The first order of business is to thank each and every one of you who took the time to write a comment on my post about the finish of the floor. It was an extravaganza of a day for me! I had no idea so many of your comments were forthcoming, but how I loved them. All that good will was rocket fuel for my day. Again, thank you. All of your energy and enthusiasm was the talk of my entire staff. I did want to address some of the questions posed in some of the comments.
As for the possibility of painting this rug on canvas – I would not have considered that. This space may not look very big, but it is. I am guessing at least 25 by 40 feet. No canvas comes this size; it would have to be pieced, and sewn together. This room is the Detroit Garden Works railway station. It is our most highly trafficked space. People bring wet plants and bags of soil with holes in the bags to the counter. Carts get wheeled through here. Sometimes we need a pallet jack in this room. Kids drop the remains of their ice cream cones on the floor. The dogs drag in everything from outside. On a rainy day, everyone coming in has a mix of mud and gravel on the bottoms of their shoes. A canvas rug in a retail setting is a trip worry, if the edges do not lay perfectly flat. This is not a good place for a floor canvas. This floor painting is firmly glued down, and can be washed.
All of the daisies have a yellow center. I think our track lighting washed out the yellow in my pictures. I did paint the rug with semi gloss finish, as it is so durable. We do have a glare coming off the floor both from those lights, and the paint. The yellow reads loud and clear, if you are in the room. The yellow was an essential element. Bellis have yellow centers.
It is a pleasure that this painted rug will get a lot of use. I like things for the garden that go on to last long enough to look worn. If this painting wears to the point of no return, it just means I will have a chance to paint a floor another time. This is the 3rd painting in 20 years. I wonder how I might repaint this floor when I am 72. Maybe when I am 70, I will simply be ready for a change. I was in a commercial building last week whose lobby was filled with potted poinsettias. Though they had had perfect care, and looked wonderful, their time had passed. I will not put a sealer coat over the painting. It will just have to endure, as best it can. Should it ever need replacing, I will paint again. I am not thinking of the future now. What is there now is enough.
What Rob has placed on the painted floor tells me he likes it. No big things sit flat on the floor, obscuring the paint. Everything sitting on the floor in this room has legs.
Painting this floor was 9 days well spent. February is a bleak month in Michigan. I scarcely thought about the cold and gray.
This room is starting to come together. MCat, that dark blob in the back center of this picture, has walked across this floor as many times as all the rest of us have the past few days. It will be great fun next week to have people come in and see it in person.
Again, my thanks to all of you for taking the time to write. And I promise, no more posts about this floor.
I just can’t believe what talent in artistic expression you must possess. Isn’t it wonderful that you had time to show that talent in paint as well as all the talent I see in your flowers and landscaping. God gave you a big beautiful canvas and you filled it!
I hope I can manage to get over to your place sometime from the Lake Michigan side of the state!
This floor is so creative, practical and perfect for Detroit Garden Works. I love it!
It was wonderful to have another post, and to know that our reaction mattered. “I wonder how I might repaint this floor when I am 72. Maybe when I am 70, I will simply be ready for a change.” I myself am 59, and I think this sentence means more than you knew when you wrote it. Or, maybe you knew. You are a true artist. Thank you.
If I ever make it to Michigan, I hope to visit Detroit Garden Works. The Floor is fantastic! Your talents seem endless. My wife and I both enjoy your blog.
Keith H. Bolton, MA
No more posts about the floor will sadden me! Thanks so much for sharing, it is just like I am there, with your fantastic descriptions about the wonderful floor. Even though I am miles away in South Carolina and will not be able to walk across it next week, I will pause and remember and I will have a smile as I think about how wonderful and inviting it will be! You should be proud!
Thanks for sharing such detailed info regarding the painted floor. You are a truly talented designer and artist!
I would have no problem whatsoever if you posted over and over again about this floor. It’s the most charming thing I may have ever seen.
I can’t wait to see the floor, and some time to bring my 2-year-old granddaughter who will wonder at it!
Hello Deborah,
Congratulations on a fabulous, lawn floor! What a great idea.
I live in Salem, MA and have a lawn that used to be picture perfect but now that my husband is no longer able to care for it I am planning to seed it with English Daisies! They will be the solution to my despair every time I looked at my never ending weedy ground scape!
Have a prosperous, wonderful season ahead!
many thanks,
Brenda Marean
This floor just leaves me gobsmacked!
I love reading about it.
Your detailed description of the process gives texture and meaning to the painting, making it come alive for me. There is no end to your creativity or to the inspiration you give your readers.
Thanks, Deborah.
It gives such life to your space! You would never know it was February and not the middle of summer. And it sounds like it gave you much needed green therapy when you needed it the most!!
With our drought here in California maybe we could paint grass on our valleys with some wild flowers thrown in.
I am one of the lucky locals. I will see the floor! Wonderful creation!
I think your new floor is fantastic!
I certainly agree with all the comments, I wish there had been a time lapse camera showing your progress over the nine days. Great job but I am really interested in who is that handsome dog in the navy coat. Are you changing your Corgi allegiance ?
Cheers.
I absolutely love the painted floor! II am planning a l trip in just to see it! You are a gifted artist that inspire us all!
Fabulous! It is almost a shame you have to put furniture – or anything for that matter – on top of it. But it is a store, after all! Early Spring in this drab season!
Oh my goodness! I love the floor! Its my favorite thing so far this year! What is so cool is how ut has such a 3D read. It look really deep not flat. So wonaful! The daiseys are dear. Maam, you are my inspiration and one day soon im flying up juat to go to DGW! Peace love and joy! Clairee
I love the floor and enjoyed reading your posts about it as winter rains and grey skies continued here in the Pacific Northwest. Like this year’s groundhog, it heralded an early spring!
Deborah… what a transformation! You are a genius! Mirrors the wildflowers in bloom here in the desert. I can’t wait to see it when I return to MI. Happy 20th!
wow – it looks even more 3-D now with the things you have sitting on it. applause. — suz in ohio
as all of your commenters/fans, i too am gobsmacked about this floor! as often is, my hat is off to you deborah.
but……something else in this post stopped me in my tracks, the berger picard. as a fellow cardigan owner, i am thinking about adding a picard to my life and have been doing research. is he yours deborah? what kind of a coincidence is this!?
cheers
debra
Debra, the Bergere Picard puppy is Rob’s. He is just shy of 6 months old. best, Deborah
I came back and reread this post one more time & marvelled all over again at your creativity. I love this floor!