Newsletters

Mark Chamberlain

    Classic Gray Paint: Silver Fox by Benjamin Moore
    Name: Silver Fox 2108-50Brand: Benjamin MooreClose friends of mine have a brownstone in Brooklyn — they are both artists unafraid to be decoratively daring, and have invested every room in the house with a unique color.The overall palette of their home reminds me of that in The Winslow Boy.Silver Fox is one of those wet cement colors that looks like a warm grey on the wall, but comes off of a brown page in a fan deck.
    Mark Chamberlain
    Mar 23, 2020
    Decorative Ideas for Painted Floor Projects
    I was about to start a piece on my latest painted floor — a checkerboard — and I realized I have enough pictures of past projects at this point to do a review of all the possibilities. Painted floors need not look like the deck of a battleship. Do a quick Google search and you’ll see the broad variety of what other people are doing: stars, dolphins and whatnot, though my tastes run to the classical. Personally, I look to ancient Rome for inspiration.
    Mark Chamberlain
    Mar 11, 2020
    DIY Home Decor: How To Paint a Faux Concrete Wall Finish
    A few years ago I wrote about a distressed glazing technique which has a distressed feel to it, a way we developed to add visual texture to your walls that doesn’t like a stock rag rolling. Here, we take this process one step further. The look is both soft and contemporary, works well in urban environments, and is still livable. It’s unique every time, and in this example we’re emphasizing a linear quality, as if the “concrete” was poured into a wood formwork.
    Mark Chamberlain
    Feb 6, 2020
    DIY Project Idea: Painted Black & White Striped Walls
    Here’s a fun way to get a little zip in your life — why not paint stripes in your home office? Architecturally, this was once a big closet. And though there’s a skylight above, the room has no window on the world to speak of, so this is a perfect opportunity for some uplift in the decorating department. By adding stripes here, we’re making this space special in a private way, like opening a small jewel box.
    Mark Chamberlain
    Apr 23, 2014
    Mark’s Makeover: Faux Marble Floors
    Here’s the situation: I’m a decorative painter, I live in a rental, and I largely wouldn’t change a thing — except for these dreadful floors. They’re 30 year old contractor-grade linoleum, and as dry as cardboard. I first noticed how sad and sullen they were when I shot my studio for these pages a year ago, and it’s been bothering me ever since. It was the one element in this place from toe top to crown that I haven’t had my hands on.
    Mark Chamberlain
    Apr 4, 2014
    Color by Decade: The 50s
    What bland optimism. Just look at all those smiling, happy white people. If there was ever a more striving crawl towards generic homogeneity, I’d like to hear about it. And if this utopia was built in the 40s and disintegrated in the 60s, then for a moment it existed — for some — in the calm center of the storm of the world, 1950s America. Let’s look at the colors used to sell this story.
    Mark Chamberlain
    Nov 12, 2013
    Before & After: Wine Red Painted Console
    A client recently asked if I could paint over furniture — he was sick of the look, but the piece was functional and he didn’t want to throw it out. Why not?You could take your furniture to a shop and have it sanded and sprayed and spritzed in a dust-free environment and perhaps it would last for all time, but that sounds a lot like expensive restoration to me. Or for Plan B, try this:Give your sideboard a light sanding (220 grit), dust it off and paint over it in an oil-based paint.
    Mark Chamberlain
    Jul 25, 2012