Many people fall in love with a color they see in the hardware store and purchase it. Then they paint the entire room, only to realize that the color they loved in the store looks awful on their walls. This problem could be avoided by choosing your colors more carefully. You need to be sure your paint color coordinates well with your room décor. This can be done easiest by using a color from your fabric or accessories as your wall color. Take a swatch of the item into your hardware store and have the paint color matched professionally. Next, you need to make sure that the color will look good on your walls in different lighting and at different times of the day. This is accomplished by painting test swatches and observing them on your walls for a few days.
However, chances are, if you are reading this, the damage has already been done. If you have painted your walls and are unhappy with your choice of color, do not despair. You do not have to purchase three gallons of wall primer to color your previous color, plus three gallons of new paint and start over from scratch. A quick faux painting technique will allow you to change the look of your wall color either slightly or drastically.
If your wall color is too dark, purchase a quart of paint a lighter shade of the original color. If possible, find the original swatch of your color and ask the paint technician to go two shades lighter. Also, purchase a gallon of faux glaze and a bag of cotton lint free rags. (If you are careful, you will not need to tape or move furniture. This is a very simple technique). Mix ½ gallon of glaze in a bucket with ½ of the quart of paint color. Saturate the cloth in the paint, glaze mixture, and squeeze the excess paint. (You may want to wear gloves for this.) Then wash the walls with the paint soaked cloth in the same way you would wash the walls with soap and water. Do not put too much paint onto the walls at once; you want the effect to be subtle. If you find the walls have not lightened enough, you can add more layers. The more layers you add, the lighter the wall will get. Your final effect will be a subtle faux textured wall in a lighter color than the original.
You can also use this technique to soften a harsh colored wall. For example, if you find your red dining room is just a bit too bright, you can soften the effect by adding a deeper red color or a less glaring shade of red. You can also darken too bright walls by adding a brown color to the glaze to giving the walls an aged effect. If you find that your green colored walls get a little puke-like in the evening, you can alter the color washing it with another green color or even a cream color.
You can also give the wall a completely drastic look using a similar faux painting method. Perhaps you would like to add more interest to your yellow room. You can purchase a gallon of green paint and a sea sponge, and sponge on a contrasting color like green on top giving your walls a designer effect. Using this method you can add an accent wall to your room, or a visual effect by making striped or a random pattern on the wall in your sponged technique.
