Every January, Angela Schuster holds an open house. But this is no run-of-the-mill real estate event. Rather, it's a chance to show off her latest and greatest decorative finish work. 

"I rent out a banquet hall and set it up like an art gallery," says Schuster, owner of Faux Time Design in Old Tappan, N.J. "I want people to be able to see and touch these finishes up close and personal." 

This year's open house featured more than 150 decorative finishes, including specialty metallic textured finishes, ceiling designs, glass bead embellished finishes and multi-dimensional plasters and glazes. 

"Shimmering crushed glass finishes and metallic gold leaf designs provide incredible depth and were among the most popular at our event," says Schuster, whose company serves a growing customer base in New Jersey, New York and Connecticut. As word of mouth about her finishes spread, Schuster has hired more workers to keep up with the demand, and now employs several full-time decorative artists and runs two crews. As her staff has grown, so has the need for coatings products that provide a consistent look. 

"Production is really important to me," she says. "I need to know the product will be easy to use and can be applied exactly the same way for everyone on my team. It's important that the customer cannot tell who worked on which areas, which hand was on which wall. That's one of the things I like about using Sherwin-Williams' Faux Impressions® line."

The Faux Impressions^® difference

Faux Impressions® coatings provide a consistent, repeatable finish in four distinctive product lines: Old World Impressions, Quartz Stone Impressions, Artisan Impressions and Metallic Impressions. They also have the flexibility to create a multitude of variations by mixing products and techniques. 

"Metallic Dream," for instance, is the name Schuster gave to a ceiling finish created with Metallic Impressions with a transparent glass bead gel topcoat. Using the Textured Metallic finish, she created a shimmering backdrop for a music room that replicated the look of expensive sateen fabric. She took it one step further and created a unique diamond finish by applying the Gold Metallic Impressions latex color in an all-over stencil pattern and capping it off with the installation of more than 600 Swarovski crystals. In another recent project, she used the Sherwin-Williams product to create a metallic Striae – a soft, natural striped texture – for a customer's bathroom wall.  

"This turned out so well that we were booked immediately to do the same finish in another client's dining room," she says, "With the Metallic Impressions, the possibilities are endless." 

Whether you're a seasoned pro like Schuster, a novice in the faux finish field, or somewhere in between, Sherwin-Williams offers three different products in its Metallic Impressions line to help you create a professional look: 

• Smooth Metallic finishes offer a polished, reflective finish for a sleek, luxurious appearance that will instantly dress up any space. These finishes are especially good for rooms where your clients want to entertain, says Jackie Jordan, Sherwin-Williams Director of Color Marketing.

• Brushed Metallic finishes offer the subtle texture and shimmer of designer silk for a refined opulent look. These finishes make a dynamic impression when used as part of a dining room or master suite design, Jordan says.

• Textured Metallic finishes offer the luxurious shimmer of metallic with an added dimension of elegance that comes from your individual glazing handwork. Consider using this technique to create a showcase dining room or a unique feature wall in a kitchen.

See more of Schuster's work at fauxtimedesign.com or connect with her on Facebook or Twitter.