1. What type of faux finishes do you teach?
At the Chicago Institute of Fine Finishes, a decorative painting school, we teach the art of faux finishing to those wanting to change careers, homeowners professional decorative painters and professional painting contractors, who want a wide variety of finishes. Our Professional Faux class is a hands-on, full-participation experience and is taught using a three-step learning process: hear it, see it, do it. You will hear how the finish will be applied, while following along using step-by-step guides for each sample, watch the instructor complete the sample, and then create the finish on your own sample board.
In class, we discuss the entire process for applying faux finishes on walls. Topics covered include masking, wall prep, base coats, artistry and clear protective coats. We will fully discuss translating the finish from your sample board to the wall, including how to handle sections and corners as well as ceiling and floor lines and troubleshooting on the job site. We teach both positive and negative glazing techniques, using several different tools to explore the variation achieved with each. You will also learn the correct way to blend colors to accomplish expert, sophisticated, elegant looking faux finishes.
It is important that your portfolio contain a wide variety of samples. You must give your clients choices of finishes and of price ranges. We start with broken color work, and work our way all the way to furniture. We offer the most diverse assortment of samples for professionals in the industry. Your portfolio will include a wide varitey different finishes. These are not variations on a theme. No two are the same. For specifics on any given class please refer to the class description.
2. Do you have any business and estimating information as part of the class?
Chicago Institute of Fine Finishes, a decorative painting school was the first to offer a complete business course in a professional decorative painting class. We have the best business classes in the industry! It is not enough to leave a professional decorative painting class with great samples. You must have knowledge about pricing and the ability to run your business profitably. We start each day of the 'Great Beginnings' and 'Jump Start Your Business' with a business seminars. You get a complete set of notes, including contracts, a scope of work, change orders, disclaimers, take off sheets and other forms that you may copy and use. We spend several hours each day discussing your business. From contracting with your client to covering your bases with Uncle Sam, we include the topics that make or break decorative painting businesses. After figuring out your labor rate, and calucating square footage we complete an estimate.
We also have available, and highly recommend, Faux Estimating Made Easy, by Lynn H. Fife. This step-by-step guide to estimating is easy to read and easy to understand. Lynn has an unusual writing style that will have you feeling as if he were right there with you, talking you through your estimates.
3. What type of hand-out materials do you provide with class?
At The Chicago Institute of Fine Finishes a decorative painting school, we provide comprehensive notes with all classes. The Professional Faux manual is a three-ring binder with five sections. It includes:
General Information: This section contains notes on masking, surface prep, base coats artistry and protective coats. "Do and Don'ts" contracts written and ready for your use, conversion charts and lots and lots more!
Product Information: This section includes all the spec sheets for all the products representative at the Chicago Institute of Fine Finishes. These products are indexed for your convenience. The products sheets are given to you so that when you are questioning what is the best product to use for a particular project you will have the resource to answer your question. We include a step-by-step guide with a full color picture of each finish produced in class, to which we add brush outs of the colors used so that you can recreate the finish later. The steps are comprehensive and laid out in an easy-to-understand format with plenty of room for you to add notes of your own.
Samples: This section includes the step by step recipe sheets of each finish along with a blank sheet for you to take your own notes. We feel that it is important for you to take notes during the class and if possible for you to rewrite those notes each night to help you retain what you have learned each day..
Recipe and notes: This section includes additional recipes of finishes that you can make once you are back at your studio. We also include a place for you to make notes pertaining to things you learn during your time at The Chicago Institute of Fine Finishes, a decorative painting school.
Prices/Products: A comprehensive price list of the products currently carried at the Chicago Institute of Fine Finishes. Keep your eyes on our web site, though, as we are constantly on the look-out for newer, better materials.
4. What product line(s) do you teach?
At the Chicago Institute of Fine Finishes, a decorative painting school we do not use one single manufacturer's products. Kathy enjoys teaching a variety of specialty finishes for walls, floors and furniture. She also finds that her students appreciate her knowledge of the large range of products available to faux finishers and decorative finishers, including the so called “Green Products.”
5. Can I purchase the products used in class while I am there?
The Chicago Institute of Fine Finishes, decorative painting school is not just a school. We are a full-fledged, full-service faux finishing supply store. We are fully stocked with everything that you use in class and more. Our stock is attractively and conveniently displayed with material prices marked clearly.
When you need additional supplies, you can come in and shop during business hours if you are local. If you are from out of town or out of state, you can shop our on-store located at FauxbyKathy. If your orders are received by 2 p.m. CST they will ship the same day via UPS. Some clients have their orders shipped to their job sites so that the materials they need are on the job when they arrive.
6. How do I get my samples home?
If you are from out of town or out of state, we recommend that you let us ship your samples home. We like to wait until the Monday after class, so that your samples are completely dry and don't stick together. We insure your samples for the cost of the class in case something happens to them during shipping.
7. Will I get technical assistance after the class?
At the Chicago Institute of Fine Finishes, a decorative painting school each and every member of our staff is a qualified, experienced decorative painter excluding our Office Manager Peggy Malucci. When you call, no matter who answers the phone, you can get answers to your questions. You can also email questions to us at kcarroll@fauxbykathy.com. You will get a timely response.
8. Will the instructor be available to me after the class?
Yes. In all our faux classes we give each student a class roster which includes contact information for each student in the class as well as the instructor and assistant. The instructor includes her personal email and cell phone number. You can contact anyone at the Chicago Institute of Fine Finishes, a decorative painting school at any time and get help.
9. What do I need to bring to class?
Absolutely nothing! At the Chicago Institute of Fine Finishes, a decorative painting school we provide everything you need. We have tools, supplies, manuals, sample boards, writing utensils, both latex and non-latex gloves, and anything else you might need. The refrigerator is stocked with soft drinks and water. The coffee pot brews as much as it needs to. At the end of certain classes we will introduce you to our favorite "beer marguerites". Just come dressed to paint.
10. What should I wear to class?
Dress is casual. Jeans and t-shirts are fine. Your most paint-y outfits are fine. If you don’t have paint clothes, just wear your day-to-day casual clothes as long as you don’t mind getting paint on them. Our weather in Chicago can be windy and chilly even thou our class room is heated you might want to bring with you a jacket or heavy sweater if you are sensitive to the cold.
11. Are meals included in the tuition?
At the Chicago Institute of Fine Finishes, we will have an continental breakfast for you each morning and other munchies available to tide your over between meals. We start class at 9:00 a.m. sharp and you are able to bring your food into the class room. At lunch time you will be provided with a copy of the local restaurant menu and you will make your selection from such excluding soft drinks. Lunch is picked up for you and deliver to the class room were we will all eat lunch as a group. The lunch conversation usually swirl around the business of faux..
12. Do you provide transportation?
At the Chicago Institute of Fine Finishes, a decorative painting school, our hospitality doesn't end with the food! If you stay at the Hampton Inn and make arrangements with us before hand, we'll provide transportation between your hotel and the studio.
13. Do you help with airline and hotel arrangements?
Your best bet for discount airfare is through www.priceline.com, www.travelocity.com or www.cheaptickets.com. On Priceline, you bid for your flight, so be careful when choosing times, airlines and dates. Once you win the bid, you've bought it. Travelocity and Cheaptickets are more conventional. All give you great deals on flights.
Hotel accommodations are easy. To view the hotel on our "Accommodations" page Click here. The Hampton Inn has provided the Chicago Institute of Fine Finishes, a decorative painting school with a corporate account with which our students can obtain discount rates.
14. Do I need to purchase any tools?
At the Chicago Institute of Fine Finishes, a decorative painting school, we believe that it's difficult to create a professional quality finish without professional quality tools. We provide a complete set of professional quality tools to each student for use during class. That way you get to try each tool before you make a decision to purchase it.
15. I don't have any experience. Will I be able to keep up?
At the Chicago Institute of Fine Finishes, a decorative painting school, we always begin at the beginning. Even seasoned professionals appreciate starting with the basics and learning shortcuts and new techniques for everything from taping off a room to rolling on a base coat. We have a tip for stopping paint seepage under tape that surprises and excites everyone in the room. You will not be the only one hearing what we have to say for the first time.
Everyone has different talents. There may be someone in your class with years of experience in painting or faux finishing. However, he or she will be learning our techniques for the first time just like you. You will find that, in a class of nine students, there will be ten interpretations of each finish (the instructor, plus each of the nine students). We do not believe that there is a "wrong" way to achieve the finish. Everyone has a different touch and different techniques at which they excel. Our bet is that you will be better than everyone in the class at some of the finishes.
Our instructors are well qualified and experienced teachers, but they haven't forgotten what it is like to be new. We are honored that our students chose us and we create a nurturing, non-competitive, non-intimidating learning environment.
16. What are your sample boards like?
Our sample boards are 19 x20 .030 mil polystyrene in our professional level classes. In the furniture class we have special door fronts made to accommodate a furniture faux finish and in the flooring and countertop class we will use bigger samples and actually counter top in order for you to get the real feel of these faux finishes.
17. Will I do my samples on a tabletop or easel?
Students in our classes work on easels that are 24 x 24. We believe it is important to learn on a vertical surface since you will work on a vertical surface when you apply faux finishes to walls.
18. What is the maximum number of students you take in your class?
We take a maximum of 14 and in our five-day class and can accommodate a few more for shorter length classes. In all our classes the teacher is professionally assisted in order to give you that important one on one with the instructor.
19. Do you have walls for the students to practice on?
After much thought and consideration, we decided to provide a wall area on which students can practice. However, after a few classes, we realized that we must cut the number of samples completed by students, or cut the quality of the samples, if we were to continue. Time just did not allow for completing our great samples AND having the students paint our walls. We made the decision that we would rather you have the maxiumn number of samples in your portfolio than for you to have fewer samples and us to have great walls! Therefore, we spend our 40 hours of class time making sure you have the business knowledge and a great portfolio with which to grow your business. If students elect, there is a place for them to apply finishes to walls. However, those applications will be conducted after class hours.
20. What qualifications does the instructor have?
Faux finishing is Kathy Carroll's passion. As owner of the Chicago Institute of Fine Finishes, a decorative painting school Kathy enjoys teaching a variety of specialty finishes for walls, floors and furniture. She also finds that her students appreciate her knowledge of the large range of products available to decorative finishers, including the so called “Green Products.”
After the opening of her eStore in March, 2005, Kathy experienced a considerable expansion of her faux finishing supply store. Presently there are over 3,000 items from a variety of manufacturers to choose from. You will often hear her say that “One Manufacturer is Not the Answer to All."
Kathy has been a visionary in the business of decorative painting, beginning her career in teaching as one of the “Big 8 Schools” for Faux Effects International ®. In 2001 decisions were made that changed the course of the Chicago Institute of Decorative Finishing to its present charter:The Chicago Institute of Fine Finishes. While changing the name of the Institute was easy, acquiring new products and alternatives to the ones used in the past was challenging. Looking back over the last seven years has proven that things really do work out for the best and that this change now allows the Chicago Institute of Fine Finishes to offer its customers and students “The Best of The Best.”
Because her store is independent of any one manufacturer, Kathy is able to offer products found here and in Europe alike. In the past year, she has developed several products of her own under the “Bella” label, including Bella Fresco™ and Bella Gesso. Along with the actual paints, plasters and decorative finishing products, Kathy also offers a variety of faux and decorative painting tools for the artisan.
With over 19 years in the decorative arts and interior design business, in addition to her talent in creating unique faux finishes, Kathy’s background is worth sharing with other faux artisans, muralists and decorative painters. Kathy counts among her students a number of individuals who have started schools of their own.
In spite of her expertise, Kathy realizes that to bring the best to her students, she must continue be a student herself. Her skills are constantly evolving as she learns new faux finishes, takes classes from other artisans and then passes along her newly acquired techniques to her own clients and students. Kathy's vivacious enthusiasm as an instructor is second only to her artistry and knowledge of the decorative painting industry.
The relationship between Kathy and her faux finishing students does not end upon completion of a course. Taking a class from Kathy is like becoming a member of the family. Kathy prides herself on helping others begin their own faux finishing careers. and her philosophy has always been “Your Success ... is Our Success".
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