What are the easiest surfaces to apply a faux finish? Simple surfaces to faux finish. A faux finish can make any wall in your home look more alive. It adds texture and depth. Our expert, Lu Goodwin Mark,...
A faux finish can make any wall in your home look more alive. It adds texture and depth. Our expert, Lu Goodwin Mark, owner and director of Austin School of Faux Finishes at Design Center of Austin, says when utilized right it can give your home a dramatic effect.
"A painted wall with glaze applied over the surface is the most common faux finish. If properly mixed and applied it can be very beautiful," Mark says.
With most faux finishing, you're using one or more accent colors over a base coat. The base coat is usually a regular latex wall paint with usually either a flat or an eggshell finish.
The accent colors can either be latex or alkyd-based paints with the finish (flat or eggshell) matching the base coat. Latex paint dries faster, so you can apply another color pretty quickly. It also cleans up great.
The longer drying times of the alkyd-based paints gives you more time to adjust them on the wall. This will allow the finish to look the way you want it.
The first step in any faux finish is to paint the base coat. Be sure it's dry before moving forward.
Before applying a faux finish over your base coat, it's a good idea to test your colors and techniques on a sample board. Try it on a drywall, primed and then paint it with your base coat. You can also try it on cardboard or newspaper.
Practice the technique until you feel you have a handle on it. Then, move on to the wall. If you're working with more than one accent color, working on a sample board will let you determine the best order for applying them and achieving the effect you want.
The most common faux finishes are accomplished with natural sea sponges, applying one or more accent colors over the base coat. If you're using a latex paint that can be thinned with water, experts recommended thinning it with one part water for eight parts paint for best results.
Use the flat bottom of the sponge to apply the paint, first soaking the bottom with paint, "offloading" the excess onto cardboard or newspaper and then applying it to the wall.
Daub the paint on lightly, making "sponge-prints" on the base coat and overlapping only as much as needed for continuity. Don't sponge over any prints yet, or it'll fill in too much paint. And twist the sponge to the right and to the left betweem prints so they look more random and exhibit no obviously repeating pattern.
When the first sponge layer is done, start the second layer, sponging on the new color in the same random fashion over the prints of the first layer but allowing the colors to show through the holes and openings in the second layer.
Occasionally step back from the wall to make sure there's no pattern developing and no obvious areas of lighter or darker paint. Finish covering the wall and repeat the process for the third layer, if there is one.
On the final layer, let your own preferences guide you on how much or how little to apply. Mark says your final product should look like it wasn't sponged on.
