THAT PainterLady.com

I hired a faux painter to paint a large wall in my kitchen/famiy room using the ragging technique. The base coat was beige and the accent color a medium dark brown. When the wall was completed, it turned out an orange color and looks way too busy for a main wall in my house.

Is there a way to repair a faux finish or tone it down? I was thinking of using the base coat color over the top. I would appreciate any advice you have!!!!

Thanks,
Cara

Hi Cara, I am so sorry to hear that the faux finish done in your home did not come out the way you would’ve wanted it. This is the number one reason I always offer my clients to have a sample done first so they can see the final outcome.

A faux finish can be tricky, because you are not just choosing one color. You are choosing 2 or sometimes 3 colors (depending on the finish) that will be layered on top of each other.

These colors can draw out the underlying tones, which you may not like when they are put together. Just imagine putting blue and red together, they make purple.

Well the same thing can happen when doing a faux finish. So for your next faux finish, be sure to invest in a few samples and you will be sure to never run into this problem again.

As far as fixing the color and finish that you have been left with, yes, I would mix the beige base color with glaze (1 part paint to 3 parts glaze) and rag it on over the top. This may not change the orange color, but it will tone down the finish all together.

If you are still not happy with the faux finish, have it re-done. You don’t want to settle for something, especially it being on a main wall in your home. Faux finishes are supposed to be made to LOVE! They give wonderful depth and character to a wall.

I wish you all the best. Feel free to take before and after pictures of your faux finish repair. We would love to post it on our site.

Talk to you soon, That Painter Lady - DAWN

Click here to check out Tuscan Kitchen Paint Faux Finish

You have always wanted to paint a mural… or you have painted a mural and it just seems flat. What is the answer? Are you looking for painting instructions for murals dimensional?

While it is impossible to teach mural painting on just this page… you can pick up a few tricks to get started.

Murals come in two different styles. One style is to paint on objects on a wall… and outline each one of them in cartoon style. This type of mural technique is the easiest to achieve and is usually reserved for baby murals and murals for kitchens.

clipped from www.create-a-mural.com

The other style of mural is a dimensional or realistic mural. A mural that looks so real… you are fooled for an instant or two into thinking that the illusion is actually real.

This type of mural requires you to learn about shading, shadows and highlights. It’s not an easy lesson to learn. Plus… you will need to learn the art of perspective. This was the hardest of all the lessons for me to learn. Trust me… my painting partner says ” You still don’t know everything about perspective”.

Perspective is the art of making something appear close or far away. Look at this painting and see how some of the objects appear to be up close and some appear to be very far away. You know this is a painting on a flat canvas and yet the objects appear dimensional.

Sunset Beach Diane Romanello

Watch these videos to see how easy it is to add highlights and shadows to create dimensional murals.

The instructions on the bottles and cans of glaze are often confusing… I am here to answer the question: How To Use Faux Glaze Paint. 

For instance, I recently received this question about how to mix faux glaze:
Debra, I so wish I would have found your site BEFORE I faux finished my small bedroom.

I chose a smoky slate (green) on all walls.  But I wanted to do just one wall in a faux finish since the room is so small with one wall complete closet doors and the opposite being a patio door (the only natural light).  

I then chose an oyster shell (tumbleweed) as my faux color over the green.  I really wanted the effect to be very subtle . . . and that is what I got.  

I used a chamois roller for a leather effect but you can barely see the green at all.

I even mixed my faux glaze as 1×5 instead of 4 as recommended by Olympic.  

I'm thinking I should have mixed it 1×10??

I am planning tonight to do a very light feather duster/sponge blending with the green over the tumbleweed.  What might be your thoughts?  And what ratio should I use with the glaze? Your help is greatly appreciated.
 

First… you might want to check out: What is Glaze? 

Now… let's get into the mixing of glaze and paint. What is the best ratio?

That is a difficult question to answer because… it depends. It depends on the paint brand and the glaze brand.

• Glaze can be very thin or very thick. It's always colorless (unless you purchase a premixed colored glaze of course). But, a thin consistency will dilute the paint color more than a thick consistency.
• Paint is also a problem… how much actual color is in the paint? Some paints like the oyster color mentioned above… won't have much pigment in the paint. Then you have colors that are heavily pigmented… and need much more glaze to thin them out.
• Craft paint or universal color tints work differently as well. Craft paints can be highly pigmented… and universal tints are all pigment… meaning you will need a lot of glaze to thin the color.

So… what's the answer? As in all things… it is better to test and wait. Patience is a virtue (not one I am blessed with… but it's a virtue all the same).

If I had been applying the oyster to the wall… what would I have done? I would have mixed a small (tiny) sample batch, remembering the ratio of paint to glaze. Then, you can test that glaze on the wall. Yep… just a tiny bit in a corner near the floor will do. Then let it dry… that's the patience part.

If the color lightens up and is barley visible when dry… then you used too much glaze. Go back and test a new batch using more paint. Soon you will have the perfect ratio.

The paint companies like to give out ideas for ratios that may seem like they are set in stone… but they are just an idea. Not the cold hard truth. Faux painting glaze is not an exact science. You need to test… test… test.  

Here is a video where the paint (craft acrylic) is being mixed with just water. It's a good lesson for mixing… but I still recommend using glaze as it will give you more time to work with the paint before drying. 

I hope this was a bit helpful in your search for how to use faux glaze paint.