Faux Painting

Faux painting is huge in the home decorating world right now. By combining paint with glazes, finishes or applying it with a certain tool, you can make a wide range of finishes that look much more interesting than plain old paint on a wall.

What is Faux Painting?

Faux painting, also sometimes called faux finishing, encompasses many different styles of painting that can give your walls, furniture or anything else a completely different look.

Some popular faux painting finishes include:

• Crackle paint: Using a crackle medium you can make new items look antique. The crackle medium is applied over a coat of paint (there are also crackle products that contain color) and the crackle medium allows that base coat to show through in places, giving a rough, aged appearance.
• Colorwashing: Use diluted paint to make a “wash” of color on your wall. Paint with old socks or sheepskin instead of brushes, and add multiple colors (in the same hue) if you want.
• Mottling: Use a rag to apply paint diluted with glaze to the surface. Allow to dry, then apply full-strength paint in a crosshatch pattern to give a terra cotta look.
• Gold leaf: Using gold leaf (or gold leaf paint) to decorate a picture frame or other small object.
• Graining: Using a textured object to make wood grain fabric and other effects.
• Ragging: using a rag, a sponge or some other item to make walls look aged or give a marbled or textured effect.
• Other finishes: different paints can give the look of marble, suede, stone, chalkboard or a mirror, while finishes can make paint look iridescent, crackled, matte, shiny or even magnetic.

A Faux Painting Education

There are too many techniques to describe in this brief article, but if you would like to learn more about faux painting in general or a particular technique, there are a multitude of websites that can educate you about the different techniques.

Behr Paints has a good collection of projects for glazing, adding textures, using finishes and more. The projects list all the materials you will need and provide detailed, step-by-step instructions. The great thing about these projects is that you can probably find everything you need at your local hardware store.

Murals Plus has a fine library of articles about faux finishing, including advice to beginners, tips and techniques, even setting up your own faux finishing business.

Zinsser, a company that makes faux finishing glaze, offers a handful of projects that are easy to follow and complete in your home.

Do It Yourself has another good collection of basic projects. This site does not have pictures, though, so it’s not ideal for the beginner.

Emily Smith’s website offers definitions for faux painting techniques, but no projects.

Tips for Faux Painting

When you choose a project, make sure you read it through from beginning to end and understand what you need to do when. Some projects require a wet base coat to work, while others want the base paint to be dry.

Follow all directions in the project description (or on the product you have chosen to use) for best results. There is plenty of room for creativity, but the products (especially glazes and textured paints) are often designed to be used in a particular way.

Once you’ve mastered the basics, don’t be afraid to let creativity rule. If you’d rather use a T-shirt than a paint brush to get the paint on your walls, by all means do so. If you want alternating crackle and leather-look stripes, go for it. It’s only paint. The worst thing that can happen is you don’t like it and you have to paint over it (which can involve sanding or other steps when you’re trying to get rid of texture).

If you want to experiment with a faux painting technique, try a small project before you do it on a wall. Buy a piece of canvas and try the technique on it, or purchase a small piece of raw wood furniture, a framed mirror or some other small item that you can try the process on to see if you like it. That way you haven’t wasted a lot of time on a look you don’t like, and if you love it you’ve got another faux painted thing that you can enjoy.

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