Sept 11 View from the Top
Women Who Paint
Writer – Pam North
Word Count - 1164

Women Who Paint

     Transformation is the turn-on for Kristol Jaskul, founder, owner, and operator of Women Who Paint. Her Lafayette-based business raises the bar from standard basic painting services, with her priorities being meticulous attention to details, use of superior quality paint, and innovation in techniques and decorative finishes. This babe with a brush absolutely loves to paint!
     Kristol is a graduate from Mannequin Manor, in Fashion Merchandising and Interior Design, in El Paso, Texas. She started her business after working in retail management for many years, and painting friends' homes in her spare time. When she began to entertain the idea of painting for a living, she first took the time to work for other painting companies, just to be sure. After affirming that she wanted to paint on a full-time basis, she took the plunge. Her subsequent years of comprehensive experience, and her ever-increasing knowledge of cutting-edge trends and techniques, have made her a master of her craft, which she employs with verve and passion. She enjoys nothing more than revamping the ambience of a residential or commercial environment to its ultimate, customized potential. Kristol's goal is to provide personalized, professional service to her clients while turning their living and working  spaces into exactly what they want, crystallizing what often is vague as to what those ideas might be. Using clues from her clients' personalities and life styles, Kristol manages to methodically devise a color palette that often surprises and delights her clients with choices that they otherwise might not have considered. She has honed her skills at excellent communication with her clients, and she is a firm believer in offering outstanding customer service. Relying less on advertising, she has built her business more on the strength of referrals from satisfied customers. 
     Women Who Paint was formed in 2004 with the premise of having women as its core. Kristol currently has two female co-workers - Hannah Mintek has been working with her since December of 2010, and Mimi Williams came aboard more recently. Sometimes men get into the mix, however. Karl Dobbratz helps out on some of the jobs, and Kristol's 16-year-old son, Brody, has proved handy in moving furniture, removing and replacing cabinet doors, and laying out drop cloths. Hannah shared her views on being part of the group: “I'm really proud of our work. It's truly satisfying at the end of the day to walk out and know that we have changed the interior environment in a positive way. It's been a joy working with Kristol and Women Who Paint - we always have a good time.”
     Kristol continues to build her expertise. She has been certified in Faux Effects, Custom Cabinet & Furniture Refinishing, and Rock Kote Counter Top Refinishing, at Oro Studios in Denver. These periodic seminars have taught  her techniques such as faux finishes and trompe l'oeil (painting and textural methods that give the illusion of exotic materials and three-dimensional effects). She can duplicate the appearance of alligator hide, snake and ostrich skin, metallic glimmer, suede, Venetian plaster, copper crackling, stone, and tile - all so convincingly that they look exactly like the real thing. She knows all the tricks of finishes, glazes, stenciling, shading, staining, antiquing, and softening effects, and can paint murals.  While many of these trendy textures and effects can be expensive, she also knows budget-friendly ways to make surfaces interesting. She is well-versed in Rock Cote counter top refinishing, a process which avoids counter replacement, and gives attractive, updated looks to the original surfaces. While Kristol routinely offers these specialty techniques to her clients, she stresses that Women Who Paint is a full-service enterprise, and basic, high-quality painting is an integral part of that package. She personally handles everything from the bids, color selection, and painting processes to the cleanup, and all are executed in a manner that respects her clients' budgets, preferences, and comfort levels, and impacts their routines as gently as possible. Women Who Paint also specializes in staging homes for resale, a valuable tool in merchandising property.
     Kristol has earned her success one brush stroke at a time. She feels the power and mood of color in her bones, tuning into her clients' tastes with startling acuity. Mari Davis, a client whose Longmont home interior Kristol painted in entirety, wanted to add color to the decor, having long lived with boring whites and neutrals, but she and her husband weren't quite sure how to make the transition. “Kristol waltzed in and introduced us to a warm, buttery yellow as a basic color throughout most of the house, with accent walls in golden orange, like a sunset.” Mari was enthusiastic about the results, saying, “I rediscovered our house. It had a new personality, and I wanted to hug it! Kristol had an almost immediate sense of who we are, and she made it easy.” With a move to another state in their future, Mari expressed regret at having to leave their house. “I wish I could take the colors with me.” She also was impressed with Kristol's meticulous attention to detail, asserting “I kept marveling at the steadiness of the edge lines of the color transitions.” Kristol realizes the importance of color in setting the mood of a surrounding space, and she also has a knack for marrying varying tastes into a cohesive combination that is embraced comfortably by all who dwell or work there.
     Kelly Wyatt is a client who has tapped into another aspect of Kristol's wide spectrum of services – furniture and cabinet refinishing. About ten years ago, Kelly discovered some of Kristol's refinished furniture at a market. Enchanted with the worn, vintage, cottage look of a dresser, she bought the piece, and still counts it as a favorite item of her household décor. Recently, she asked her husband to build a duplicate of an antique pharmacy cabinet that she had intended to use as a kitchen cabinet, but its measurements were not suitable for that purpose. After her husband had completed the structure of the re-sized new one, Kelly asked Kristol to finish its surface with an aged appearance duplicating that of the original cabinet. Kelly also later entrusted Kristol with a child-sized kitchen set that her husband had built for their daughter a few years ago. Kristol gave the set a charming vintage look that turned the miniature stove, sink, and refrigerator into family heirlooms.
     Green is more than just a color to Kristol; she advocates painting in an environmentally-friendly sense as well. She uses Benjamin Moore's Eco Spec WB paint, an eco-friendly, high-quality, durable paint that meets LEEDS building specifications, and is zero Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs). Women Who Paint even recycles paint cans as part of the “green” effort.
     Women Who Paint is located at 1200 Diamond Circle, #G, in Lafayette, Colorado. Kristol may be reached there at (303) 666-8745, or at her cell phone number (303) 549-3133. For more information, visit her website at www.womenwhopaint.comwww.womenwhopaint.com.