Painting has been a passion for Scott Steck since he first learned the trade over summers in high school. He’s now the owner of Steck Custom Painting, which recently completed the repaint of a historic Tudor-style Ohio mansion built in the 1920s.
“It still had a lot of the original trim,” he says. “Once it was stripped, we found the original quartersawn and rift-sawn oak – what a find! The staircases were a thing of beauty once they were stained and clear coated with Sher-Wood Stain and Lacquer.”
Hand-brushed look on trim
For the painted trim, Steck applied Emerald® Urethane Trim Enamel, spraying the first coat and brushing the second to give it a hand-brushed look.
“This was our first time using the Emerald Urethane Trim paint,” he says. “The thing I liked the most about this product is that it sprays out nice and is also brush friendly – and being a urethane base it is very durable.”
Hiding imperfections on plaster walls
Emerald® Interior Acrylic Latex was chosen for the walls.
“I have been using Emerald Interior Paint for quite a while now,” Steck says. “The flat finish worked great on the old plaster walls to help hide a lot of the waves in the finish, but still gives you the durability of a higher sheen product. This is the product I recommend 90 percent of the time to my clients. Once I explain all the positives, they don’t mind paying the extra money.”
Choosing the right ceiling paint
For the ceilings, Steck selected ProMar® Interior Latex Ceiling Paint.
“It made all the old plaster ceilings look smooth and flat, and it just has a very nice, soft look to it,” he says. “It’s my go-to product for ceilings.”
Original oak required serious prep
The most challenging part of this job, he says, was stripping all of the original oak.
“It required a lot of labor and time, but the homeowner was thrilled with the finished product so that made it well worth it.”
Sherwin-Williams was instrumental in the project’s success.
“My sales rep Tony Davey helped me through this project from start to finish,” Steck says. “We were there for about 30 months and I called Tony at least once a week. If he couldn’t answer my question, which was not very often, he would contact somebody who could and get right back with me. It’s nice to know that someone is just a phone call away if you run into issues.”
This article was originally published in the Spring 2019 issue of PPC magazine. Story by Mike Starling, PPC Editor. Photography courtesy Steck Custom Painting. Read about other successful painting projects in the PPC digital archive.