Decorative Painting

From LoveToKnow Crafts

Decorative painting is a handy skill to have, even if you don't consider yourself much of an artist. You never know when you'll want to paint a piece of furniture or do a faux technique on a wall.

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Getting Started

Decorative painting encompasses a world of techniques, though you'll often hear the term when people are talking about tole painting or one-stroke techniques.

If you've never done any decorative painting before, a good place to start is with stencils. Stencils are flexible objects with decorative holes in them. Using a firm-bristled brush, you can paint over the stencil and the image will appear on your painted object. An up and down stippling motion is the most popular way to apply paint.

Stencils are a fun and different way to put a border around a room, but this is a pretty time-consuming project. You can also use stencils to decorate wooden objects or paint on glass.

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Intermediate Decorative Painting

If stenciling is the most basic type of decorative painting, one step up would be the faux painting techniques popularly done on walls, such as sponge painting, ragging, and distressed or crackle glazing.

These types of projects are moderately more complex because they need multiple steps to be completed. They also involve a finishing glaze that is mixed with the paint to make the finish you want. A fancier term for this technique is "broken color," meaning that there's a base color with "broken" or uneven layers of another color or finish on top.

Another decorative painting technique is color blocking, which involves painting squares or stripes onto a wall or piece of furniture. Use painter's tape to block off parts of a wall, dresser or tabletop. Make a checkerboard or just a few different sized squares and rectangles, then paint one color at a time.

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More Techniques

There are many more decorative painting techniques you can try, from tole painting to watercolor painting to painting on silk. Each type of painting uses different kinds of techniques and tools, but once you have learned one process it is easier to pick up the others.

Tole painting is a good place to start because it only uses a couple of different kinds of brush strokes to complete the design. Once you know how to make those brush strokes, you can easily develop skills in other types of art projects.

Once you start developing your decorative painting skills, you'll start wanting to paint fabric, glass, walls, and wood.

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