I would post on your Nextdoor. I'm in SoCal but there have been a few threads about needing artistic-types for the types of things you're speaking of. there are interior "faux" painters and talented types all over.

Your search term should be "faux painter".

You can do a post yourself to get some recommendations.

As a side note: whenever I come across a glowing recommendation on Nextdoor, I save it to my contacts with the words Nextdoor Rec by the name so I know where it came from. I have multiple contacts for all manner of trades, even if I've never used them before. I think Nextdoor is a great app for this type of thing.

@Mrs. S I forgot to talk about Nextdoor. My posts on Nextdoor do occasionally find workers, but that is maybe once or twice a year. What I get on Nextdoor is lots of neighbors giving me good ideas to pursue, never offering to help do the work. I also get these very strange replies from people who apparently have the fantasy of doing work, but no real intention of following through.

I had a garden job on Nextdoor last week and a lady replied that she loved plants and wanted to know the hours. I responded that I was completely flexible. She then replies that she is always busy with kids and on the weekends spends all her time in her orchard, so she would not be available "in terms of flexibility". Then she goes on to say she has allergies and it is a terrible time to be outdoors. I find such interactions extremely frustrating. Why did she respond at all?

That said, two of my best garden workers ever were from Nextdoor. Last Summer I had a college student from Europe who was here for the Summer visiting a parent, and she was a superstar. That is RARE on Nextdoor.

So where do I find interior "faux" painters? If they are "all over" there has to be a place they collect and look for jobs? Referrals to vendors on Nextdoor usually point me to cabinet shops and professionals who are charging by the job, not by the hour. I would rather find an artist and pay her $25/hr for 20 hours to try out lots of experiments than to find some professional cabinet painter who is back-logged for three months and just wants to sell me standard products. I want something more eclectic and artsy and I want the project to be experimental.

But where are you going to find someone good for only $25/hr? We both live in California and if you're up there in SF that is even more expensive than where I live!

My kids charge $30-$35/hr moving boxes in garages for people (and the like), and have more jobs than they can handle. You need to up your pay, especially for "specialty" work with someone talented.

This is probably obvious, but did you do a search within Nextdoor for "faux painter" or "faux painting"? Because I just tried it on my Nextdoor, and I found 2 threads and 6 artist/businesses. Perhaps you need to widen your "neighborhood". You can make it quite large, and be sure you're encompassing the pricier areas up there in the Bay Area.

My next idea is to find someone who knows someone who is an interior designer in your area. Designers have access to trades like what you're looking for. You might have to pay a designer in this instance for access to their trades-people.

Ask some real estate agents. When I first moved to this area and didn't know anyone, I used to ask a certain real estate agent in my area for referrals to trades. They are only too happy to help (in my experience) because they appreciate getting to know you.

Lastly, I honestly am not sure what you're speaking of in terms of trouble finding help to do "garden work". There are literally hundreds of recommendations for gardener/landscapers on Nextdoor, even where you live, and I haven't checked. If you don't have a regular gardener, you just take a walk in your neighborhood on any given weekday and ask one of the gardeners working if they want to do additional work for you. Heck, I know people who are brave enough to go pick up day workers at our local Home Depot, but I don't recommend that.

Go to your local BM or SW paint stores and ask them for recommendations for local faux/custom painters. These are the artists that interior designers use for custom murals, etc. They won't be cheap.

Another option, do you have a local Art College nearby? You won't get an experienced artist, but maybe an enthusiastic one!

@Mrs. S $25 is a going rate in my area for entry-level workers. If an artist is 45 years old and has been working commercially for many years no doubt they make more. I would pay more for experience. I have no doubt that your business-savvy kids make $35.

I just searched Nextdoor for faux painters and that listed commercial businesses. I will contact those too.

I work with commercial gardeners all the time. Most of these "gardening" businesses are lawn sweepers and garden hackers. If I give them a project to install an irrigation line they are okay. If I give them a more nuanced project to mix up a custom soil mix using a careful formula of ingredients in bins that I store, they mostly get that wrong. These businesses want to come in to "do a project" at a time that is convenient for them, bringing in three or four people to just bang it out and then they leave. It's not what I want or need. I currently have a list of about 34 tasks to get done around my garden, and I just want a task-oriented person to hang out with me a few times a week banging out those projects, but taking the time to improvise, correct when there are problems, and just work through in a way that is convenient to my schedule. Gardening businesses are not structured to loan you out one person on a time and materials basis. Everything is about defining projects, which to pay for their crew of three or four people requires a higher project cost.

I totally understand if you are a tech worker making a million dollars a year that you will just pay a landscaping firm $100K and they will do whatever they do. It's not what I am looking for. I have some simple garden elements in my garden that are extraordinary, and I did not get that by hiring gardeners. I got those elements by doing experiments and making dozens of mistakes until I found designs that worked for the area in question.