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 have been adding my personal look to the walls of my homes ever since my husband and I purchased our first “fix upper”.

When I started using faux and decorative painting techniques on the walls of our house, it was a financially motivated move. We didn’t have much extra money. He couldn’t buy new furniture or flooring for a room, but he could buy 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 fake and decorative paint on the walls so much?

1) It is an inexpensive way to change the look of an entire room. Painting is the cheapest way to change the look of a room.

2) A painting technique on the walls minimizes and hides aesthetic defects such as cracks in the surface and less than perfect patch jobs.

3) It’s easy to change when you’re fed up. Repainting a room that has paint on the walls is much easier and requires much less time than removing wallpaper from the walls and preparing them for painting.

4) Add your own personal look and style to a space. The color and texture are fun and interesting. An entire house painted the same off-white color seems dull and boring to me. A faux paint technique can evoke any mood you want in a room, whether it’s a Tuscan look, a 70’s retro look, a country look, something chic, a bright cheerful look for a child’s room or any other look you want.

5) The options of techniques and paints are almost endless. Some of the more popular media options include: sponged, mopped, dragged, colorwash, stenciled, crackle, marbling, gilding, woodgrain, splattered, dusted, and stippled. You can also use one of the specialty paint products on the market today, like Venetian plaster, to create the look you want, or purchase a faux paint kit, like a Woolie Paint Kit, to help make your project just the thing. as fun and easy as possible.

While I highly recommend faux or decorative painting, there are a few things I’ve learned since starting faux painting that I’d like to share with you. Some of these items are “don’ts” that I’ve learned the hard way. Others are hints and tips that were helpful to me.

1) Go to your local paint store or decorative paint store and look at the samples they have. For example, Home Depot has many different brochures and paint samples on faux paint finishes for you to look at and even take home to see in your lighting. That nice metallic finish on an in-store paint swatch makes it look eye-catching when you bring it home and look at it in the natural lighting of your home.

2) Consider taking a class before doing your first project. Some paint stores and home improvement stores, such as Home Depot, offer free faux paint clinics and workshops. You can also find some great faux painting classes for a reasonable fee by looking in your local newspaper or doing an Internet search.

3 Practice your technique on a piece of drywall before doing it on your wall. This is especially important if you are mixing colors. A few years ago my son wanted to paint his bedroom. He wanted him to use a Woolie (a great faux paint tool available at most paint supply stores) to mix a burgundy and caramel color. Each color looked great on its own, but when mixed together too much, a dark fuchsia color emerged. And nothing close to pink was something my son wanted on his wall!

Because I had been faux-painting for years, I didn’t listen to my own advice about first trying the technique on a piece of scrap board or buy paint samples to try. I bought gallons because I wanted to save time. Fortunately, the store agreed to change my paint free of charge, but we had to paint over one wall and wait for it to dry before starting over with new colors.

4) Remember that the texture of your walls will, to some extent, dictate 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 houses. 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 will be nearly impossible to achieve straight lines for your stripes. Keep in mind that faux finishes on paint samples from a store are done on a smooth surface. They will look a little different (but can still look great) if you do the same technique with the same colors on a textured wall.

5) If you’re going to do a fake technique in an entire room, don’t start on the wall that people will look at first when they enter the room. That means don’t start on the wall directly in front of the entrance. Unless you’re a pro, it will take a bit of time to perfect your technique in one 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. Pull over to a corner. If you stop in the middle of the wall and don’t work on the project again until the paint is dry, you will have a noticeable line on the wall. It won’t be pretty.

7) Think twice before mixing your own color with paint you have at home, unless you’re absolutely sure you’ll have enough paint to do the whole job. If you mix your own color and run out of paint before you’re done, it will take a long time and be challenging to match that color. You may be able to match it because many paint stores have specialized machines that can match a paint sample you take, but if you’ve mixed two different paint sheens (for example, let’s say you mixed a flat paint and a satin paint). together) will have a hard time reproducing that same brightness. In some cases it may not be noticeable; but in other cases it will.