Lei-Aleda DePonte, left, and Coleen Anzai-Kugiya transform a wall from blah to beautiful with the skill of old-world artisans.
Fab faux
Reunited friends find lucrative
work in making interior
surfaces shine
It was a coup that seems like a bit from MTV's "Punk'd," the "Candid Camera"-like show that has head prankster Ashton Kutcher concocting ploys targeting famous people.
The "punks" here: Lei-Aleda DePonte and Coleen Anzai-Kugiya, of Belle Arts Fine Faux Finishing LLC.
The celebrity target: Michael S. Smith, based in Santa Monica, Calif., award-winning interior designer to celebrities, whose portfolio includes client Michelle Pfeiffer's compound in Lanikai.
The setting: the Turtle Bay Hilton resort on Oahu's picturesque North Shore.
The goal: To win the bid on treating the ceiling of the resort's lobby in mother-of-pearl faux finish, part of a $47 million renovation project, a job with an eight-day deadline.
The only illusion here, if you will, was to impress upon the big designer guys that Belle Arts was a weighty establishment, even though they were just a green army of two.
At a time when most their age face midlife crisis, feeling stuck, the two are upstarts, late bloomers in the small-business world, who say life experiences were key in snapping up the Turtle Bay job, one they see as the pivotal point in their careers.
DePonte, who thought winning the job was a long shot, whipped up a bid with plans to iron out details should it be accepted, and it was. "Sometimes you just gotta take a chance."
And there were some major wrinkles in this scheme. They scrambled to secure an insurance policy for a staff, grabbed a group of six artist friends for a quick training session in Anzai-Kugiya's garage-turned-studio, costumed them in T-shirts silk-screened with their company name, basically overnight, and walked onto the job site the first day with heads held high.
"We never thought we'd pull it off, but on the eighth day we finished."
"I was scared," said Anzai-Kugiya. "(DePonte) gave me the extra push."
Smith was traveling and could not be reached for comment, but it probably helped their cause to have been referred by interior designer Peter Vincent, of Peter Vincent and Associates. Vincent has received accolades for his work, including the Local Motion flagship store in Waikiki, which received national exposure as the work base for MTV-Hawaii's "Real World" cast.
DePonte doesn't mind sharing the Turtle Bay story, told with a humble chuckle, especially since she and Anzai-Kugiya have proved themselves as a valid force in the interior design arena. With what started as an $8,000 investment, the company is now thriving.
A client's home is faux finished in the tones of Tuscany...
BELLE ARTS was formed after DePonte, who was laid off from her job as a sales rep, took art classes at a Florida trade school and invited her friend to join her. Anzai-Kugiya had to reduce her job as a full-time clerk with the state, a position she'd held for 15 years, to part-time status.
"My family thought I was crazy when I told them," said Anzai-Kugiya. "'You're going to lose out on your retirement,' they said."
The two met when they were children, playing together whenever one's mom would visit the other's, but had lost touch until meeting again in a painting class in Kaneohe several years ago.
"We were in the same class but didn't talk for a year," DePonte said, "until one day Coleen said, 'You look familiar.'"
When the teacher closed shop, they searched for other ways to fulfill their creative streak. DePonte saw an ad in an art magazine for mural painting classes in Florida, bought a plane ticket and was delighted upon discovering the mural painting centered around faux finishing.
"I called Coleen and said, 'You gotta check this out.'"
At first, the two received job offers mainly through referrals, but with a portfolio that includes Turtle Bay and the home of Honolulu Medical Examiner Kanthi Von Guenthner, business has been good.
"Von Guenthner's has been my favorite job, the most fun because usually people like subtle colors, but she let us go to town with this one," DePonte said.
Von Guenthner had only praise for the women of Belle Arts. Her entire home interior was white, and she had chosen vivid colors to remind her of her hometown.
"The result reminds me of Sri Lanka. I didn't have to get used to the change from the white walls at all; the tones are very warm and inviting," Von Guenthner said, also comparing them to the colors of Tuscany.
...with a bamboo motif in the bathroom.
BOTH OF THE women behind Belle Arts, who have supportive husbands and tend to children as well, said they don't believe they would have attempted to take on the Turtle Bay opportunity when they were younger.
"I wouldn't have had the people skills or the confidence," said DePonte. "You need to know how to work with the clients."
Anzai-Kugiya did mention, however, that the youthful energy of a 20-something would benefit now, with all the ladder work involved in their jobs. The Turtle Bay project had her climbing up 13 feet on scaffolding for the first time.
"It's physical and tedious. But all the climbing up and down, it does keep you young," she added. "It's worth it. You hear about these people who are singers and movie stars who say, 'I love going to work every day.' I never thought I could have that feeling."
For those who'd like to make a career change but are wary, Anzai-Kugiya offers this: "It's never too late to pursue something you love and be successful. If you have a passion for something, you'll be successful, no matter what."
Whether she would have believed in that advice 20 years ago, she said -- after a long pause -- "Probably not."
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Unschooled amateurs often
don’t stay true to fauxBeauty over substance doesn't cut it, even in the world of faux finishing.
The painting technique produces outstanding results if done correctly, "but it's not as easy as it looks on TV," said Coleen Anzai-Kugiya, principal partner of Belle Arts Fine Faux Finishing LCC.
Referring to the home improvement networks, she said, "They show the end result from far away, and it looks great, but if you look closely you can see the imperfections."
Anzai-Kugiya said she and business partner Lei-Aleda DePonte get many calls from people who've botched DIY faux-finish projects and want to be rescued.
"It's hard to correct," said Anzai-Kugiya, "You really have to do it right the first time" or you'll have to start all over.
Which translates to, don't try this at home, kids.
"You have to have an eye for it," said Anzai-Kugiya.
She and DePonte learned their techniques, referred to as Old World European, from schools in Florida and California, and return annually for classes to keep abreast of the latest trends.
Coleen Anzai-Kugiya, left, and Lei-Aleda DePonte of Belle Arts Fine Faux Finishing met the challenge of treating the ceiling of the Turtle Bay Hilton lobby in a mother-of-pearl faux finish.
Faux finishing is a European art form that "came out of the silk trade from China, via Marco Polo, who brought silk papers to Napoleon," DePonte said.
Over time the material became too expensive to purchase, even for the noblemen who started paying artists to duplicate the paper patterns on their walls.
"In the United States, the well-to-do -- including the Vanderbilts and Carnegies -- brought artists in from Europe to the East Coast to faux-finish the interior of their mansions," said DePonte.
Once here, the artists stayed and established schools for their trade, which is why many of the older faux-finishing schools are in the Northeast or in the South, she said.
"Faux finishing does well in the South because it can withstand the humidity."
As far as an option for wall covering, DePonte said faux finishing is superior to wallpaper because Hawaii's humidity makes paper susceptible to deterioration. Faux finishing lasts longer, and its effects can be as sophisticated or as playful as one desires.
She and Anzai-Kugiya are certified faux finishers trained in both French and Italian techniques, which can involve three to nine layers of finish.
"We can finish metal gates or railings to look like verdigris or emulate wood graining," DePonte said. One of their projects is for a client who wants brass trim to emulate a koa finish.
The result is shown above.
The process involves color matching and mixing, and much layering. "It's high-end faux finishing," said DePonte. "We use European products such as ground pigments, iridescents," plus various plasters and "crushes" for texture, including ground quartz and marble.
Belle Arts fees range from $4 to $18 per square foot, sometimes more, depending on the intricacy of the finish.
For those who insist on tackling a project on their own, the two offer these suggestions:
1. Do research first, either on the Internet or through how-to books.2. Take advantage of faux-finishing workshops such as the ones offered occasionally at Home Depot.
3. Use Venetian plaster. ("Home Depot sells a knockoff which doesn't go on as smoothly as the ones we use from Italy, but it'll do," said DePonte.)
4. Look to Sherwin-Williams for glazing liquid.
5. If your home has tongue-and-groove-type walls as most older homes here do, cover it with drywall. (It's better to do the treatment on a flat surface, said DePonte.)
5. Practice on a blank board. ("Don't make your first pass on the wall," said Anzai-Kugiya.)
Contact Belle Arts Fine Faux Finishing at 286-7535 or 224-4775, or visit their Web site at bellearts.net.
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