For a local interior designer, ‘home’ is a beautiful experiment | Featured real estate articles

“It’s challenging,” he reported.

The method is sluggish, for starters. Sefcik started off the in depth kitchen transform in the Fan District household he owns with his companion, Andrew Finnan, in November, and a painting crew was nonetheless placing the ending touches on the lacquered-purple cupboards in the butler’s pantry in early June.

In addition, it is an obtained talent.

“You have to have a light touch and not push the brush way too hard in opposition to the floor,” Sefcik claimed.  “The paint has to virtually soften off the brush.”

Then there is the weather conditions.

“Humidity can make the paint dry slower, and it can also give the finish a texture that seems to be like an alligator’s scales,” Sefcik mentioned. “If that occurs, you have to sand it smooth and paint it yet again.”

That happened when Sefcik’s crew painted the partitions and ceiling of his eating room in a putting peacock-blue lacquer complete a several summers ago.  A 3-week challenge ended up taking three months.

Even when the procedure goes very well, historic properties like Sefcik and Finnan’s – theirs was developed in 1908 – have to have comprehensive prep get the job done to guarantee the plaster wall or ceiling is as flat as doable to get that mirror-like sheen.

The added difficulty is truly worth it, although.

“It’s a beautiful finish,” Sefcik stated. “We enjoy to entertain, and when we switch on the chandelier in the eating space, the partitions and ceiling shimmer like a swimming pool.”

Sefcik and Finnan acquired the household in 2014, the same 12 months Sefcik released Avery Frank Styles, a comprehensive-support interior design and style firm. Because then, he has dealt with the property as an experiment, of sorts, at times pursuing thoughts that his clients may possibly take into account too tough on a sensible or aesthetic degree.

“If I’m likely to make a miscalculation, I want it to be right here and not in a client’s residence,” he claimed, with a giggle.

The property is also a showroom:  If your designer can do it and make it search that good, why should not you observe his direct?

A customer made the decision to dangle personalized Gracie wallpaper in his dining place after seeing images of it in Sefcik’s 2nd parlor, for case in point. And various consumers have included lacquer-painted walls into their styles following observing it in Sefcik’s household.

Sefcik doesn’t limit his experimenting to wall treatment options. He’s furnished the property with an eclectic combine of classic and customized-created items, with a robust focus on European designers and artists. The Art Deco fashion is well-represented, far too, in a variety of mild fixtures.

Some of the items – like the piano in the entrance parlor, a gift from Sefcik’s mom – are everlasting fixtures. Other individuals rotate, as Sefcik discovers new parts. It’s an ongoing procedure, and Sefcik claimed he isn’t especially fascinated in seeing the property “finished.”

“I continuously love striving new colors, materials and furnishings, so it will constantly be modifying,”Sefcik explained.  “However, just after the kitchen and then the master bathtub, most items will be reasonably minor tweaks here and there.”

All through the renovations, tweaks and changes, Sefcik has targeted on loaded hues and complex, high-excellent finishes and furnishings. And it’s one thing he encourages with his consumers, as well.

“I’m not worried of a rich or darkish colour,” he claimed. “I notify consumers, ‘When you journey or see a stunning hotel on-line, why wouldn’t you want your house to appear that way?  Why make it mix in with everyone else’s when you can make it rich and distinctive?’”