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you ask Sandra Lassley whatinspired her to be a profes-sional decorative painter, shewill refer you to her earlychildhood days in Omaha, Nebraska.Back then, she was little SandraStiefel, and she thought her dad,Marlin Stiefel, had one of the best jobs in the world.“My dad was a painting contractor,and he used to spray glitter on ceilings,” says Sandra,who is widely and fondlyknown in the industry asSass. “I was four or fiveyears old, and every day, I got to openup this big can of glitter. It was won-derful, and to this day, I amknown as the glitter queen.I love glitter and metallic.”Her childhood dayshelped Sass formulate anearly understanding of her destiny. Some people areborn to write great novels.Some are born to composeinspiring music or directepic movies. In Sass’s case,she has known for many years whatshe was born to do: “I was born topaint,” she says.Even more specifically, she feelsshe was born to own her own deco-rative painting company. She’s al-ways had great entrepreneurial skillsand had run other businesses beforeshe ever started her faux-finishingbusiness, Fe Fi Faux Studios, Inc.,which is based in Omaha.To say that painting is in Sass’sblood is certainly no overstatement.

by Diane Capuano, executive editor

Sandra Lassley—fondlyknown as Sass—reports thatthe word “can’t” is not in hervocabulary. She adores herjob and lives to create.

Sandra Lassley, fondly known as Sass, was destined to be adecorative painter from the moment she opened her first can of glitter.Did we mention she was only four or five at the time?

Born to Paint

A closeup of the four-sided bar.

(Rec room, bar and kitchen photosby Christopher Ruhaak, HeartlandPhotos & Design)

Sass used four different finishes on this four-sided bar: a copper leaf for the top sof-fit; a glazed bronze metallic for the second soffit; a saddle leather plaster finish lookwith a custom copper leaf wave running the full length of the bar; and a copper leafceiling on the interior bar ceiling (the latter, not visible in photo). Sass won a first-place honor at the 2006 Fauxcademy Institute of Decorative Finish Awards for this pro-ject, which also features the saddle leather on the walls of the surrounding rec room.

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elaborate art projects,” she recalls.“We would pull all of these greatthings out of a closet and see what wecould do with them.”

Is it “Fo” or “Faux”?

Sass’s first exposure to decorativepainting occurred when she marriedat a young age and her father helpedher paint her home. It was all done asstraight painting, and Sass could tellimmediately that her home neededmore pizzazz. “I knew somethingwas missing, so I began to read dec-orating books—whatever I could getmy hands on,” she explains. “I start-ed doing classical sponging aroundmy home, and then I really got intoSouthwest. All of my shirts had tri-angles on them.”But Sass’s first real experience withprofessional decorative painting oc-curred sometime later, when her father was asked to participate in a local Pa-rade of Homes project. He requestedSass’s help in doing the entryway, butshe had the smarts to recognize thatshe would need professional trainingto do the job justice. She convinced her father to send her to New York to takea class at The Finishing School, whichat the time was under the direction of industry icon Ina Marx. Her sister went with her because her father didn’twant her to be alone in New York.“I was literally at my first classbefore I ever heard the word ‘faux,’ ”Sass recalls. “I remember writing inmy notes ‘F-O-Question Mark.’That was 1989. When I came home,Fe Fi Faux Studios was born, and Inever looked back.”Sass did the entryway for the Pa-rade of Homes, creating a stunningfantasy marble. “Hundreds of peoplewent through that home, and myphone started ringing off the hook,”she states. “Then, my friends wouldask me to do finishes in their homes.They would have parties, and morepeople would see what I had done,and then I’d get even more calls.”

The fine leather look on these staircase walls was achieved through a multiplefaux-finishing process. The crew completed 30,000 square feet of this finish.(Photo by Jeffrey Bebee)

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Not only was her father a painter, buther four uncles also became paintingcontractors as well. In fact, one of her uncles was a partner in her fa-ther’s business, Stiefel Painting &Decorating. Marlin Stiefel lived inSouth Dakota, but moved his familyto Nebraska to start that businesswith his sister and brother-in-law. Inaddition to opening cans of glitter,Sass has other fond memories of thebusiness, including riding around inthe company van and accompanyingher father on painting projects.Sass’s mother, meanwhile, alsohad entrepreneurial tendencies. Shestarted out as a seamstress and cus-tom-designed many of Sass’s clothesas a child, even making the patterns,and then later went on to run her owncustom drapery business. While Sassgot her love of painting from her dad, she got her attention to detailfrom her mother. “She was so fussythat she even washed our shoelaces,”Sass reports.Adding to her well-rounded child-hood, Sass spent her summers withher grandmother, who was a teacher.“We would do these unusual and

Her father, who had alreadybeen in the painting business for 25 years, was just as excitedabout the faux phenomenon asSass was. “He saw all of this asthe wave of the future,” she re-calls. “He helped me out somuch. He would send out hisguys to tape and clean up. I wastwo years into the business be-fore I taped anything myself.”Tragically, Sass’s father diedof a heart attack at the age of 51—just two years after Sass hadstarted her business. “He died just as my business was takingoff,” Sass says wistfully. “Hedidn’t live to see what it wouldbecome.”As part of her goal to better her business, Sass continued to educateherself. She went to some of themost prestigious schools around thecountry, including the Miller-Wage-naar Art School of Chicago, and shealso took additional classes at TheFinishing School, where she gainedan important understanding of theMunsell Color System.Coincidentally, one of the indus-try’s most respected schools, run byKelly S. King, was right in her ownback yard of Omaha, Neb. “I even-tually took all of Kelly’s classes, andhe has become a close personalfriend,” reports Sass.When asked about Sass, Kellyreplies, “The best word you coulduse to describe Sass would be pas-sion. She is passionate about life,and that certainly comes through inthe enthusiasm she has toward pleas-ing her clients as well as in her fin-ished masterpieces.”As it turned out, Kelly taught Sassa few important business skills over the years. “He was the one who con-vinced me to show the next level of finishes, no matter where you thinkthe client’s budget is. I grew my busi-ness by 35 percent the first month af-ter he told me that,” she reports.

Miss Congeniality

Kelly also helped Sass dis-cover the importance of indus-try networking. She attendedthe debut of Kelly’s innovativeawards program, the Fauxcad-emy of Decorative Finishes,which was held in 2002 in KeyWest, Fla. And while shewasn’t an award winner thatyear, she still came home withthe valuable reward of gettingto know many other decorativepainters. She’s been an enthu-siastic networking advocateever since, and her bubbly per-sonality certainly makes her amemorable personality in theindustry.“Everyone who knows mecalls me the Miss Congeniali-ty of Faux Finishing,” Sasssays. “If I haven’t met you, Iwant to. Meeting other artistsis so important. After all, art isall about sharing.”Sass also is enthusiasticabout communicating onlinewith other artists and beingpart of an online community.She is a frequent contributor to

KSKInstitute.com

and also par-ticipates in the Talk Faux/Houseof Faux online community

Another kitchen closeup, this one highlighting atreatment on the oak cabinets, which were coat-ed with two coats of brown tinted primer fol-lowed by two coats of metallic bronze paint,sprayed by Sass’s uncles Ken and Nick Stiefel,followed by a black embedded glaze technique.The kitchen project, shown in closeup: TheAnaglypta papers are colored, hand-torn andapplied in various areas, then plaster is skip-troweled over the wall and some also over thetop of the papers, giving them a worn-with-time, broken-away effect.Another of Sass’s Fauxcademy first-place winners for 2006, this kitchen has plasteredwalls featuring an Old World Anaglypta relief finish.

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