Victor De Masi does much more than beautify with paint. He lectures, teaches workshops, writes, and provides design services. His work has been featured in The New York Times, Home and Garden, and many other publications. In addition, Victor’s avid interest in entomology has taken him around the world, collecting insect specimens and working as a research affiliate with the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History’s entomology department.
Custom decorative finishing of furniture puts two formidable challenges on the painter’s plate. Both creative and business skills need exercise in the careful consideration of projects that can fill a portfolio to wow levels. Business-wise making a decent profit is challenging on mostly small projects. On custom work Decisions can come with difficulty and preparation problems nibble away at production time.
Victor DeMasi is the 35-year owner of Monarch Painting, a decorative painting firm in Redding, Connecticut, which specializes, in faux finishes and Tromple l’oeil. His murals often feature natural history subjects such as native wild flowers and butterflies. Clients delight to a Monarch butterfly painted sitting on top of a window frame in an unlikely corner of their house. “Metamorphosis is our business” makes for the company’s slogan.
Floor painting: it is an idea with plenty of possibilities but surprisingly, designer’s considerations seldom go beyond carpeting. For my clients, painted floors offer the “to die for” impact they seek in decorating their caves, from my perspective I take them with the ceiling, as the fifth and sixth walls of the room and the possibility of more billing events. A nice selection of magazine pictures or my portfolio of completed floor projects can tease the idea to a vulnerable customer.