The Boston Shaker Wall Treatments

If you follow us on Twitter, you may have noticed us talking about working with Adam, the owner of The Boston Shaker, on wall treatments for his new store in Davis Square, Somerville.

The Boston Shaker is Boston's best (and only!) resource for quality cocktail supplies and instruction. Adam is a real expert on all things cocktail-related and is more than happy to chat with friends and customers about the history, composition, and culture of mixed drinks. Even if you're not a drinker (like me), Adam can recommend great resources for non-alcoholic concoctions. There are a lot of people who are excited to be a part of new The Boston Shaker store, and believe me, Adam is chomping at the bit to open. Once he's cleared all the permit hurdles, he'll be ready to offer up supplies, books, advice, and classes in the new space (for now, you can order online at his site).

We've been really happy to help Adam with his new venture and see how everything has come together over the last few months of prep and construction. We worked with both Adam and his interior designer, Christine Price Hamilton (you may have seen her exquisite Tesselights), to come up with colors and finishes that would create a contemporary yet traditionally minded atmosphere that's appropriate for the store's purpose. We're all wrapped up with the work now and thought you might like to see behind the scenes pictures of what went into the job:

The space was previously a spa with a...relaxing
(ahem) shade of pink on the walls.

The first step, as always, was to sand and
patch to smooth out our working surface.

Tony, priming with all his might.

Then came the base color layers.

When all the color was applied, then came the fun part--glazing!

Here's proof that I do more than sit tweeting and blogging.

I applied the glaze, then Tony followed
with a brush to create a strie effect.

The next step was to slightly soften the striee with steel wool.

Almost there...

On the back wall we applied a blue cross hatch glaze. After the glaze dried, we applied a dead flat varnish to achieve a matte finish.

The next step was glazing the bar and sales counters.

We applied a gray faux bois plank finish with a dead flat varnish topcoat to match the sheen of the walls.

Nice!

Once we we had finished the trim and metal
on the front windows, our part was done.

Adam moved in his displays and lighting...

and products.

Almost ready for business!

Not bad, huh? We'll be letting you know as soon as Adam can open up The Boston Shaker to the public--he is at the mercy of the City of Somerville (Free Adam!!!). He's having a grand opening party in February, so I hope you will come out to support another fine local business and see our handiwork! We will be posting some more polished photographs of the finished space along with some close up shots of the different finishes in the near future, so stay tuned!