Eight hours with a stencil on the kitchen floor was worth it for Jessica Davis
N.J. home makeover is a regular feature on NJ.com. To submit your renovation for consideration, email home@starledger.com with your full name, email address, phone number and town/city. Attach "before" and "after" photos of what you renovated.
SOUTH ORANGE -- Jessica Davis wanted a new floor in the kitchen of her 1879 Victorian in South Orange, so she got a long-handled roller and covered the ceramic tiles in two coats of white paint.
When everything was dry, she sat down and painstakingly applied a black geometric pattern to each tile -- about 230 in all. It took her eight hours using a mylar stencil she designed and cut by hand.
"When I found out that you could paint on tile with chalk paint, I thought, 'Maybe I'll try that'," said Davis. "I saw a concrete tile pattern that I thought I could replicate." To protect her work, she rolled on a two-layer polyurethane topcoat.
Davis is not a beginner. She owns Nest Studio, through which she designs kitchen and bath hardware sold in about 40 showrooms in the U.S. and abroad. She has a background in interior design and architecture, and she worked two years for celebrity home-improvement guru Bob Villa, which added to her skill and confidence in home renovation. She previously stenciled a latex-painted plywood floor in the kitchen of her former Millburn home, which was featured on the home design website Apartment Therapy and in the book "Apartment Therapy: Complete + Happy Home," by the site's founder Maxwell Ryan.
Davis and her husband, Scott, wanted a larger home for their family and more room for her home-based design studio. When they purchased the 5,700 square-foot Victorian at the end of 2015, one goal was to update the kitchen from a 1990s renovation. However, they wanted to avoid a major spend that would cut into money they are saving to reconfigure their master bedroom.
"I decided to paint the cabinets myself, stencil the floor, change out the lighting, backsplash and hardware," said Davis, who used her brand's hardware on the cabinets. She painted both the cabinets and the floor with Annie Sloan chalk paint. The paint is wildly popular for DIY applications because it can be applied to a variety of surfaces without a lot of prep work.
Elsewhere in the house, Davis replicated designer Kelly Wearstler's "Cresent" wallpaper pattern in a powder room where antique brass faucets have been preserved. Davis penciled in guide lines and then used a silicone comb to make curved patterns with gray paint.
"I have always been interested in restoring old houses," says Davis, whose recent projects will be on view from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Oct. 14 for the Gems of South Orange House Tour. Presented as a fundraiser by the South Orange Historical & Preservation Society, this year's tour opens to the public eight distinctive homes built in 1787 through 2007. (Tickets are $25 in advance; $30 on tour day. Details online at sohps.org.)
Davis says she and her husband were house shopping in the South Orange-Maplewood area when they decided on a whim to look at the seven-bedroom, three-and-a-half-bathroom house. They were looking to upsize from their four-bedroom Dutch Colonial in Millburn, but the Victorian was larger than they had planned for their family of four, with children now ages 5 and 3.
"We didn't really think it was within reach," Davis said. "But then we started thinking of how we could make it work."
Part of the plan was to use some of the Victorian's ample square footage to help offset ownership costs. They would have a bedroom and bathroom at the back of the house modified to rent out as an Airbnb suite with a kitchenette and a private entrance. "It's locked off from the rest of the house but can be opened up when we have our own guests visiting," she said.
They also negotiated a lower price for the house, which had been on the market for more than a year.
"We were able to see past a lot of things that other potential buyers couldn't see past," Davis said. For one thing, the house had been done up with period-appropriate flourish. "The way it was furnished was very heavy Victorian. There were lace curtains and a lot of really traditional, ornate furniture," she said. "There was a different bright color in every room. It was like a crayola box."
Before they moved in, the couple neutralized the house by having the walls painted in a palette of whites, creams and grays. In the living room, they tore down wallpaper.
"We left it on the ceiling; we felt that was interesting. For the entire room it was too much, but for the ceiling, it has some gilding that's nice and reflective," she said.
Like many grand houses of the era, the three-story Victorian features coffered ceilings and other intricate woodwork. The main staircase is bathed in warm light from stained glass windows. In the sunroom, leaded glass windows have stained-glass borders.
The first and second floors of the house will be open for the Gems house tour, including the rental suite, the kitchen, sunroom, the powder room and other areas.
The master bedroom renovation will involve converting the master bathroom to a hall bathroom and constructing a new bathroom and closet within the spacious bedroom. It's at least a year away, says Davis. "It all depends on budget and other unforseen things that tend to arise."
What they renovated
The kitchen of an 1879 Victorian home. Also, they painted all the walls, fenced in a yard area and created a rental suite to generate income since moving in nearly two year ago.
Who did the work
They hired a handyman to install the kitchen hardware and backsplash. An electrician changed the lighting. Jessica Davis painted the kitchen cabinets and the tile flooring with guidance from Verdigreen Home in Montclair. "They were very helpful and allowed me to bring a cabinet front in to try out in the store so that they could train me on how best to apply the paint. It was great for DIY and has practically no VOCs, which is really nice in a house with small children," she said. Scott, who works in marketing, kept their kids occupied during Jessica's DIY projects.
How long it took
"I started the cabinet-painting project in January, and the hardware was finally installed in August," Jessica said.
What they spent
About $2,500 for the kitchen, including paint, lighting, the island, and backsplash.
How they saved
"I saved money by painting everything myself, so there was a huge labor savings there," Jessica said.
What they like most
"I was most pleased with the stenciled floor. I feel like that transforms the space the most," says Jessica. "I wanted the look of a cement tile without the cost involved."
What she'd have done differently
"I would use a different roller on the floor and apply three coats of polyurethane instead of two," she said. "It's holding up great, but I think the nap of the roller makes it a little harder to clean, and a third coat of polyurethane would have made it a bit more durable."