Adding Age To Walls With Paint | Distressed Wallpaper Look Part 3

If you haven't read part one and two of this article series… start here: Adding Age To Walls

So your done with the tough decisions and the hard work. Now to the fun part… giving the walls some real age!

This technique should be subtle, you don't want to shout that you have old walls.

You will need

A small artists brush
A tooth brush
Your Woolie pad (washed and dried from previous painting)
Faux glaze (you can use water)
the universal tints you used previously or the bottle of acrylic paint from previous wall technique.

The small brush looks like the one in the photo next to the flat brush:

Kolinsky 5 Pc Watercolor Brush Set including 3/4 Flat Wash Brush

Mix the dark color paint or tint with faux glaze to make it runny in a large flat pan. If it is too dark… add some white.

The Woolie paint pad is used to get the effect next to the door. Just lightly dip the pad into the paint pan and press on to the wall, move down the wall and press again. Repeat until you are at the bottom of the wall, only adding paint if you aren't getting some paint showing on the wall. This will give lots of variation to the effect… if you don't load up each time.

To get a blotchy effect on the wall… The Woolie is the tool to use. The pad should be free of paint. Then you will actually paint onto the pad blotches of paint in an irregular patter and then press on the wall. Lots of cool texture!

Paint in any cracks, vertical lines etch with the small artists brush.

The tiny dots on the wall… called fly specking… are created with the toothbrush. Dip the toothbrush into the runny dark paint mixture and flick on the wall with your thumb across the bristles. If some of the paint runs… so much the better.

If this faux technique turns out too dark or too blotchy. Use some light colored paint like off white, thinned with faux glaze and use it with the pad again, over the entire wall. This will mute everything.

That's It! Have Fun!

What if you actually wanted the walls to have a real aged wallpaper look? To find out what I recommend Click here : Using Tissue Paper On Walls