 6 hour drive from Seattle, I arrived armed with everything I would need to give it a new look.
After 3 days on my hands and knees, I succeeded in faux finishing the entire space (over 1,000 square feet!) to look like slab flagstone.

I used dark brown, rust and light brown paints with a sea sponge and blended large, irregular shapes of paint over the entire floor. I applied the rust and dark brown colors next to one another then blotted light brown over the top, blending the darkest colors first then working the light brown color randomly through out.

When I first began to blend the light brown, I left it more visible at first and decided I didn't like it. It seemed too stark. So I blended it until it nearly disappeared which created a much more pleasing and realistic look over the surface.

Once finished, I applied epoxy floor sealer which gave it a protective finish that will now last for years.

What a huge difference! This is the first concrete floor I have completed and I must say, it was much easier than I had anticipated. I had hoped to add a medallion and border stencil designs to the floor but I ran out of time.

A large bathroom on that level will be my next concrete floor project which will come in November. Then the entire basement space will flow with the same finish applied to all of what was once bare concrete.

Now all I need to do is to add new window treatments and the space will become something any future owner would love to have.

If I can do this, so can you!
Feel free to contact me with any questions (as you ponder tackling your own ugly concrete floor!).

A Concrete Basement Floor Gets a Faux Finish-Part One

Visit the VictoriaLarsen.Com website for interesting ways you can add designs to your walls, ceilings, floors and even furniture and wind up with a "high end" results. Raised Plaster Stencils, Wall Painting and Mural Stencils, Ornamental Plaster Molds.

A Concrete Basement Floor Gets a Faux Finish-part one

Getting our second home in Idaho ready for sale has entailed a number of big projects. One of them is giving a painted finish to the concrete lower level floor.

Sure, we could have laid linoleum, carpet or some other covering over the floor, but when considering a budget, paint is the likely answer.

Friend husband took trip over there from Seattle alone a couple of months ago and relayed back to me that he had primed the floor with BIN (red can) primer, just as I had asked him to do...but he decided to take it a step further (thinking he was saving me from a chore) and painted the floor as well. Ah, but what color did he paint it? BRILLIANT GREEN! I cringed but said little, being the good wife that I am.

Upon my arrival, the expansive floor space (1100 square feet), now looked like a football field! Gee, I should just paint the lines and get it over with, selling the house as a sports themed property.

So..(as I let go a deep sigh), I'm headed back over there tomorrow to do a neutral tone faux finish over the green paint. I have chosen 3 shades of brown which I will use to create a stone look finish, by blending the three colors together over the surface.

Today I'm perusing all of my designs because I want to do a medallion in the middle of the floor in metallic gold to give it even more "umph". If I have time, it would be lovely to do a matching border all the way around the floor edge to further add eye catching beauty.

Since the space is so large, adding the designs will help to break up the space somewhat.

So wish me luck and think of me out there in the forest, ALONE! A neighbor called and warned me that a BEAR has been terrorizing the valley lately. Better keep a watchful eye as I take the dog for our morning walks.

How to Make an Easy Realistic Fake Fireplace

Visit the VictoriaLarsen.Com website to get cool ideas using stencils, ornamental molds and easy techniques to create the home of your dreams for little cost with no experience!

How to Make an Easy, Realistic Fake Fireplace

There's something elegant, something so "homey" about a fireplace. It adds architectural interest and detail to the plainest of rooms. But a lot of us don't have them! (What a shame). But no more!

Now you can create a real looking, fake fireplace in any room in your home and here's how:

Start by finding the perfect place in your home for a fireplace.

If you want a mantle, purchase pre-fab shelving in the size you want the width of your fireplace to be first. (I like my mantle to go completely across the front of my faux fireplace). That will give you the measurement for the width of your fireplace stones. Mark off that area with a pencil mark and use mask tape to outline the outside fireplace size.

You can also make your own mantle by using wood brackets purchased from Home Depot or Lowe's and then cut a length of 12" wide wood to the mantle length you wish. Sand, stain and varnish all pieces to match.

Decide how large you want the "inside" of your fireplace to be and mark that area with masking tape as well. This area will not be plastered with the stone stencil.

Using our Stacked Stone Raised Plaster Stencil, plaster pre-colored stones (per our easy coloring instructions where you add paint right in to the joint compound). Keep repeating the stone stencil until you have created a stone pattern in the size you have taped off. Keep flipping the stencil with each repeat so that the stones look different and vary in placement.

Allow the joint compound to dry completely. Paint the inside of the fireplace black and allow to dry. For those with a bit of painting experience, you can also paint the inside of the "firebox" to visually recede back so that it looks like the firebox is actually inset in to the wall.

Screw the mantle to the wall at the top level of the stenciled stone work. Add decorative items to the mantle such as candles, photos or plants as you would normally.

If you want a "hearth", that's super easy to do! Simply cut a ply wood board the width of your fireplace and as deep as you wish your hearth to be. (Consider an 18"-24" hearth depth).
Purchase enough ceramic tiles and thinset to tile the top of the board then paint the edges a coordinating color to the tile color. Grout as you would any tile project then lay the tiled board in front your new faux fireplace.

Lastly, add candles in holders in front of the fireplace (on the hearth if you have created one)  and for even more realism, add a real fireplace screen. Wha La! A faux fireplace that can add the ambiance of a real fireplace to your home decorating.

A Limeric Right Up My Alley

A Limerick Right Up My Alley

There once was a lady named Aster
Who found that she had a disaster
When the rains came one day,
Washed her poor house away,
Because she had made it of plaster.

~Victoria Larsen 2009

Visit the VictoriaLarsen.Com website today for exciting decorating projects YOU can do!

"Paint Saves the Day" Features Recipes

Visit the VictoriaLarsen.com website for ideas you never thought possible along with lots of new stencil designs for both raised plaster and painting coming soon!

"Paint Saves the Day" book Features Great Recipes!

I've purchased many home decorating and faux finishing books in my life time, and once I got my copies of "Paint Saves The Day" by Lucianna and Mark Samu of Samu Studios, I was delighted to see that not only do they show you how to do things like counter tops and floors, walls and cabinets, they also give you unique recipes!

Wait until you read the part about doing counter tops with newspaper! Awesome.

They used our Barrington Frieze Raised Plaster Stencil on the fronts of kitchen cabinet doors to create the most luscious "Old World" make over.

Giving the cabinets a new coat of paint and color wash, they applied the design in the center of the doors then added color to the design after it was dry. I love the finished look!

By the way, I got my copies cheaper at Amazon.com ($5.00 less than other sites!)

Enjoy your Sunday! As for me, I'm working on over 20 new Raised Plaster Stencil designs that will be added to the website soon! (In the photo stage now....GRRR!)

"Paint Saves The Day" Book Released

Visit the VictoriaLarsen.com website for elegant stencil designs, plaster molds for ornamental walls and ceilings and for more ideas than you ever thought you could find in one place!

"Paint Saves the Day" Book Released

The new book "Paint Saves the Day" by Mark and Lucianna Samu, featuring Victoria Larsen Stencils and techniques has just been released through publishers "Creative Homeowner's Press". This is their 7th book on home decorating.

It features 208 pages of paint rescues, the latest painting techniques and products, How to solve decorating problems and how to add decorative accents with paint to name just a few exciting topics.

The book can now be purchased through various websites across the internet including the publishers own website at CreativeHomeowner.com.

The book is also available at Amazon (I found it on Amazon for just $14.00), Lowe's, Barnes and Noble and Borders.

We thank Mark and Lucianna for giving us this wonderful opportunity to be featured in their newest decorating book.

Order your copy today! And look for their other books such as:

Can't Fail Room Makeovers