Photo by Randall Perry
How exciting can a wall be? Well, that depends on who you ask. If it’s Donna Mock and Mary Korzinski, the creative forces behind the Saratoga-based Classic Wall Finishes, it’s not the ceiling but the sky that’s the limit.
Despite what the name Classic Wall Finishes may suggest, Mock and Korzinski’s trade is anything but ordinary. Forget plain paints and wallpapers—this duo works with premium materials like Italian lime plaster, metallic copper, wood graining, beads, gold and silver leaf, and even seashells to create complex, custom, layered walls that are works of art in and of themselves. A client wants a staircase to feel like it was cut through natural stone? Mock and Korzinski will use 12 different hand-troweled plasters to replicate a weathered stone surface. A local builder wants a primary bathroom to look like it’s bathed in moonlight? They’ll hand-apply natural sheets of gold mica to the vaulted ceiling.
“I’m so glad that the gray, beige, boring, monochrome era of home design is over,” says Korzinski, who, along with Mock, has helped grow Classic Wall Finishes into one of the most audacious wall design companies on the East Coast. Despite the pair’s extensive experience, though, they say their work isn’t about them and their ideas.
“We’re flexible,” Mock says. “It’s our job to work with our clients—and it’s often several clients per job, including architects and interior designers—to interpret the overall style and look they’re going for, and make beautiful walls to set it all in.”
Most Saratogians are familiar with their designs—they just might not know it. Classic Wall Finishes’ designs grace the walls of many local businesses, including The Adelphi Hotel, Druthers, Toro Cantina, Sea Smoke Waterfront Grill, and Hotel Saranac, as well as countless residential homes (Mock and Korzinski regularly do custom work for Witt Construction and Teakwood Builders).
But don’t think these women are just the brains behind the operation—they’re the brawn, too. “It keeps us in shape,” Mock says. “People sometimes get freaked out when they see us walk in with all of our ladders and scaffolding, and they ask, ‘Where’s the crew?’ And we’re like, ‘We’re the crew!’ Let me tell you—it’s easier climbing ladders and scaffolding than running around in heels all day, and we both did that for years.”
Indeed, before joining forces in the construction world, the pair worked as buyers and designers for high-end retailers. But despite the high-level intellectual, deeply creative, and physically back-breaking work their current gig requires, they wouldn’t trade it for the world.
“We love what we do,” Mock says. “And we love doing it here in the Capital Region.”
