People often overlook the closet door as a place to add color, but it can often help brighten a dark space. We recently had a client who had a pair of retro closet doors they wanted painted. These classic pressed plywood closet doors are synonymous with the design of the 60’s and 70’s. They popped right out which was a huge plus for painting on them. It gave us the perfect opportunity to make this a cool colorful mural. Soon we had the doors in the basement laid out flat and ready for paint.
The Direction
The client’s directions were “make it colorful with some botanicals mixed in” – that was perfect because we love bringing the color to any project. We decided to go for something that was maybe a bit more unconventional as a mural. Because we were able to lay the doors flat that gave us the ability to try something new. This new method we were trying couldn’t be applied to a traditional brick wall, a watercolor look.
We tried a couple different methods of applying the paint and water together to achieve this watercolor look. There was a separate panel board which we tried the first couple attempts on. This insured that we wouldn't ruin the doors with an unproven method. After a couple tries, we had our approach and were ready to put first layers on the doors.
Trying Something New
We wanted the colors to blend together to make a nice dramatic watercolor look. We laid down first layers of muted yellows and oranges. On top of that we sprayed water and followed up with saturated teals, hints of turquoise, and burnt cyan. The result of the process was a striking watercolor look that could have stood on its own. This was something that was going to transform the room with the color and brighten it up.
The watercolor effect was striking, bright, and colorful. The hardest part of the process? Hurry up and wait. Because we were misting a lot of water on top of the paint it took much longer for the paint to dry than a typical mural. After the watercolor layer was dry we waited approximately 90 minutes before we could move onto the botanical layer. The client wanted botanicals though, so we delivered the botanicals.
It only made sense for us to then tone down the botanical elements and make them a bit more subdued. We were inspired by the sage plant and wild berries for our botanical layers. A mixture of blacks, greys, and whites gave the sage its muted sensibility. We followed up with berries that were gold to make the muted colors of the sage pop out a bit more. All this color and brightness lead to a very happy client at the end of the day.
What’s Next?
The plan is to continue to refine the room by removing the rest of the old wallpaper, replacing it with something more modern and bright. The trim will then be painted something of a Royal or Navy blue to offset some of the brightness of the doors. When all is said and done the client will have a completely transformed room with all the color they wanted and then some.
Conclusion
The watercolor process was new for us, but we enjoyed it. We're looking forward to the next project where we can use this newfound mural technique. Who had ever heard of a watercolor mural before? We sure hadn’t but that didn’t stop us from trying and getting results that we’re very happy with. What do you think of the watercolor mural? Do you have a dark space with a closet door that could use some color? Please feel free to contact us to get a quote on what it would cost to transform your space and your life.