Decorative And Faux Painting Is Fun But Don’t
Start Until You Read This
Author: Dorrie Ruplinger
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
(http://www.decorativepaintingzone.com/faux/cracklingfauxpainting),
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: Dorrie Ruplinger is a featured writer for
decorative painting and faux painting visit
