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| A MIDAS TOUCH
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With a flair for drama and an eye on the budget, a designer creates palatial interiors with paint and brush.
For Cameron Patrick Neth, design comes naturally. As a young boy, he remembers collecting sticks and spray painting them gold to add texture and sparkle to the chandelier in his bedroom.
While still in high school, he started his own design business, and by age 19, he was designing floral arrangements and baskets for the White House Easter Egg Roll. Cameron's floral and interior
design business grew so well that by the time he turned 20, he was able to buy his own home--a 1789 Tudor that's become the testing ground for all of his prodigious ideas.
Here--where he's at liberty to indulge his taste for all that glitters--silence truly is golden, and there's a silver lining to even the darkest days. "I've always loved anything metallic or
shiny," Cameron says.
When he bought the Brownsville, Pennsylvania, home, the inside looked its age. "The linoleum in the kitchen was the first linoleum ever made, and everything else just needed to be made beautiful
again," he explains. For this designer, selecting the cosmetics--paint, moldings, fabrics and hardware--posed nary a challenge. "That's the fun part," he states with characteristic enthusiasm.
But while he loves over-the-top elegance and the ornamental Baroque look, the 23-year-old doesn't believe in spending a bundle. "It's just like with my floral business. You don't need to buy a
bunch of expensive flowers to create beautiful arrangements. When I started my business, I started with the flowers I found along the road. You really just have to look at what's around and make something out of what you have."
he says, adding that this renew-and-recycle rule applies to his decorating as well.
SILVER SERVICE
In the dining room, Cameron started with a wintry palette of silver and blue. Shopping at an estate sale, he found walnut side chairs and a china cabinet for a song. He later purchased a mahogany
table and host chairs to round out the grouping. To give the mismatched set continuity, Cameron did something decidely "against the grain." He painted the entire set silver.
"The great thing about paint is if you don't like it, you can just paint it again until you wind up with something you like," he explains, adding that the elegance of the finished set demanded that
he dress the rest of the room to match.
Before long, moldings and trims took on a silver shimmer. When the radiator beneath the windows seemed out of place, Cameron topped it with a cover he designed. Now, camouflaged with a wooden cabinet
crowned with a mirrored top, the former eyesore serves as a handy buffet. Cameron also lent importance to a blank wall with a pair of silver-painted corbels that support and elegant mirror-topped shelf, which in turn functions as
a bar and display space.
Trade SECRETS
Layer color, paint and glazes to fashion surfaces that boast shimmer and depth. To create the metallic finish of the dining room table, Cameron painted the base and top separately. For the base, he
began with a coat of silver paint, rubbing the finish with robin's egg blue paint. Next, he sponged aluminum paint over the entire surface. After applying an antiquing glaze, he rubbed on aqua paint, which he then rubbed back to
create texture. He completed the layered effect by coating the table's ornate, raised sections with aluminum paint and rubbing on a final coat of robin's egg blue paint. For the tabletop, Cameron dabbed on blue and silver paints
with small brushes that he "smashed" onto the surface until he achieved the marbleized patina.
SUMPTUOUS SEATING
In the "breakfast room" just off the foyer, the color scheme evolves to black and gold, and the mood shifts to intimate. A luxe designer wallcovering creates an intimate space and sets the stage for
dramatic dining in the home's orginal banquette. "I wanted to make it look like Napoleon could come and eat here," Cameron explains.
With the backdrop in place, he painted the room's existing benches, table and trims black. He gilded the inside of the built-in china cabinets and added gilded decorative moldings and trims to the benches. To finish the look, he
warmed the space with fabrics on the seats and at the window. He even created a tentlike treatment for the ceiling. "I didn't send anything out to be upholstered. I'm very impatient," says the designer, who made the benches from
boards that he covered with padding and fabric.
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Country Sampler Decorating Ideas DECORATE WITH PAINT
November 2004
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