Do It Yourself Tips for Faux Painting

So what is this whole hoopla about faux painting? And what is faux painting? Faux painting comes from the French word ‘faux’, which means fake. So essentially faux painting is creating a fake surface with the use of paints and glaze. And its not just creating a fake surface of silk, faux painting can be used to create finishes of stone, wood, marble or raw silk textures. Faux painting is a great way to give your home a makeover or to create warmth and depth without spending too much or creating too much of a mess.

Faux Painting DIY tips
Faux painting is great fun and a great Do It Yourself activity. It is a way to brighten up your house and for members of your family to work together and have fun. Here are some tips on Do It Yourself Faux painting:

• Always begin any DIY activity by preparing for things, for faux painting it includes preparing your walls. Use masking tape on your ceiling and baseboards to make sure that the job is neat. Also cover your floor with a cloth and not with plastic. The cloth absorbs the paint quickly and will be less messy than plastic.
• Choose a base paint preferably water based latex paint. Eggshell and satin colors and textures are the best to paint over. It is important to cover your whole wall with basecoat because if there are any patches they will show through in glazes.
• If you are not sure of the technique of faux painting you want to use or not sure how good you will be at it, it is always advisable to practice first on boards. You can even practice and match shades of basecoat with glazes. Once you are sure you have the technique and color right, you can proceed with the actual walls.
• Remember to line your trays with plastic sheets to save time and energy of washing trays, especially if you are mixing your own glazes.
• If you are mixing glazes, remember that the right ratio of paint and glaze matters. Normally it is a 3:1 ratio of paint to glaze. While mixing a glaze test the color on a board to see if this is what you wanted. Mix the glaze in small quantities.

Faux Painting Techniques
There are some typical faux painting techniques which result in different finishes, here is a brief on some of them:

• Combing: this is for those who want a dramatic effect. Combing takes a while to do, as it is a complicated procedure, which involves dragging a comb or brush in the paint in a continuous motion for the desired effect. You can create patterns of plains and basket weave with this technique.
• Sponging: this is the easiest and most popular technique of faux painting. You need to use a sponge with different colors over the base coat and blend it in for the desired effect. Always use a natural sea sponge and not the synthetic one for the desired effect.
• Ragging: is a process lot like sponging but the only difference is it uses a rag instead of a sea sponge.
• Color washing: this is a technique that gives the most subdued and natural look to a room. It involves using a paintbrush in a haphazard manner over the base coat. Use two or more colors depending on how dramatic you want the wall to look.

Whatever finish or faux painting technique you want and use, make sure that you have fun while doing it, and remember the best thing about faux painting is that there is no right or wrong method…just have fun and make your walls look great!!