Hand-painted Furniture Continued
Everything old is new again

Climb the narrow stairway into the apartment/studio of John and Lisa Hickey in the old general store in Carversville, and find yourself in a virtual gallery of their work. You’ve entered the world of H Design.

Here there is a fine mix of old and new furnishings. Much of the furniture has been restored and/or hand-painted by the couple, like the green and blue dining table chairs or the finely buffed dark wood buffets. The seeming paradox of modern iron lighting fixtures and accessories reflects their creative and business philosophy.

“We do work from funky to traditional to classic, and don’t want to niche ourselves, says John. “France and Italy are our main interests and we love the old -world effects, but we also like the industrial look. In fact, we would love to live in a renovated factory,” he adds laughing, but serious.

The duo has been married only a year, but in business together for four. They find great satisfaction in their work together, whether it is painting a futuristic design on the side of an upright piano, marbleizing a wooden column or finishing an old wooden table top to give it a fine faux leather look.

It’s quite apparent that John is passionate about their work. He sports an artist’s goatee and wears paint-splattered sweatshirt and jeans. Eyes shine from behind round wire-framed glasses as he discusses the life he shares with his wife.

“We work so well together and we have always liked working on projects together,” he begins. “I tend to see things in more geometric shapes, measure everything and use a ruler and stencils, but Lisa’s work is much more free-hand. She can just see the picture and paint it on the piece,” he says gesturing toward an old bureau. Through application of some simple stain and new drawer pulls, and especially by Lisa’s softly painted view of a bucolic countryside, the piece has been reborn as an attractive piece of furniture.

Most of the looks are achieved in a two-step process. First the couple applies a base coat of specially ordered paint from a firm in Florida. Secondly, a glaze coat is applied and “worked.” John says they may use a twisted paint brush to create a wooden burl effect; or a plastic bag for a marbleized look; or even rags, cotton swabs or gloved fingers for some other type of swirling.

Sponge painting surfaces may be familiar to many, but the Hickeys take that process several steps further. Other effects given to wooden, metal and iron surfaces are old-world fresco, linen, different varieties of wood, washed painted look; leather and even brick and stone. They work on “anything paint-able,” including walls and floors.

For stone and other porous-looking surfaces, John will actually mix the pigment into the plaster. “So the final coat is actually painting with plaster.”

Often they will take an old piece of wooden furniture, say a corner cabinet, strip off the old layers of paint, re-paint it with two coats of two different colors and lightly sand away portions of the second coat, allowing the bottom layer to peek through.

“This gives it an aged look,” explains John. “Makes it look a little dirty and older.”

John explains that he and Lisa read books on finishing and took several seminars to learn the basics of technique, then developed their own processes over the years. John declines to give out all of his exact methods, as he says, “…can’t give away all my trade secrets.”

John has made H Design his full-time career, after years in other creative pursuits, including landscaping and sweater design and manufacture. Lisa continues to work full-time as a framer at the Frame Game in Newtown and Yardley where she also has sold some of their work. Being in the right place at the right time certainly has helped in their pursuits. Several months ago John happened to meet Adam Dolle and Joe Brown, the owners of Adam Brown, a fine home furnishing store recently opened in Doylestown, and now H Design is one of the shop’s prime furniture finishers.

“We do custom pieces for Adam Brown and will be doing work through them for the Bucks County Designer House this spring.”

H Designs will also work on the Princeton Designer House in April through Black-eyed Susan, a furnishing store in Yardley.

“It took a long time, but we really love what we’re doing now,” says John. “Our work complements each other. It’s a nice mix. There are some limitations, but freedom of expression is so important.”

One of the couples’ greatest joys in their work is the one-on-one contact with customers.

Says Lisa: “We really enjoy meeting and creating closely with our clients. It adds a lot of their personality to the pieces we create with them. Everyone has something unique to offer.”

As long as there is old furniture waiting for a new life, the Hickeys will have raw material to exercise that freedom. Under plastic tenting in the attic workshop of H Design wait a round wrought-iron table frame; wooden glass front hutch, white paint peeling away from the oak base; and a forlorn-looking horse-hair filled wing chair among assorted other flea-market and auction treasures. They wait to be touched by the imagination and hands of John and Lisa, and to be reborn as a brightly-colored art deco chest or classic bureau – maybe with a detailed French countryside painted on its face.

Web Design by Ami Nacu-Schmidt, © 2011