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Decorative And Faux Painting Is Fun But Don’t Start Until You Read This
I think decorative and faux painting
techniques look great, are fun to do, and add a personal statement
to a room. I’ve been adding my personal look to the walls in my
homes ever since my husband and I purchased our first “fixer-upper.”
When I first starting using faux and decorative painting techniques
on the walls in our home it was a financially motivated action. We
didn’t have a lot of extra money. I couldn’t afford new furniture or
flooring for a room but I could afford to buy some paint. But just
painting the walls a solid color seemed boring to me so I started
exploring faux and decorative painting. It didn’t take me long to
get hooked. Why do I like faux and decorative painting on walls so
much?
1) It’s an inexpensive way to change the look of an entire room.
Paint is the most economical way to change the look of a room.
2) A painting technique on the walls minimizes and hides cosmetic
flaws such as surface cracks and less than perfect patching jobs.
3) It’s easy to change when you’re sick of it. Repainting a room
that has paint on the walls is a whole lot easier and much less time
consuming than stripping wallpaper off walls and preparing those
walls for paint.
4) It adds your own personal look and style to a space. Color and
texture are fun and interesting. An entire home painted the same
off-white color is dull and boring to me. A faux painting technique
can evoke any mood you want in a room whether it’s a Tuscan look,
retro 70’s look, a country look, something elegant, a cheery bright
look for a child’s room, or any other look you want.
5) The choices of techniques and paints are nearly endless. Some of
the more popular technique choices include: sponging, ragging,
dragging, color washing, stenciling, crackling, marbling, gilding,
wood-graining, spattering, feather-dusting, and stippling. You could
also use one of the specialty paint products on the market today
such as Venetian plaster to create the look you want or buy a faux
painting kit such as a Woolie painting kit to help make your project
as fun and easy as possible.
While I highly recommend faux or decorative painting, there are a
few things I’ve learned since I’ve started faux painting that I’d
like to share with you. Some of these items are things to “not do”
that I’ve learned the hard way. Others are tips and suggestions that
were helpful to me.
1) Go to your local paint store or decorative painting store and
look at the samples they have. For example, Home Depot has lots of
different booklets and paint chips with faux paint finishes on them
for you to look at and even take home to look at in your lighting.
That pretty metallic finish on a paint chip in the store make look
garish when you get it home and look at it in your home’s natural
lighting.
2) Consider taking a class before doing your first project. Some
paint stores and home improvement stores, such as Home Depot, offer
free faux painting clinics and workshops. You can also find some
very good faux painting classes for a reasonable fee by looking in
your local paper or doing an Internet search.
3) Practice your technique on a piece of scrap wallboard before
doing it on your wall. This is especially important if you are
blending colors. A few years ago my son wanted his bedroom painted.
He wanted me to use a Woolie (a great faux painting tool available
at most paint supply stores) to blend together a burgundy and a
caramel color. Each color looked great by itself, but when they got
blended together too much a dark fuchsia color emerged. And anything
resembling pink was not something my son wanted on his wall!
Because I had been faux painting for years I didn’t listen to my own
advice about trying the technique on a piece of scrap board first
nor did I buy sample sizes of paint to try out. I bought gallons
because I wanted to save time. Luckily the store agreed to exchange
the paint for me free of charge but we did have to paint over a wall
and wait for it to dry before starting over with new colors.
4) Remember that the texture of your walls will dictate, to some
extent, what faux painting techniques you can and cannot use. If
your walls are smooth you can do just about any technique you want.
But textured walls are very common, especially in newer homes. You
may see striped walls in a brochure or on a sample wall and decide
that’s what you want to do in your home; but if your walls are
textured it’s going to be nearly impossible to achieve straight
lines for your stripes. Keep in mind that faux finishes on paint
chips from a store are done on a smooth surface. They will look a
little different (but may still look very nice) if you do that same
technique with the same colors on a textured wall.
5) If you’re going to do a faux technique in an entire room don’t
start on the wall that people will first look at when they walk into
the room. That means don’t start on the wall directly across from
the doorway. Unless you’re a professional, it takes a little while
for you to get your technique perfected in a room. Put that less
than perfect start in the least noticeable part of the room.
6) If you get tired while painting and need a break, don’t stop in
the middle of a wall. Stop at a corner. If you stop in the middle of
the wall and don’t come back to work on the project again until
after the paint is dry, you’re going to have a noticeable line on
the wall. It won’t be pretty.
7) Think twice about mixing your own color with paint you have at
home unless you are absolutely positive you’re going to have enough
paint to do the entire job. If you mix your own color and run out of
paint before you finish it will be time-consuming and challenging to
match that color. You might be able to match it because many paint
stores have specialty machines that can match a paint chip you take
in, but if you’ve mixed together two different sheens of paint (for
example let’s say you mixed a flat paint and a satin paint together)
you’re going to have a hard time reproducing that same sheen. In
some cases it may not be noticeable; but in other cases it will.
If you’re a beginner, start with an easy paint technique. Sponging
is very easy and looks great. Another favorite of mine is the Woolie
I mentioned earlier. There are a couple of different types. I like
the Woolie roller best. It’s really easy to use and the results are
fantastic. It comes with a short video. Watch it before you start
painting. If you’re not going to watch the video before you buy your
paint, there’s one important thing to remember. Buy paint colors
that are at least two places away from each other on a paint strip.
For example, if you pick out a paint strip with 5 yellows on it,
don’t buy two colors that are right next to each other because they
will be so close in color that you won’t see much variation when you
put those colors on the wall and start to blend them.
About the Author: D. Benjamin is the owner of
iapsales.com LLC - a family business specializing in HVAC products. We
are distributors of
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Iapsales.com LLC was established in 2003 and is the sister company to
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