Give it Some Age; Painting Technique; Guest Post

Mrs. Adventure sent this over to me to teach you all how to faux paint some walls.  Enjoy:


"So easy a cave man can do it"

You will need: 

A blank beige / cream wall. 

A glaze, I used Valspar's Mocha # 94825

(for a 12x12 room it took me 1.5 bottles of the glaze so about $30 bucks)

Then a small pan with a roller and a small pointy brush (See photo below)

A sponge (this small one worked the best for me, I know its more work but the finished product looked much better than when I tried the larger sponges).

Step 1:

Take a roller and roll a generous amount around on the wall like so:

Step 2:

Then take your sponge and start dabbing all over your rolled on paint.

Keep dabbing in between the blank spaces as well as the covered ones.

Step 3:

After you have done this a couple of times, the paint will start to dry. Once you get to the edge of the previous coat you can blend the two areas together this will create the "lines" you see on my walls. (see photos below)

(before blending)

This photo shows the wall after blending, As you can see the areas of overlap create darker "lines" make sure these are NEVER strail always curved for a more natural look and feel.

 Step 4:

Once you get to a corner, if you want the corners to be darker (like my room) paint this "pattern" in the corners first then fill in.

This way you can go back to the corners with a 2nd, 3rd coat to get just those areas darker.

After your walls are covered in your first coat (you will be sick of dabbing for sure). You can go back and add your "aged" cracks and seams.

Making Cracks:

Take a small paint brush and swiggle (is that a word?) a line on the wall with your glaze like so:

Then take the end of your brush to the end of the line and make the "ends" like a V like so:

Then to make the crack more "real" I took my sponge and lightly dabbed around the line after it was dry to make it even darker like so:

Adding more seams:

Ok to get that plastered seams look (like the photo below)

I went back after my paint was dry and make them simply by dabbing with a semi wet sponge in a line, and you can do these from the corners, ceiling or just down the wall (I did all three).

After going around and adding a dab here and there, and making cracks where you want them, YOU ARE DONE!

Hang your curtains and enjoy your new room.

Side note: Please forgive the photo, since I will be adding copper & paper to the ceiling I didn't bother ironing my curtains as they will come down again this weekend.

Great Job!  What do you all think?