Spotlight on The Painted Bench, An Artisan Enhancements Premier Retailer
As The Painted Bench celebrates it’s 2 year anniversary as Hamilton Ontario’s go-to boutique shop for faux-finishing products and treasures for the home, we caught up with shop owner Melanie Anderson for some insight into her business and success. Melanie was eager to share about her favorite Artisan Enhancements products and how perfectly they compliment her other store offerings.
Melanie loves having Artisan Enhancements natural Clear Topcoat Sealer on hand to recommend to customers who are opposed to sealing their paint finishes with wax. She mentioned that she has been pleased with the fantastic protection it provides and passes it’s praises onto her customers.
Melanie describes her shop as having lots of rustic, crunchy goodness with a bit of elegance and says that Artisan Enhancements fits in perfectly. She shared these images with us of a cabinet door in her shop. The finish was created using Crackle Tex which Melanie herself uses frequently to create that time worn look that is so popular with her customers.
Another Artisan Enhancement product that Melanie finds herself restocking regularly is Transfer Gel. Her customers love it not only for transferring images onto their paint finishes but also as a great decoupage medium. To compliment the Transfer Gel, Melanie offers a wide range of decorative papers to her customers and uses them in her workshops to teach transfer and decoupage techniques.
Melanie introduces Artisan Enhancements Scumble Glaze to customers looking to create a driftwood or palette board finish. She recommends starting with a dark glaze and layering lighter colors on top for a driftwood look, such as a mix of Scumble and Graphite or French Linen followed by Old White and Louis Blue. For a palette board finish, Melanie first applies a glaze of Scumble tinted with Country Grey, then a second glaze of Scumble tinted with Graphite.
The Painted Bench is a great source for decorative stencils, a natural addition to the paint finishing products. According the Melanie, the Artisan Enhancements stencil line has been especially well received . In fact, Melanie has stenciled her shop floor in Artisan Enhancements large format Moroccan. The owner of the boutique across the street from The Painted Bench, called Tattered and Torn loved Melanies stenciled floor so well that the Moroccan stencil was lent out and used on her floors as well (seen here). The results are stunning.
The finished floors made such an impact on other local businesses that the stencil ended up travelling down the street to a neighboring vintage clothing store and then onto a yoga studio where it was used to transform a set of hanging barn doors!
Melanie shows her customers how to create raised stencil reliefs on surfaces such as this vintage paneled door using Artisan Enhancements VP Antico (seen here) and Pearl Plaster.
Last Fall Melanie enjoyed creating metallic finishes on pumpkins with Artisan Enhancements Leaf and Foil Size for a fun and elegant twist on Autumn decor.
The Painted Bench has an online store where a wide range of products and tools can be ordered and shipped, including Artisan Enhancements paint finishes, and stencils to be added soon! http://thepaintedbenchhamilton.ca/
Artisan Enhancements congratulates Melanie and The Purple Bench on two great years in business and wishes them many more years of success! We are honored to have our products carried in such a unique shop whose owner is clearly very passionate about teaching workshops and sharing her knowledge with her customers, offering them a selection of quality paints, faux finishing products and tools!
