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Having completed numerous objects, furniture pieces and mural work for a
client's residence in London, I was approached to transform a very generic
dresser into an interesting and unique piece of painted furniture. I wanted
to present the piece as an old, decorative painted piece, perhaps something
found in a dusty old shop, that could strongly resonate with history. I
choose to work with a colorful palette and create a piece of ersatz folk
art.
I set about visualizing the piece, trying to innovate ways to alter the
ordinary proportions of the piece with nothing more than paint. The piece
was to be placed in the master bedroom, so I wanted to harmonize with the
overall color scheme. The idea was not matching anything in particular,
but adding a point of interest, a sense of whimsy while uniting various
colors throughout the room by accenting lines and details on the piece.
I call this the 'Lemon dresser'. The room features a charming antique chandelier
with lemons on it, found in an antique store in New York. Using this as
an inspiration, I painted the side panels and front drawer details with
lemon motifs. The piece was heavily distressed and antiqued, to reinforce
the aging aspect I wanted. It was a very successful solution to an otherwise
uninteresting, nondescript piece of furniture.
The overall project offered an excellent chance to manipulate existing furniture
to present a one-of-a-kind painted piece, inspired by the room in which
it will reside, but strong enough in its own right to be used in other,
future furniture environments. Personally, I found it to be a fun expression
of my artistic skills, and a challenging opportunity to reinvent existing
furniture.
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