This summer, we did the color consultation and the interior painting for two condominiums at the Aqua building on Chicago's lakefront. For many reasons, it was a real pleasure working on this project, one of which was being able to work in such beautiful, air-conditioned surroundings, while Chicago was going through a spell of 90-degree days!  Click here for a look at the color schemes and the views.

 

    

  Gold Leafing Meets Venetian Plaster

 

This summer, we combined two ancient forms of decorative finishing to create a luxurious effect for this master bath: Gilding and Venetian Plaster.  Click on this link for a brief history of the techniques and details about what we did for our client.

 

What Is Causing my Paint to Delaminate from the Previous Paint Layer?

 

A quick look at the front gables does not reveal anything out of the ordinary: just peeling paint; another day in the life of a house painter, right?  Not so fast.  Look closer.  Behind the paint that already peeled, there is the original coating.  What is going on here? Is there an adhesion problem?   Click here to learn how mold can cause paint to fail.

 

How Can I Seal in Toxic Outgassing in Plywood and Drywall?

 

Green paint is good for the environment, we all agree. Additionally, specially formulated green paint products can help eliminate the hazards from toxic outgassing coming from construction materials like plywood and drywall.  To learn more about such green products, click here.

 

Please send me your question(s) via my e-mail at [email protected].

Every issue of The Craftsman Way newsletter has a section devoted to paint memorabilia because we believe that an understanding of our past empowers our future.  This issue features a significant object from our extensive collection and gives you a bit of its history.

 

Painter's Bosun's Chair from 1920's

 

 The bosun's chair (also know as Boatswain's chair) is a device that suspends someone on a seat board held by ropes.  The chair enables a worker to perform work on elevated and hard-to-reach areas.  This contraption was originally developed for use on tall ships and yachts for masthead repair.   It also was used to gain access to the highest elevated portions of buildings.  This 19^th century English engraving shows how the bosun's chair was used by a house painter. 

   

 A reproduction of this English engraving was given to me by the gentleman who founded the Paris Painting Museum.  I later found that the same engraving had been reproduced in one of the centennial editions of the Chief Paint Works's newsletter, which is now part of our collection as well.  Small world!

 

As you can see, working off of a bosun's chair was not a safe activity.  Workers were known to occasionally fall out of the chair.  Needless to say, OSHA would not approve the chair for use today, surely not without a proper harness system!  The other picture shows a real-life bosun's chair that was used in Chicago by commercial painters in the earlier part of the twentieth century.  I purchased this chair from a commercial painting contractor who was closing shop after forty years in the painting business in Chicago.  Lucky find indeed!