Faux Painting for Profit

What if you wanted to start a new career? How about if that idea was about Faux Painting Craft Careers? If your anything like Lucy… you will have the wind taken out of your sales before you can even get started. 

If you are swimming upstream dreaming about starting a faux painting business… read on for some inspiration! 

I AM SO INSPIRED BY YOUR WEBSITE.   I AM BUSY DOING SAMPLES FOR A POTENTIAL CLIENT TO LOOK AT RIGHT NOW.  

WHEN I WAS YOUNG MY DAD SAID YOU CAN'T EARN A LIVING DOING ART.WELL HE DID A GOOD JOB AT DESTROYING MY CONFIDENCE IN FOLLOWING A CAREER IN ART.  UNFORTUNATELY, HE NEVER WAS ABLE TO TAKE THE ART OUT OF ME AND THROUGH THE YEARS I HAVE FOUND WAYS OF ENJOYING MY TALENT.

I HAVE NEVER MADE MONEY AT IT TILL THIS OPPORTUNITY CAME UP, AND IT IS LIKE A DREAM COME TRUE.  SO BETTER LATE THEN NEVER. I AM VERY EXCITED AND SENSE THIS MIGHT BE THE BEGINNING OF MY ART CAREER, A FEW YEARS LATE. I AM SO GLAD I FOUND YOU ON THE INTERNET.  I APPRECIATE ALL THAT YOU HAVE SENT ME AND HOPEFULLY, SOON WILL GET JOBS REQUIRING YOUR FAUX FINISHES. 

DO YOU PREPARE THE WALLS YOURSELF BY PAINTING THEM, OR DO YOU HIRE A PROFESSIONAL PAINTER AND THEN DO THE FAUX FINISH.  HOW DO YOU ADVERTISE?  I HAVE SO MANY QUESTIONS………I CAN'T REMEMBER THEM ALL RIGHT AT THE MOMENT.  BUT THANKS FOR EVERYTHING AND AM LOOKING FORWARD TOMORE EMAILS, THEY ARE SUCH GREAT LEARNING EXPERIENCES. SINCERELY LUCY LENKEWICZ

Using your artistic abilities for career choices… My parents said the same thing! Here I was earning awards and scholarships in school and they shipped me off to business school instead.  I kept my fingers in the artistic world, until something (painting murals and faux finishes) finally became a reality!  And guess what… my mom and dad were really proud of me! Go figure.

I'm going to let Tawn finish up with all your questions… talk to you soon, Debra

Questions:

1.  DO YOU PREPARE THE WALLS YOURSELF BY PAINTING THEM, OR DO YOU HIRE A PROFESSIONAL PAINTER AND THEN DO THE FAUX FINISH. 

Hi Lucy!  This can go either way.  If you are good at rolling paint (and cutting in) you can do the prep-paint work but make sure you add that in to your cost/charges. 

An easy way to figure out what to charge for this part is to get an estimate from a painter and use that figure.  Generally speaking this type of painting is done/charged by the square foot.  If you aren't that good at it (or you don't like doing it) then tell the client that they will need to hire a painter to come in and do that part of the job before you begin with the art work, or that you can find one for them if they'd like. 

Often, because they don't know who to use, they'd rather you take care of it.  Hopefully you have a good painter you could use that wouldn't mind the occasional small job. 

2.  HOW DO YOU ADVERTISE?  Word of Mouth!!  That's the best.  But you can make up brochures for yourself and business cards and go to businesses and drop them off or ask if you can post them in coffee shops or sandwich shops. 

3.  WHAT ARE UNIVERSAL TINTS AND WHERE DO YOU GET THEM.   Universal tints are highly pigmented paints that they use to tint your paint at the store.  You can buy them at Home Depot in the paint department.   

4.  WHAT KIND OF ACRYLIC WOULD YOU DESCRIBE AS A QUALITY ACRYLIC? Good craft acrylics are available at your local art supply story. I like Americana with the gold cap and for large areas that need "thick" or heavy coverage I love Liquitex brand heavy body paint. 

5.  WHERE DO YOU STORE YOUR PAINTS IN JARS, IT GETS REAL HOT HERE IN NORTH CAROLINA AND I STORED SOME PAINTS IN THE SHED AND THEY BECAME UNUSABLE.  (LARGE QUANTITIES)  Well, it definitely gets real hot here in Arizona!  I keep some paints in a cabinet I put in the laundry room.  The good paints.  Others I keep in the garage.  And, yes, they do go bad, but it does take some time.  Another good place is in a spare bedroom if you have one.  Set up some shelves (plastic ones you can guy from Home Depot or Lowes) and use them. 

I hope this was a bit helpful… let us know if you have more questions, THAT Painter Lady Tawn.

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 21st, 2008 at 8:22 pm and is filed under Start Your Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.