Krista Vind can turn any surface into a work of art.
Vind, a faux finisher and decorative artist, owns and operates Ufauxrea in Niceville. Through this business and as a teacher at the Faux Finish School in Louisville, Ky., Vind crafts some of the world’s finest decorative finishes.
She transforms ordinary, dull surfaces into intricate, complex compositions using colors and specially formulated products.
This is perhaps one of the freest art forms, because Vind is not limited by a canvas. Without one, the possibilities are endless.
“Everybody thinks that it is just for walls, but it’s not,” explained Vind. “I do floors, furniture, doors … almost anything. I’ve even painted a car.”
Homeowners seeking originality hire Vind to create unique custom finishes for their homes.
“If they wanted a totally repetitive design on their walls, they would probably purchase wallpaper,” Vind said. “The reason people choose me over wallpaper is because they want something that can’t just be recreated, rolled and printed off of a spool. They want something that is handmade.”
Vind did not become a professional faux finisher overnight. Her love for the art started with friends more than a decade ago.
“I started helping my friends decorate their homes. We were all kind of on a budget helping each other out.”
Vind started experimenting with different finishes. Wanting to learn more, she searched the Internet from top to bottom. Her searches did not produce any results for several years.
In 2000, Vind stumbled across one school that taught this art, the Faux Finish School – a division of Martin Alan Hirsch’s Decorative Finishes Studio.
“The very first thing I ever found about faux finishing is the school that I now teach at, which is kind of ironic,” she said. “I took the most advanced class that they had available at the time.”
This course led Vind on an artistic discovery that had her traveling the country to seek more knowledge from world-renowned faux finishing experts.
“In the beginning I wanted to get a very wide overview of what was available to me and learn as much as I could from as many people as I could,” she said. “Everybody has something good to teach.”
Vind is now armed with more than 12 years of study and extensive training. She is a fountain of knowledge when it comes to natural formations.
“There’s actually a whole lot of study that goes into becoming a really accomplished faux finisher,” Vind said. “As a faux finisher, you have to have a lot of knowledge of trees – the way they grow. You have to know about the natural formations of marble. If you don’t, you can’t create realistic versions of those.”
Faux Effects
Almost as important as the study, Vind said that as a professional faux finisher, she will only use quality products to create a rich and lasting finish.
She primarily uses a product line based out of Vero Beach, Fla. known as Faux Effects.
Faux Effects has three different product lines:
- Aqua Finishing Solution – available to anyone
- Gold Label Architectural Coatings – only sold to licensed professionals
- Professional Product Line – only sold to licensed professionals
Sisters Hands
Vind works independently most of the time or with the help of an interior decorator. However, she has been known to ask for help.
“A couple times a year I will get a job that is too much for me to handle on my own.”
When this happens, Vind turns to nine of her friends known collectively as Sisters Hands.
Sisters Hands – a decorative art consortium – is made up of highly-skilled professional faux finishers.
The group was created for two reasons:
- To act as a network of faux finishers who could assist with big projects that cannot be handled by one faux finisher alone
- To act as a support group that is dependable without bringing competition into the equation
With the help of friends, jobs get done faster, clients remain happy and a business has more room to grow.
“I work by myself a lot, but having these friends who think like me, they do the same thing that I do, they’re a really good support group and just great friends,” Vind said. “Before I had this group available to me, I had a job in Virginia that took me eight months.”
A job well done
But, like most commissioned artists, the real satisfaction comes into play when seeing the look of gratitude spread across the customer’s face.
“The best feeling is when you’re all done and the furniture is back and the people are just ready to cry they are so happy,” Vind said. “It is like they have just won a game show or something. They are just so ecstatic over the way their house looks. That is priceless.”
Find faux finishers in the area
Faux finishing is more than what is found in home improvement stores.
“A lot of people think that faux finishes are what is available at Home Depot or do-it-yourself shows,” Vind said. “However, there are also some highly trained professional people throughout the country who take it to a different level.”
“Sometimes it is hard to find really good faux finishers. People don’t advertise,” she said. “So, this is a nice way for the people to find the finisher.”
For faux finishers or those wishing to learn more about becoming one, Vind suggests joining the Stencil Artisans League, Inc. at
SALI.org.
SALI has a convention every year with mini courses for those wishing to gain a lot of information very quickly and at a low cost. This year, the convention will be held in July.
Another great way to discover faux finishers and learn more about the trade is to attend one of the faux finish schools in the country.
For interested residents on the Emerald Coast, Vind recommends the Faux Finish School in Louisville. The school provides a variety of training for beginners and advanced students.
