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 (http://www.decorativepaintingzone.com/faux/cracklingfauxpain
ting), 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.