Maestro of the Walls

The French country chateau featured in this year’s Symphony Show House is a gorgeous sprawling estate that sits atop three lush acres in Nichols Hills, Oklahoma. Among the features of this 15,000 square-foot design and style masterpiece are four kitchens, six bedrooms, including staff quarters, and a guesthouse. Oklahoma faux artisan Deb Johnson credits divine inspiration for taking her down a career path that led to 18 of her finishes gracing the surfaces of this stately manor.

It started when Deb’s sister, an Illinois designer, steered her in this direction when she insisted on faux finishing over wallpaper in Deb’s new home. Intrigued by the finishes and looking for a career change, Deb turned to her Christian beliefs and sought spiritual advice. “I wanted to make the switch to faux finishing but was afraid of losing the security of a corporate job,” explains Deb. She felt her question was answered from above, and after following TV episodes featuring decorative painting, she knew that to get a professional portfolio, she needed to dig in and get professional training.

Deb made a bold move toward her new career when she joined other area faux finishers at Faux Effects’® Meeting of the Masters in Dallas, Texas. “That’s where I really got the bug!” says Deb. She mixed a little business with pleasure, enjoying some vacation time as she sought training from the expertise of titans in the industry, including Chicago’s Sheri Zeman, known for finishes that impress Chicago’s top designers, to the talented team at Surfaces and industry icon, Gary Lord.

Visiting a favorite local furniture store, Deb met a group of ASID designers who were interested in seeing her work.This meeting kicked off her four-year relationship with Show House projects, giving her the ability to focus on her newly discovered creative talents and get her new career into overdrive leaving behind the day-to-day work in corporate America. “Even on days when I would get real nervous about not having a lot of work lined up, I’d look up and say…OK God—you got me into this…and He would always come through.” In these days of corporate downsizing, she now feels more secure than ever in her decorative painting career.

For this year’s Show House, Deb had only one month of prep time to create 18 different finishes. Deb was challenged yet thrilled to design these finishes and complete them in a two-week timeframe. Fortunately, Deb’s husband Steve joined this project, whose foray into faux finishing came after his corporate job was outsourced after 30 years. While she worked hand-in-hand with the designer to come up with the perfect execution of finishes for the walls, Steve focused on the cabinetry.

The Peacock Paradise powder room is a journey to exotic Morocco with a dramatic, iridescent Labradorite granite vanity crowned by a 16th Century Turkish mirror made from abalone and mother-of-pearl shells. Deb knew the exact finish she would use for this room. To get the perfect color blending of cerulean blues and greens, Deb sought out the expertise of Faux Design Studio’s Sheri Zeman. Sheri created two custom StucoLux™ colors, and then Deb gave the finishing layer a Hi-Lite Green StucoLux™ treatment.

The Platinum & Pearls Belladonna Bath ladies lounge is the ultimate in luxury and decadence. This room alone showcased the talented work of Deb and Steve. On the main wall Deb made a pattern with sizing and transferred foils. She then patched in Charred Gold LusterStone® with a Japan scraper. Deb further highlighted the walls with Metallic Pearl Palette Deco™. This finish complements the artfully carved Oyster pearl granite tub encasement, surrounding it with shimmering metallics and exotic textures. Deb wanted to give the backdrop a high dimensional aspect and created one of the most interesting techniques by making a smoked glass tile look, giving foil an oxidized appearance by glazing it with Black FauxCrème Color™ and Blending Solvent™. For the bookcase backings and side panels by the vanity, she designed her signature “Iced Ostritch” finish with bronze and turquoise foils along with an ostrich skin stencil with a plaster. “I wanted something to cool down the color, so I added a layer of Metallic Pearl Palette Deco™,” says Deb. “It was one of the favorite rooms in the house because of all the finishes used and how Deb blended them together,” says Show House co-chair, Cindy Raby. “Deb truly is one of Oklahoma City’s finest and most talented faux artists. She always comes up with something unique. As designers we need a very good base to work off of, and these finishes really accent our designer work.”

Steve crafted the cabinet finish using FauxStone™ Pull-Off and SetCoat®, while the center panels were treated with foil and glaze that mimics the antique mirror look.

For the water closet, Deb went with “one of the best finishes in Chicago--the ever popular Asian Paradise waxed look that I learned from Sheri Zeman’s Elite Six class. I changed the colors to pewters and golds and gave this really glossy, really waxy, shiny finish that was perfect for the room.” Deb did different sections and combined finishes between the water closet and the main room. She used Metallic Pearl Stain & Seal™ over all the woodwork to cut the yellow oak tone. The water closet cabinets were an exciting blending of finishes and skills. “I turned a finish with epoxy. I used neutrals enhanced by silver glitter and marbleized the surface using a blowtorch to move the spritzed water and colorant,” Deb explains.

In the powder room, Deb incorporated a newer Faux Effects® product, Luna™. “It looks like a watercolor painting,” says Deb. “ I mixed my own colors into Luna™ to create a turquoise color and splattered gold flecks in it. I always want to use new colors, new products. I want to get people used to seeing it; then, it’s easier to convince them to use it in their own home.”

Some Enchanted Evening, the aptly titled guesthouse bedroom, captures the essence of a wintry evening in the heart of the French countryside. “String cloth was on the walls, but there was not enough time to remove it, so I prepped and applied a metallic paint and added birch stencil patterns to mimic tree bark,” says Deb.

The string cloth on the guest bath was given the same metallic treatment followed with a bold pattern created with AquaStone®, three different colors of MetalGlow® and then finished with Stain & Seal™. For the guest bath, the existing cabinetry had an “old dried barn look,” so they used bronze foil and glazed over it to get the perfect effect.

Deb is keenly aware of the need to keep her finger on the pulse of what is happening around the country, bringing her clients the cream of the crop when it comes to faux finishing products and techniques. While Steve enjoyed learning and perfecting the finishes, their joint skills gave them an additional safety net to keep building their business in a wavering economy. Deb credits Faux Effects® product lines and their distributors with giving her a competitive edge. “I love Faux Effects® products, because once you learn how the products work together, you can create such variety and make your finishes really stand out,” explains Deb. “I like that I can purchase products that other painters don’t have access to. I know that my products and finishes are not readily available and therefore unique.”

Deb plans on continuing to premiere her latest designs through the Show House and considers it her best advertising. “Once I finish a room, designers get accustomed to seeing newer things, and I want to stay on the cutting edge and always be known for my unique designs.” Recently, Deb was invited to be the faux finisher for an episode of Showcase Showdown, a new HGTV show that aired on September 26.

DECORATIVE ART BY: DEB AND STEVE JOHNSON

PHOTOGRAPHY BY: DAVID COBB PHOTOGRAPHY

WRITTEN BY: DENISE M. CARNEY

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