It’s a bedroom dream come true.
Janet Deskevich’s younger daughter became a “Star Wars” fan after a day-long viewing marathon, a reward for the displacement that occurred when the family’s residence was featured on 2016 Historic Garden Week house tours.
“After three days of ‘Don’t touch anything!’ chaos, we spent one day completely vegged out and did nothing but watch [the movies] from start to finish: a nonstop “Star Wars” marathon,” Deskevich says. “She thought it was the coolest thing ever.”
Her daughter’s interest continued to grow as she explored the story through LEGO sets and themed rides at Disney World, where she was also able to meet characters from the films. One day, paging through a Pottery Barn catalog, Deskevich’s daughter saw a bedroom styled with a movie quilt and a wall painted to show the view outside a spaceship’s front window.
And a project was born.
Deskevich reached out to Rick Holtz, president of H.J. Holtz & Son, with whom she’d worked many times before.
Holtz brought in Amy Shimko, a decorative artist with the company who holds a degree from VCU in theater with a concentration in scene design and technical production. Shimko also completed a two-year program at Cobalt Studios in White Lake, N.Y., a respected training center for scenic artists working in theater and film.
Shimko, Deskevich and daughter soon met to discuss the vision for the room, with Shimko noting that an early distinction had to be made between scene – dedicating the room to all things “Star Wars” – and atmosphere, which would be more geared to creating a feeling.
Throughout the process, Shimko shared computer mock-ups with Deskevich and her daughter to make sure everyone was clear on the plan, making adjustments along the way.
Shimko says the project took her back to her theater days. For the characters, she drew on her iPad and projected images on paper, which were then transferred to Masonite and painted both by hand and with a spray gun. The ceiling was given a base coat of different colors with brushes, then sprayed to achieve the galaxy effect, and then the stars were painted freehand.
“The ceiling itself was four and a half days,” Shimko notes.
The freedom of working on such a project is appealing, Shimko says. “I had done murals in White Lake,” she says, “but this was working directly with the client and getting to design it myself, as opposed to being given an image and told to copy it.”
Deskevich says it was a pleasure to work with Shimko. “It was such a great process, and I had so much fun,” she says, adding that it’s obvious that Holtz employees take what they do seriously.
“It’s not just walls and paint, it’s a story,” she says. “It’s one of the greatest attributes they have to offer.”