Bathrooms/Powder Room Archives - Leichsenring Studios

It seems like forever since my last newsletter

by Sharon Leichsenring· April 30, 2025· in Artwork, Bathrooms/Powder Room, Fine Art, Mica, Staircase· 0 comments

Last May, I finished the largest project of my career, transforming a Masonic Lodge in Park Ridge, New Jersey into a painted Temple of Solomon. The year long project just took my concept of time and turned it on its head. One of the things that suffered was staying in touch with you, my most loyal newsletter readers. That massive undertaking, followed by a knee replacement simply took some time to get back to a regular schedule. I had been relying on Facebook and Instagram to share work, and honestly, I realized that trying to figure out an algorithm with Instagram was just too frustrating and limiting. So I’m back writing a newsletter, the best way I know to stay connected. So here are two recent projects that I hope you will enjoy. The first is a jewel of a powder room. I’ve just got to share what it looked like the first time I worked on it. It’s ok, you can giggle if you must. At the time, it was a perfect solution of mica-infused plaster and embossed stenciling. The colors were so perfectly old world and even the ceiling and molding received metallic paint with glazing. But times […]
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Mixing a custom color of the lusterstone

Be Still My Heart!

by Sharon Leichsenring· March 31, 2023· in Artisan Finish, Bathrooms/Powder Room, Ceiling, Mica, Textured Finishes· 0 comments

There are some days when I believe the universe is more than ready to co-operate and send a project my way where I know that I will enjoy every single minute from concept to execution. And make a client’s dream come true? Probably mixing metaphors here, but that’s the frosting on the cake. So, the starting place. A spacious master bath, with great bones, beautiful fixtures, a floor that sends my imagination spinning and a client looking to get rid of her boring blue walls and she says the words. The key to my heart in secret code: I want you to make magic. Make it wow! Well, ok then. Let’s go. Here’s what the view looks like. I’ve reduced the color to black and white. Color will distract. We discussed ornament and the design is simply just pouring off my pencil. Drawing on the room’s photo makes it easy to visualize. We both agree Lusterstone, a luscious plaster infused with mica, will make the most of the light fixtures. I played with several color mixtures, dabbing my floor sample to see what color would sing out and keeping in mind it is studded with silvery blue glass inserts. Here are […]
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Sail With the Vikings

by Sharon Leichsenring· December 31, 2021· in Artwork, Bathrooms/Powder Room, Historic, Murals, Ocean, Trompe L'oeil, Video· 0 comments

I can’t say it enough. The opportunity to create a mural in a powder room makes my heart smile. It’s a chance to create a contained world in a very small space. In this case, the powder room is a scant 61” square but my painting area was 85 square feet. My heart is more than smiling here, it’s doing jumping jacks! My client, a woman of extraordinary vision is requesting pure, undiluted magic. Bring a Viking village to life! Challenge on. Here are the first two proposals. Did I forget to mention the magnificent mirror driving this concept? A carved dragon wrapped around the mirror. More about this mirror later. Suffice it to say, the dragon carvings will appear on the ships, on the long houses and on the high seat in the mural. Also, it is paired with draw dropping dragon sconces. Here is the final approved drawing. I’ll show you photos of the entire mural, but let’s just set the mood with this video. Here are the four walls. I’ve included the wall with the mirror before the mirror was hung so you can see it without the sconces and mirror. The high seat was added at […]
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My Home Away From Home In Texas

by Sharon Leichsenring· November 01, 2021· in Artisan Finish, Artwork, Bathrooms/Powder Room, Ceiling, Columns, Dogs, Floral, Gold Leaf/Silver Leaf, Lettering, Murals, Trompe L'oeil· 0 comments

There are times as I think about the subject for my next newsletter, that I remember, I’ve been doing them every month for thirteen years. Blatantly directing you here, almost all of them are on my website, under the tab “Projects”. What’s not so apparent is my connection with Texas. The late nineties saw my goodbye to my career as Sharon the Sign painter. It was not quick, or painless. One doesn’t sell a sign painting business. It is a matter of walking away, or moving on. For me, it was to the world of decorative painting, mostly murals in my case, but also some really satisfying work with plaster and glaze. I spent a three year period in both worlds until the Studios’ demand for murals was in position to shut down the sign painting. In weeks that I typically worked at least 60 hours making that change, I also needed to go back and take classes to fine tune my skills. Trompe l’oeil classes for starters in New York with the legendary Pierre Finkelstein, and then on to San Antonio at the atelier of the esteemed Nicola Vigini. My quiet little plans were pretty much dashed to the gutter […]
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A New Take on Scrolls

by Sharon Leichsenring· March 01, 2021· in Bathrooms/Powder Room, Scrollwork· 0 comments

Years ago, when I was Sharon the sign painter, my favorite thing to letter were the boat names on transoms. Often, a prospective client would say ” I just saw what you did on so-and-so’s boat. I’d like the same”. It’s a compliment. But not something I would do. There is pride in the ancient art of hand-lettering and the ability to take the same font, tweak it, change the type of outline or perhaps add swashes to the capitals. It’s true fun to play with the letters that is the realm of the hand letterer. Something not easily done with vinyl letters generated by a computer. So no two transoms I lettered looked exactly the same. Move fast forward to the present and the subject of scrolls. If you’ve been following this newsletter, you know just how much I adore incorporating them into a mural or letting them take center stage on their own merit. The challenge, to keep the character of a scroll, but adapting them so that they have their own unique personality. This project was brought to me by Dyane Prezioso (Dyane Prezioso Interiors 203-913-0082), who loves drama and color as much as I do. Here’s […]
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It’s a Dog’s Life

by Sharon Leichsenring· February 03, 2020· in Bathrooms/Powder Room, Dogs, Furniture, Headboards, Murals, Stairwell, Trompe L'oeil· 0 comments

I’ve been asked before do I have a signature style. The answer must be no, because surely all my clients would not be so alike as to want the same style. But what I realized, there is something that I add to a mural whenever the opportunity presents itself. A dog. Yep! I love them, and love when their owners want to make them part of a mural. Sometimes, it’s simply a mural all about dogs. Like this one in Grapeland, TX which was a combined portrait of three generations of labs. Brandi, Cooper and Hank, sunning themselves on the dock. I found it best to have plenty of snacks in my pocket as the dogs checked out my progress. On the other hand, the dog might become the focus of the mural. In this example, I was painting a headboard directly on the wall because painting it made it possible to match the existing furniture. What was the best part of this project was painting the owner’s beloved Bella to be with her always. This wine cellar mural has the vineyard as a background for this make a statement portrait of the owner’s dog. Dogs become such an important part […]
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Love Letters to Lusterstone

by Sharon Leichsenring· September 03, 2019· in Artisan Finish, Bathrooms/Powder Room, Ceiling, Property Brothers, Textured Finishes, Trompe L'oeil· 0 comments

My love affair with LusterStone plaster started in the early 2000s. I had left my first career as a commercial sign painter behind and was starting to be comfortable defining myself as a decorative artist. I wasn’t ready to lead with the word muralist yet at that point. So, some glazing and stenciling, ornament detailing. Sure. Small murals to get my feet wet. But I never considered myself a plasterer. A superbly rebuilt right thumb shied away from heavy plasters. A definite No! to the tedious labor of burnishing Venetian plaster. And then came the phone call from Janie Ellis, friend and mentor, founder of Anything But Plain in Houston. “I’ve got this new stuff you absolutely have to try. And I’m sending some to you.” To know Janie is to know that ” uh, I don’t think so” is not going to be a possibility for an answer. So my containers came, and it was love at first sight. LusterStone, a product of Faux Effects International, is a luscious, creamy plaster infused with mica that produces a shimmer when troweled smoothly. In its early days there was a more limited palette but now it sports fifty color choices. I […]
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Painting Dogwood Blossoms

by Sharon Leichsenring· August 01, 2019· in Artwork, Bathrooms/Powder Room, Floral, Murals, Video· 0 comments

Some designs for powder rooms come together so easily, it’s as if they almost paint themselves. From the word go, I could just about see this finished in my mind. My client and her designer had seen a powder room I did a few years back with oversized magnolias. A few variations, this powder room would feature dogwood blossoms and only the f ocal wall would be dark. I met with my client and her designer, Lea Shulman (read about her and her method, “In my work, my goal is to bring fun, lightness, and ease to the design process”. She does just that, perfectly. You’ll find her at www.leashulmaninteriors.com. What started as a “pretty powder room”, neutral beige walls with a branch painted with blossoms and leaves, quickly escalated to high sophistication with my client’s vision to get the drama my black and white photos inspired, and then pull in a hint of color from the surrounding walls with a punch of one of my favorites shades of blue-green. Oh my. First I sketched several options for blossoms, branches and leaves. Next, I painted a color sample of a leaf, a piece of blossom, with the wall colors and […]
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Painting Furniture 101, the rules

by Sharon Leichsenring· June 03, 2019· in Artisan Finish, Artwork, Bathrooms/Powder Room, Fretwork, Furniture, Headboards, Textured Finishes, Trompe L'oeil· 0 comments

From where I sit, there is only one rule to painting furniture: have fun with it. Believe in the power of color, indulge in your whimsical nature and do not be afraid to desecrate a “real” wood finish. First case in point, my own dream project. This idea had been living in my “have to get this done someday ” part of my mind for such a long time. I could almost see it finished, but I admit, I was intimidated by the time I was going to have to put into this cabinet. I’d envisioned my own interpretation of a MacKenzie Childs creation, filled with patterns, stripes and detail. Did I say detail? The plan kept getting more involved. The starting point-two innocent resin bumblebees, given to me by my cousin Nancy as a thank you for helping her on a fireplace redo. Actually, she gave me four, so I still have another project calling me. But I digress. The bees in turn, called for a bee and thistle motif. I couldn’t find a scroll pattern I liked, so I designed my own. Recently, the designers at MacKenzie Childs have added other color palettes, particularly to their black and […]
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Here a robin, there a bluebird

by Sharon Leichsenring· January 01, 2019· in Artwork, Bathrooms/Powder Room, Birds, Budget Conscious, Ceiling, Chinoisierie, Floral, Video· 0 comments

I keep calling it a lovely powder room,but actually, it is a full bathroom. As the shower area was completely tiled and not part of my project area, it’s remains one of my favorite powder rooms. The why of that is easy; it required no construction and relied simply on paint to get a dramatic transformation and embraced all of the owner’s favorite things. Best of all, it employed a brilliant twist on the part of the designer, Eileen Segalman. Pure genius on her part. To get to know more about her, find her at www.eileensegalmaninteriors.com More about the twist later. This is the powder room I first met. A lot going on, a dated color and nothing to invite you into the space. The first thing Eileen recommended was a new color for the walls. She chose Benjamin Moore’s Quiet Moments. I suggested painting the ceiling the same color. Transformational, giving the room a very spa feel. Never be afraid to paint the ceiling the same color in a small space. It does NOT make the room feel smaller or the ceiling closer. In fact, it does just the opposite and leaves the four walls and ceiling as a […]
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