Today we’d like to introduce you to Tasha Cough.
Tasha, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I majored in Fine Art (painting & drawing) in college but they don’t exactly teach you how to make a living as an artist. So I took off to China to be an ESL instructor and travel for a year with my BFA! That was amazing but fleeting… I moved to Boston upon my return and was introduced to a decorative painter (Julia Purinton) who showed me the ropes and immediately put a lot of trust in me. I learned as I went (still do, shh!). Pretty soon after I started, I began picking up clients of my own and steadily growing. I loved being in Boston for 12 years and being part of a big artist network including a couple years at SoWa but life has me settled into the North Shore over the past 6 years and I couldn’t be happier in Newburyport.
Has it been a smooth road?
Balance! Isn’t that what every working parent says? My husband and I both own our own businesses and love that we have the ability to arrange our priorities day to day to take care of our boys and our clients. I think the fear of failing either keeps us top notch at making sure we don’t. Being a business owner who sees the job through from start to finish this takes a lot of juggling. Schedules change, minds change, I have to stay flexible. Luckily, I have a family that understands that but it’s certainly a challenge handling it all!
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Fancypaints Decorative Painting story. Tell us more about the business.
I am a Decorative Painter. Briefly, that means creating most anything that can be done with paint beyond one color and a roller — and paint can do a lot. This includes murals, of course, but not just for kids’ rooms.
Memories of sea sponge finishes in the ’90s have tarnished many opinions regarding my trade but it’s come a long way and it constantly evolving. The current trend in high-end wallpaper has brought a resurgence of stencil projects my way. If you’ve ever dealt with removing paper and glue from your walls, you know why paint is a great alternative.
I most enjoy faux finishes. It’s an interesting challenge to match real marble or wood grain. I once tricked a pair of masons as I “lay brick” right before their eyes. When it’s successful, there comes a point where I forget, just for a split second, that it’s paint. It seems ridiculous but getting lost in the work and tricking myself, even briefly, feels like success.
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
The wallpaper comeback is interesting and I find it hopeful for design. We all saw the all beige and then all gray trends and those resulted in a lot of textured finishes in paint — Venetian plaster, suede paint, etc. Wallpaper has brought back pattern, and color, and accent walls, all-over patterns and mixing of patterns. Designers are being bolder with tiles. Paint can create all of these looks and go in places and on surfaces that paper and tiles can’t always. The possibilities of design in pattern and color are never ending so I don’t see these trends ending any time soon, just shifting. I’d like to see the next shift to be what surface we focus on — ceilings and floors are so fun and unexpected to hold a punch! Whatever it is, paint will keep up.
Contact Info:
- Website: Fancypaints.net
- Phone: 6174704572
- Email: tashamc@fancypaints.net
- Instagram: fancypaintsy
- Facebook: fancypaints decorative painting
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