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Painting
Techniques
Decorative
painting, glazing and faux finishing are painting
techniques that can be used to imitate the look of natural
finishes such as marble, granite, stone or natural wood.
Sometimes a simple paint job just isn’t enough and the
homeowner wants more texture to the room. The average
homeowner now has the opportunity of turning their walls,
paneling, cabinetry, furniture and flooring into
decorative masterpieces by using unique painting
techniques.
Architects, interior designers and design-conscious
consumers are pushing to make decorative painting
techniques an alternative to your everyday paint job.
Common areas to use these techniques on include walls and
ceilings, columns, fireplace mantles, doors and moldings.
Due to demand, there are now classes, books and videos
available for the do-it-yourselfer to help make the
painting technique process simple and attainable for most
homeowners.
In the past and even still today, wallpaper is a popular
wall finish, but it doesn't provide the homeowner with the
level of creativity and expression that decorative paint
finishes offer. Besides, certain wallpapers are meant to
emulate marble and wood grain, but it just doesn’t compare
to the realism of hand-painted surface finishes.
Light vs. Heavy Painting
When it comes to painting techniques, there are two kinds;
light and heavy. For light textures such as stipple
painting or shallow swirls you can use premixed texture
paint. For heavy work, you should purchase your paint in
powdered form and mix the powder to the consistency that
creates the textured effect you want. Also, some painting
techniques can be done with one coat of standard
water-base wall paint, but others require special types of
paint such as texture paint, glazing paint and sometimes
multiple coats of paint.
When mixing your paint, the consistency you want will
depend on the pattern you decide to create. The
consistency will alter the effect regardless of the
application technique. Just remember that the more water
you use the less consistency it will have. And the less
water you use the more consistency it will have.
Textured Painting
A help tip with texture painting is to practice it before
you begin your project. A good way to do this is to use
old cardboard boxes to test your technique out on. Also,
you should treat textured painting in the same way you
would any other painting process. Basically this means
that you still shouldn’t paint wood trim with textured
paint and all necessary preparation should still take
place.
Textured painting is made simple with the help of
texturing tools. These tools are easy to find and include
stipple brushes, sponges, various combs, various length
nap-paint rollers, rags, lacing tools, paint brushes,
whisk brooms, house brooms, concrete trowels, grout
trowels, sponges, fingers, and putty knives. These tools
can be used to create popular wall finishes such as
sponging with sea sponges, rag rolling, dragging and color
washing which achieves the illusion of plaster and
stone-block walls.
If texture painting seems like something that will be too
hard or take too much time to complete, then you could
also consider pattern painting. There's sponging,
smooshing and much more. Many times, several colors are
used when pattern painting to create the desired result.
The process is really quite simple. All you do is pick the
colors and use a sponge to apply the paint. Some prefer to
use water-base paint because it dries quickly which allows
you to use an additional color as soon as you have
completed the previous one. |
