Artistic Voyage » Floors

Murals on Hardwood Floors

Mickey Baxter-Spade — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 03:40:26 +0000

Hand Painted Hardwood Floors

There are many reasons why a client might choose to have murals or other motifs hand painted on their floors. In this instance the designer chose to have her client’s dining room floor custom painted because it was a small area. The room had a window on one side, a hall to the right of the room, the kitchen to the left with the living room on the remaining side. Had the designer chosen to put an area rug under the dining room table, because of the size of the room the traffic pattern from the hall to the kitchen would have been partially interrupted and one would need to maneuver around it.

A custom design painted on the floor around the perimeter of the table seemed like an appropriate solution. When choosing colors I took into consideration the colors in the dining room drapes, the kitchen and the living room. The floral design in the sofa fabric was the starting point and a portion of the geometric pattern in the dining room draperies was incorporated into the design. Below is the final design which also included a colorful butterfly.

Hand Painted Dining Room Floor

Check out custom designs on hardwood floors hand painted at The Broadmoor Resort in Colorado Springs, Colorado and Kingsmill Resort in Williamsburg, Virginia.

Hand Painted Iris on Hardwood Floor

Mickey Baxter-Spade — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 05:48:09 +0000

The eleven foot purple iris on the aerobic room floor in the Spa at Kingsmill Resort in Williamsburg, Virginia came about after I had painted the rose on the aerobic room floor at the Broadmoor Resort in Colorado. After hearing of the Broadmoor renovations the Vice President of Kingsmill Resort went to survey the premises . I was told that the two things at the top of her list of things that impressed her most were the outdoor lap pool and the rose on the aerobic room floor.

Working through Tag Galyean, the architect who had hired me to paint at the Broadmoor Resort, I was asked to design a flower for the aerobic room floor at Kingsmill Resort. In addition to the aerobic room floor I was also asked to design two hundred and eleven linear feet of hand painted wall covering for two fifty foot corridors in the spa area. I will talk about the wall covering project in a future blog post.

Ideas usually come to me as pictures in my mind’s eye or in dreams. When this happens I try to follow through on those images. In this case a purple iris kept coming to mind so I painted an iris about twenty-two inches long and proceeded to the Broadmoor Resort to meet Tag. As I was walking across the lakeside patio a guest stopped to ask if I had painted the iris I was carrying. She liked it and wanted to know if it was for sale. What a lovely compliment, to me this was a sign that I had chosen the right theme.

As with the Broadmoor rose I scanned the iris into the computer and tiled it out so I could make a pattern for the eleven foot iris.

Testimonial:

“Dear Mickey,

I am overwhelmed by your talent and so impressed by the quality of work and the graciousness that you displayed to everyone around you. Thank you for taking the time to visit with our guests and explain the process to them. Many of the people are speaking about not only your talent, but your warm and caring personality.

Kingsmill is truly world-class, thanks to your efforts and the part that you have played in the formulation of our new sports club addition. If I can ever act as a reference for you professionally or personally please do not hesitate to ask. Thank you again for all your efforts – your work is truly outstanding.”

Terri Haack, CHA
Vice President & GM
Kingsmill Resort
Williamsburg, VA
I would be happy to answer any questions you might have about painting. Just leave a comment and I will get back to you.

Eleven foot iris hand painted on hardwood floor in aerobic room at Kingsmill Resort, Williamsburg, VA

Rose Painted on Hardwood Floor, again!

Mickey Baxter-Spade — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 04:48:13 +0000

As a follow-up to my previous posting . . .

Upon returning home after finishing the painting of the rose on the hardwood floor in the aerobic room at the Broadmoor Resort in Colorado Springs I told my husband that, “If I had it to do over – I would have turned the rose around.” You see after the rose was finished someone walked in the room and hesitated before commenting on the painting. I got up and looked at it with new eyes and understood why. Because I was so close to it I new what it was but someone who had no idea what I was doing, well, it took a bit for the ten foot long rose to register in their mind.

Two weeks after completing the project I received a call from the contractor asking if I had heard what had happened to my rose. I said, “no” and he proceeded to tell me that workmen on the fourth level had bumped a sprinkler and it had flooded the aerobic room floor on the third level. Only the aerobic room floor! What are the odds?!? They had to sand off my rose to repair the damage caused by the water. I was asked to re-paint the rose, hmmm.

When Tag, the architect, returned to the Broadmoor Resort we had a short meeting about another project. During that meeting he mentioned what had happened to the rose and I told him what I had said to my husband after finishing the painting. His response was, “Mickey, please don’t ever wish for anything you really don’t want.”

Since that happened I have been more cognizant of what I say. I do believe our angels try to give us what we ask for. Have you had a similar experience? I would love to hear about it. Please leave a comment.

Broadmoor Rose on Hardwood Floors

Mickey Baxter-Spade — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 19:08:01 +0000

When the Broadmoor Resort was building their new Golf Clubhouse one of my commissions was to paint a ten foot rose on the aerobic room floor. Now, can you imagine the many directions I could have gone with this concept?

Should the rose be red, white, pink, yellow and then . . . all those different varieties. Tag Galyean, the architect in charge, wanted it to look as though someone had tossed a rose onto the floor albeit ten foot long.

After our meeting I decided to stop by a floral shop to pick up several different types of roses in a variety of colors. What a great excuse to buy roses! When I returned home I proceeded to take photos of each rose from many angles and continued doing so throughout the following week as the blossoms were opening.

My thought process was . . .

1. The rose needed to be recognizable from a distance

2. White wasn’t a good fit with the color of the floor

3. There wouldn’t be enough contrast if the blossom were pale yellow

4. From a distance deep red could look like a huge puddle of red paint or worse.

5. The deep red also seemed a bit too formal for an aerobic room.

6. Pink seemed too foo foo, too feminine.

My decision was to paint a yellow rose with petals tipped with deep red. A bit less formal than red yet still quite elegant. A petal off to the side seemed appropriate if someone were to have tossed a rose onto a floor. After this decision was made it was time to dig in and design the rose.

Just to give you a bit of background . . . When I began working in the marketing department at Fort Carson many years ago I remember being sent to Denver to take a computer class. The entire drive to Denver I heard constant chatter in my head in regard to what a waste of time it was to be taking a computer class when all I wanted to do was paint! Well, someone far more intelligent than we mere mortals was guiding me even though I was kicking and screaming as I went.

You see, after working on a computer designing brochures, flyers, posters, and even wine bottle labels for a few years, when it came time to design that rose for the aerobic room floor at the Broadmoor I new how to save hours of design time. I sketched the rose on legal size paper and scanned it into my computer then made it ten foot long. My software allowed me to tile the rose. Simply put this means that a portion of the rose printed out on many, many pieces of paper which had to be taped together.

After the rose was taped together I needed to adjust the diameter of the stem, making it narrower. You see, roses have very broad woody stems and when it was printed out, although it was proportionate, it looked way out of proportion. If I hadn’t taken the computer class I would have been sketching and re-sketching for several days. My angels were looking out for me after all. So, have you had a time when you had to do something that seemed like a total waste of time but actually turned out to be a blessing?

Here are a few pics of the Broadmoor Rose.

Rose on Broadmoor Aerobic Room Floor, 10 feet long

Rose Petal Painted on Broadmoor Aerobic Room Floor

Thirty-two inch Rose Blossom Painted on Broadmoor Resort Aerobic Room Floor

The Broadmoor Rose can be purchased as a framed watercolor or as a fine art note card. What a perfect gift. Check out the assorted boxed floral watercolor fine art note cards, box of eight for only $15.

Box of Eight Fine Art Note Cards, Eleven Envelopes, $15