WEB DESIGN IN PROGRESS!: Greetings! If you have questions or comments, send correspondence to me, Karen, at the domain name above. Make sure to include the dash!! Not all tabs work at this time as content has not been developed. When you do click on a tab that goes somewhere, you will open a new tab if your browser supports it.
Check out the VOLUNTEER tab for before and after pictures of my recent trip to Pearlington, Mississippi. With four of us from here in Charlottesville via the Building Goodness Foundation, a family of four from Vancouver, Canada who also volunteered through BGF, and twenty-something high schoolers from St. Louis who were staying at the Pearlington Recovery Center, we were able to complete TWO COATS of exterior painting on the Pearlington Community Center in three days. The interior is six thousand square feet and two stories high in some places, so, yeah, we ROCKED!!!
Here's our team below on left, standing in back from left to right, Alexander Milani, David McFayden, Charlie Strickland, Jack Schatzman and Tim Duke. In front, Katrina Milani, Nicole Milani, and myself. Photo on the right shows Charlie and Jack manufacturing the railings.
Click on this link for the Building Goodness Foundation.
VOLUNTEER TODAY!: There are plenty of opportunities in Charlottesville and the surrounding area to volunteer your time in either your specialized field or generally helping others. Check out the volunteer link to see what kind of projects Surface Elegance has participated in.
Meet Karen Kocik
Karen Kocik (aka Schaefer), started Surface Elegance in 1995 after 15 years of working in the computer field mainly as a software engineer, bus also as a technical writer and IT specialist. Learn more about Karen and family here on the family tab.
Current Projects
Click on either of the "Projects" tabs above for a archive of client projects completed. Check out these photos of the most recently completed project
Feel free to email if you have questions on products, processes or costs to do these projects.
Gage & Rinella - Stripes
Sylvia Gage & Lorraine Rinella are two fabulous decorators who always give me great projects to do for their clients. Many times I am given the opportunity to help in the design process. For this project we wanted to give some "wow" to people coming off the elevator to the reception area. The wall has a beautiful curve and so I emphasized it by painting horizontal instead of vertical stripes. These pictures show the left side of the wall. We also wanted to give the impression that the chair rail was continuous in a subtle way. This just shows what simplicity there is in painting for effect.
Mike & Maria's Hutch
Mike and Maria bought a hutch from Swetman's Unfinished Furniture and wanted me to stain it to match the wood in their kitchen. In June of 2008, we resurfaced their existing kitchen cabinet doors with new wood veneer and cleaned up the existing frames. Using a combination of 2 to 1 of Early American and Special Walnut, we were able to duplicate the color. We did lots of sanding and added several coats of semi-gloss poly on all surfaces, including the backs of the cabinets to give it a real smooth finish.
Robyn's Master Bath Remodel
In this bathroom make over we added wainscoting, individual 4" boards, with new base, shoe and cap. We framed in the mirror, primed & painted the wood cabinets including scoring the doors to match the lines in the wainscoting, and added crown molding to the ceiling. The top of the vanity and Jacuzzi areas were resurfaced with a product called SpreadStone and all new faucets, handles, and lighting were added. Lots of details in the trim work as well!! The spreadstone was sculpted and colored to match the look and tone of the existing flooring. The walls were painted a soft green that matched the color in the adjoining bedroom. I had a glitch with my camera and so there are no before pictures but the existing walls were wallpapered from the 80's which the client painstakingly removed herself!
