Painting Concrete Walls

Many home owners find it depressing to have concrete walls to their dwellings. Those gray concrete walls are often found to be pretty boring, pale and inappropriate. When a person moves into a new house that has concrete blocks, he may find it hard to match his existing furniture with the dull gray color of those walls. Solution? Painting the concrete walls! You can learn to paint concrete walls and make them more appealing and soothing to, both, your lifestyle and your soul.

Ideas for Painting the Walls

Many people advocate that concrete walls must be decorated with various attractive faux painting techniques. For instance, you can use faux granite, wall stencils, sponge stamps, for wall decoration. However, most people are unhappy and confused about their basement concrete walls and the concrete block walls. Such people will definitely benefit by following the mentioned tips. However, it is important to remember that painting the concrete walls is totally different than painting concrete floors.

Painting Basement Concrete Walls
Painting a concrete basement floor is different than painting concrete walls. Basement is one of the most common places of the house to be furnished with concrete walls. No matter what the utilization, (study, bar or home theater), you must make sure that the furniture you use for the basement gels well with the interior decorating theme of the basement, which includes the color of the walls as well. You need to use a special vapor barrier paint color, as well as special basement waterproofing techniques for basement walls, in order to make them durable. Here are a few instructions:

• Once you decide the color scheme for the basement, prepare the wall for the primer. To do that, remove all the paint peeling with a color scraper. If there is any wooden object on the walls, then the color on it must be cleaned with an abrasive paper/heat gun.
• Then apply mortar or a thin layer of paint to make the wall surface smooth. Remember, it is a patch up work and perform it only when, and where, it is needed. If you do the mortar patchwork, make sure the wall is completely dry, before you start interior painting.
• Mix the primer, as per the directions that are mentioned on the label, and then apply an even layer of a good quality primer on the wall. You may need approximately 1 gallon primer for 200 sq ft of wall surface. Once it gets completely cured, go ahead with painting the wall.
• You may need 1 gallon of special vapor barrier paint for 100 sq ft of walls. Make sure you apply it in a continuous pattern with help of a roller or a paint brush. After the first coat is dried, you need to apply the second coat, and let it dry, before you rearrange all the furniture.

Painting Concrete Block Walls
A nicely decorated concrete block wall is much more appealing than the poured concrete wall. It is the reason why people like to have the concrete block walls in their dwelling. Painting concrete walls is the best thing to do, to reduce the upkeep which is needed for them. When it comes to concrete block walls, they can be made even more appealing with the right kind of room color schemes. You can try the sponge paint technique as a unique wall decorating theme. This wall decoration idea works well with a concrete block wall and hence, you can decorate the concrete block wall behind the fireplace, or the master bed as well. Here are the instructions:

• If your wall is already painted in a light color then you don't need to repaint the wall. Even though white and beige are the ideal colors for this design, it can be performed with any other light color shade as well. At first, measure the width of your wall and find out its mid point.
• Place a painter's tape on the mid point and measure its distance from the ceiling, as well as the floor. Now, mark the width of the blocks by placing the painter's tape at the same length throughout the wall.
• Now, dip the sponge in the color that you desire to put on your wall and move the sponge on the wall in a random pattern. Don't forget to tap the sponge in between, so that it touches all the edges of the block. Make sure the sponge patterns that you make are not uniform. To make the design more contemporary, make the color drippings visible on the wall blocks.
• Once you are done with this initial coat, wash and dry the sponge and then repeat the same procedure with two light shades of the same color. However it is important to not to cover the entire initial paint with this second coat. You also need to make this second coat quite thinner, to get the exact sponge patterned wall.

If the color schemes and designs are clear in your head, then projects like painting concrete steps and painting concrete patios can be really easy and fun for all.