The Age of Elegance
Kansas City is a surprise to many visitors. With its wide, tree-lined boulevards, abundance of fountains and outdoor Spanish-tiled shopping centers, Kansas City was built to resemble a European city of the Gilded Age. This “City of Fountains” has a friendly charm with an inviting prettiness that is reflected in this home remodel by designer and finisher Heather McDonald. Actually, this is a very good description of Heather herself.
Heather greets me at the entrance to the Lake Quivera home where she has devoted two years to being both the interior designer and decorative artist. Following her project from blueprints and through samples, my own curiosity grew as a variety of plasters and paints left our store. Now, I am privileged to get a personal tour of the home to view all the beautiful finishes completed with Faux Effects® products.
We enter through the large front door that is finished in rich brown glazes over a pulled crackle finish that gives the new front door the look of a fine wood antique, although the door is actually metal. Walking into the foyer, I note that the interior is formal but still very warm. Heather explains, “My client is a busy mother. She wanted a home that is classic with glamorous finishes, but it also needed to feel comfortable and family friendly.”
Right away my eye is drawn up to Heather’s solution for breaking up large ceiling expanses and using the “fifth wall” as a clever way to divide space. “I’ve used this technique throughout the house to highlight a furniture piece or a light fixture. In some areas like the game room, the ceiling treatment defines a specific area, such as the pool table from the sitting areawithin one large room,” she says. Heather applied wood composite molding from a local Kansas City company, Bomar Architectural Ornamentation, which she then painted and glazed. Within these areas, she used creative layering of stencils in AquaStone® and LusterStone® over metallic foils. As veterans of many over-the-head jobs, we both agree that this is a great way to make a ceiling special without having to finish the whole thing.
In the formal living room, the ceiling is defined by large custom finished wooden beams that provide the perfect frame for a crackle finish of SandStone™ with CrackleMate™. To highlight this finish, Heather applied FauxCrème Color over Modellos™ from Royal Design Studio. A larger Modello™ also is used above the central hallway staircase. The base is Charred Gold DesignerMetallics™ that is glazed in custom colors, and the pattern is highlighted in LusterStone®.
Pattern is also important to the lovely dining room that Heather first painted in Dark Brown SetCoat®. Next, she troweled on True Tint Stone™ tinted to a custom mix with Ochre Yellow and Italian Sienna FauxCrème Color™. Lightly tinted True Tint Stone™ was troweled over Royal Design’s Fabric Damask stencil placed randomly on the wall. More of the custom mixed TrueTint Stone™ and untinted TrueTint Stone™ were troweled over the pattern at the same time to create the broken pattern effect, and then were glazed. For a touch of sparkle, Heather added some Palette Deco™ and scattered Ceroglass beads in the finish.
Embellishments, such as beads and glitter, have gained popularity and are a way to add glamour to any finish. This home has several powder rooms that feature embellished finishes. The office powder room in Charred Gold, Antique Parchment and Brown Suede LusterStone® has a relief Royal Design Stencil accented with glass glitter. Another powder room also features a Royal Design Stencil in AquaStone® under tissue paper in Leather Red SetCoat® with a metallic glaze. And, the theater powder room walls are finished with crisp rectangles of upholstery tacks over brown paper troweled with Mandarin Red LusterStone®, glazed with Antique Cherry Stain & Seal™, and then sealed in one easy step with SetCoat® Clear.
Heather also is an accomplished cabinet and furniture finisher, and her skill level is evident in the home’s grand kitchen. The island and accent cabinet are the Harrison Crackle finish from my Furniture Traditions class at Surfaces—it is always exciting to see a class finish in a home! This finish uses a crackle made from FauxStone™ Pull-Off and then overglazed with Stain & Seal™.
The custom refrigerator finish starts with Camel SetCoat®. The versatile FauxStone™ Pull-Off is added to areas for texture, and Black Palette Deco™ is stippled over a Royal Design pattern for the inserts. For a fine furniture look, Heather glazed the whole piece with American Walnut and Rich Brown Stain & Seal™ that she flogged.
The range hood is Copper SetCoat® glazed with an activated color finish. The walls in the kitchen and hallway spaces received a well-loved finish of layered Old World Fresco Textured™, O’Villa® Finishing Plaster and FauxCrème Color™ glazes learned from Nicola Vigini.
For a project of this size, Heather brought in many talented artists to help. Finishers Suzanne Lynch and Julie Reuter completed the elegant cabinets in the master bath using Off White SetCoat® and Stain & Seal™ in Van Dyke Brown and Metallic Pearl. The walls in the master bath and master bedroom started with Taupe SetCoat®. Heather used a wallpaper brush to stria SofTex™ over a faded Royal Design Stencil in Queen Ann’s Lace LusterStone®. To complete the soothing effect of the room, the walls were glazed with FauxCreme® Clear and FauxCrème Color™ mixed in shades of pale green, aqua, and cream.
The home and work is impressive, and while she is justifiably proud, Heather also is quick to share credit and notes the contribution of fellow Kansas City artists that worked on the project including Ramona Sheley, Carl Pledger, Brenda Macaluso, Shannon McDonald, Shawna Voris, Camille Carpenter, Mary Walker and Jeannie Maloy. One would think with so many personalities and so many projects that Heather would be ready for a rest, but no. She already has moved on to helping a fellow finisher manage another large home makeover, and she will do it all with talent, a smile, and as I said in the beginning, a lot of friendly charm.
DECORATIVE ART BY: HEATHER MCDONALD
PHOTOGRAPHY BY: STEVEN SWALWELL
WRITTEN BY: REBECCA SLATON
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