Have you ever wondered how someone with just a little paint and glaze can make a wall look so uniform that they resemble great wallpaper? It is easy to give your walls a beautiful faux finish.

You need to decide on what type of faux finish you’d like for your room. Sponging and ragging on are the easiest to do and are best for bumpy or irregular walls; dragging and stippling are more difficult and require a smooth wall surface. Suede Paint has become one of the most popular faux finishes in recent years. It is timeless and beautiful. It works in almost any living space, from bedrooms to living rooms and offices.

A color-wash is one of the simplest faux finishes and gives a soft stylish look. If you use the right color choices, the color-wash can even look similar to a faux leather look. One of the wonderful benefits of using a color-wash faux finish on your walls instead of wallpapering them is you can easily change them when you tire of the look.

When I started thinking about doing interior faux finishes I did some reading on the subject and I just wasn’t impressed with how difficult the process seemed. But you don’t have to be a professional painter to have it look professional. Creating a stylish faux finish doesn’t have to be a big elaborate deal with layers and layers of paint, especially a simple color-wash.

Here are the steps you need to take.
1. Paint the wall a solid color. This will be your background color.
2. Allow the paint to dry for at least 4 hours, or overnight.
3. Select an acrylic paint color that contrasts nicely with the background color.
4. Prepare and tint a glaze with the acrylic paint you’ve chosen to create your desired glaze color.
5. Pour the tinted glaze into a roller tray.
6. Practice the technique you’ve chosen on a painted piece of cardboard or wood until you’re able to produce the desired effect.
7. Apply the tinted glaze to the wall using the materials and technique appropriate to the faux finish you’ve selected.

Here are some extra tips to help you create an awesome faux finish:

1. Start off with just a small space to get the hang of things before trying to tackle an entire room. If you are new to a specific technique, it will be a lot easier to cover up any mistakes on a smaller surface.

2. Always make sure that the workspace you are working in is neat and tidy. There is nothing worse than trying to do some work in an unorganized space. This includes things like neatly taping non painted areas. This is especially important if you are doing this type of painting for a living and are working in a client’s home.

3. When doing a faux finish to a room, always tape off anything that is not going to get painted. You should also use the best painter’s tape that you can find. The cheap painters tape tends to stick poorly and paint can sometimes leak under the tape. A good quality painters tape can and will prevent this from happening. Also, remember to wait until the paint is completely dry before removing the tape as this can ruin an excellent paint job.

4. When you are starting to try a new technique for a faux finish, try getting samples of the paints first and do some on small practice pieces of wood, cardboard or drywall. Do the exact same thing as you would if you were going to do an entire wall. This should give you some practice with the technique and give you more confidence when you do a complete wall. Another good reason for doing samples like this first is to be able to try different colors and make sure the colors that you picked go well together. Many times you can choose two or more colors thinking that they will work great together only to find that they clash when they are used in a faux finish application.

5. When shopping for glaze, buy the best that you can afford. Don’t skimp, and make sure that the glaze works with the paint you are using.

Decorative faux painting is one of the easiest ways to change the look of a room and dress up plain walls. After keeping your walls the same color for so long, these quick and easy steps will help you add some punch to your decor.

Posted by Dave McIntosh on Sunday, November 22nd, 2009 at 7:45 pm.