A Cut Above Finish

I received this recent Faux Woe from a follower: "Help. I need a Wow finish for a hair salon in an upscale shopping center.  The colors in the salon are dark brown with orange leather chairs, and silver/black accents."

This is the view of the salon as you enter. You can see that the salon gets good natural light and needs something on the walls to attract the attention of possible walk-in clients.  The wall for the finish is behind the ostrich art and this room divider:

The wall space is relatively small. Several walls will be painted with a dark brown paint but will feature large mirrors. This is a detail of the mirrors:

To me, these resemble a modern take on a Zebra Wood. The orange is also present in the salon chairs:

My suggestion is to play-up the mirror surround design using metallic foils and glitter for a WOW.  First the walls should be well-sealed with either Dark Brown, Camel, or Brown Setcoat and allowed to dry overnight.  The next day roll a coat of Wundasize using a black foam roller. Be aggressive in rolling as this will lay out the bubbles. A dry roller may also be used for back rolling.  Let the Wunda sit up at least one hour-this will add foil off-load. If you are unsure of coverage, a second coat of Wunda may be applied.

I applied Moonglow Pewter Foil.  Place the foil with the pretty silver side facing you and scrub with a stiff scrubbing brush. Lap areas as you work across the surface avoiding scrubbing over the previous foil. I use 2 foot long pieces because they are easier to manage.  The slight areas where the foil did not come-off (they look like small scratches in the photo above) will not matter to the finish.  The best thing about this foil finish is you may proceed to the next step immediately.

I mixed fine black glitter into my Wundasize and rolled a Bark roller in this mix. Then I rolled the coated roller on the surface to off-load the Wundasize glitter in a pattern. Roll multiple times to create a random pattern.

Let this layer sit-up until the Wunda is clear and you can see the glitter without the haze.  The bark roller should be washed in cold water to remove the Wundasize.  Before applying my next foil and while the Wunda is still damp, I use a blade to lightly compress any drips in the Wundasize.

Next, I applied our Paprika Foil (pretty side up) with the scrub brush. The foil will cover some areas more solidly then others depending on the amount of glitter in an area.



To seal the finish and add more interest, I mixed Aquawax with Fine Silver Glitter. I troweled the Aquawax 100% over the finish lightly padding with a cloth to soften the chatter lines.

When the Aquawax is dry, I brushed a glaze of 2 parts FX Thinner + 1 part American Walnut Stain & Seal + 1/2 Part Van Dyke Stain & Seal. This will bead up slightly over the wax-that is why I like using Stain & Seal and FX Thinner-it bites in more over this slick surface. I used a soft brush to pull my glaze in a linear fashion.

FX Thinner dries very hard and the Aquawaxwill protect the foils so no additional top-coat should be necessary.

Copper Canyon Strands.

From Faux Woe to Faux WOW!