How to Fit a Circus Tent and Nine Blue Dogs Inside a 6x6x6 bathroom
A couple of weeks ago, my friend Brandon Branch stopped by the studio to pick up some paints and we got to talking. Brandon and his husband, Jim, co-own the beautiful St. Francisville Inn and, y’all … if you haven’t seen the amazing makeover they’ve done to this old St. Francisville landmark, do yourselves a favor and make plans to go for drinks, dinner, or a romantic weekend getaway. Everything about it is out of this WORLD!
So Brandon was saying how he had gotten a quote to have the cute little bathroom in The Saint Bar repainted and that the quote was crazy high. I don’t know, maybe the painter looked around at how beautiful the place was and figured cost wouldn’t matter. When Brandon told me the price I said I’d never pay that to paint a 6x6x6 room. You know what he said? “Do you wanna do it?!”
How could I refuse?!
A Different Kind of Blue
If you know Brandon’s design style (he was a cast member on Bravo’s Southern Charm – Savannah, after all), then you know he loves to make a statement. Brandon said that since this was a bathroom in a bar, it had to be really fun, over-the-top whimsy—and for it to be the place to hang his collection of Blue Dog paintings (he has, like, nine of Louisiana artist George Rodrigue’s famous Blue Dogs). So he was thinking about going with a “circus” theme. But not like a kids’ bedroom; he wanted it to be more period, to fit in with the style of the Inn.
Since Rodrigue’s Blue Dogs are very modern, we figured the painting approach needed to be really loose and whimsical. We needed to make this place look like the inside of a circus tent. But wait! I’m a furniture painter … I like straight lines. That’s when I realized I was going to need a partner. And that is how I ended up teaming up with the wonderful Cheri Fry.
Painting Outside the Lines
Cheri is an artist—a member of the Louisiana Watercolor Society who teaches classes in watercolor and acrylic. She also happens to be Mom to Cecile, who works with me here at the studio.
So now we had two totally different types of painters: a furniture/faux painter and a watercolor artist, teaming up on a project. And let me tell you, blending our two techniques together was fascinating!
Faux Painting
I’m a faux painter: I can make surfaces look like brick, wood, whatever. But Cheri—she can paint a curtain with a fold in it! That’s completely different from furniture work because you don’t have the form of the piece to follow. So our techniques were completely different. After awhile Chere was saying, “I’ve grown to appreciate straight lines,” and I was saying “I’ve grown to appreciate abstract/messy.” It was so cool to try something different with a fellow creative!
Choosing the Colour Palette
We didn’t have a mockup or plan, so we started by looking hard at those fabulous Rodrigue Blue Dogs, then chose the colours based on the palette used in the paintings. We were careful to choose colours that wouldn’t “pull” too much, because they needed to complement, not overwhelm, the Blue Dogs. I ended up using a combination of soft, pastel Louis Blue, and stronger Greek Blue, with luxurious Emperor’s Silk for the red stripes of the tent and Old White for the white stripes.
The Ceiling
The ceiling was a whole other matter. There was Greek Blue for the sky, and Old White with Paris Grey shading for the tent roof. Best of all, we added a ceiling medallion using the Greek and Louis blues, then finished is with a Pearlescent Glaze, which reflects light to give a high-end, lustrous finish when applied over Chalk Paint®.
All In the Details
Once we got started it was kind of hard to stop, which is maybe what happens when you lock two artists together in a small room. We had a lot of fun adding fun finishes and fine details. We used Annie Sloan Imitation Gold Leaf to guild the lampshades inside and out, and even found a way to use some of Iron Orchid Design’s wonderful Air Dry Clay to build some decorative tassels, which was cool because normally I would be using air-dry clay to reproduce a section of broken molding on a piece of furniture or a cabinet door, for example.
In the end I think it turned out pretty fabulous. And I think Brandon and Jim do, too. So next time you’re at the St. Francisville Inn be sure to step into the bathroom behind The Saint Bar and take a good look around. What I love about Annie Sloan paint is that it’s sooooo versatile. When you see the Blue Dog Bathroom, you’ll see what I mean.
