Painting Techniques

I just love when a newsletter subscriber sends me pictures – especially when she shares just what she did to create this gorgeous Living Room by creating Textured Walls With Joint Compound Before Painting! Scroll down to the bottom to see all 5 pictures.

Debra,I wanted to share with you pictures of my recently redecorated living room.

Because I was unable to remove the very old wall paper on the walls that had been glued on for 30 years, I decided to just cover it up.

So, I primed the wall paper, then I just applied joint compound with a flat trowel in a random free hand finish covering the seams well.

Some of the grooved wallpaper shows through in places and because I liked the rustic look, I did not sand or smooth over the finish.

It took a few days working 4 foot sections at a time.

Since I wanted a shiny finish, I covered it up using a high gloss paint in an earth tone finish.

It was a easy way to cover up the textured paper without stripping the paper and I am thrilled with the results and I have received lots of compliments!

We added a gas fireplace and I glazed the moldings around the fireplace with a dark brown glaze to highlight the detail.

To add pizzazz and a touch of whimsy (which your website gave me the courage to do), I painted around the oval mirror hanging in the foyer area.

It was fun to be creative and I knew I could just paint over it if I did not like the results.

I also decided to paint the ceiling a pale teal color.

Thanks for all the wonderful ideas and the courage to be get my paint on!

Martha

This is impressive! And what a huge job! I love how elegant this room turned out.

Don’t ever be afraid of paint… It’s just paint!

By the way… do you know how hard it is to take great pictures of faux finishes? From experience – Martha captured the texture and the great looking finishes perfectly.

Thank You so much Martha for sharing this with all of us.

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Another great question about Faux Leather Paint Finishes from a newsletter subscriber.

I attempted the faux leather-look and tried with many colors and after experimenting with 7 different colors/shades I wasn’t happy with any of them and ended up painting the walls a solid color.

I experimented with pieces of wall board using different base colors and glaze with the various colors……then tried applying the contractors plastic to the board to achieve that leather look……..did not turn out well.

I have plaster walls so they are not completely smooth and I thought the leather-look would actually help disguise some of the imperfections in the plastic since the house is 150 years old.

Maybe I should have just stuck with the same base color and then once the glaze was added to that the variation would have been subtle enough to appear leather-like once I was able to achieve applying the plastic over the wall.

Please advise.
thanks, Linda

Hi..

How disappointing to not be able to achieve the results you wanted in faux leather finish.

Please tell me what color the solid color is now… and what color of fax finish leather you want.

I can help – really – I just need a few of the particulars.

debra

The wall is currently painted a taupe………wanted something in that same color family to resemble faux leather.

Thanks

Okay… so you want something that is in the med brown (Bomber Jacket) style leather.
I know you tried several different colors of base and glaze…

Did you just put on glaze and then use the plastic wrap to pull off?

What I mean is…. did you do anything with glazes before the plastic wrap stage?  Like a layer of glaze “faux painted” on the wall without plastic wrap?

Another question… are your walls smooth – No Texture?

debra

On my sample boards I had base coat (taupe) and then layed the 2nd color mixed with a glaze and then applied the plastic wrap…… Walls are plaster and smooth

thanks

Okay Linda… I have a much better idea of the faux leather wall you are trying to create.

You started out correctly with a base coat of taupe but you didn’t put on enough layers of glaze.

Here are the steps:

1. Base coat in taupe with satin finish latex paint.
2. Faux glaze the wall with a medium brown glaze. Mix a glaze liquid with a coffee mocha color.
   1. Use the woolie pad technique as described here: Paint Faux Red Leather
3. Because you wall does not have a textured finish you must use the plastic drop cloth method for the leather look.  The last step requires a faux glaze mixture tinted with paint tints… not with actual paint. The mixture looks somewhat like stain.  Use Burnt Umber for a realistic leather “grain”.
4. Roll the glaze onto the wall and lay over the thin plastic painter drop cloth. Mush around a bit – but don’t rub!
5. Peel off the drop cloth in one fell swoop. (You can only use it once – so use the cheap ones).
6. Quickly move to the next section and over lap the first section a bit – repeat step 4 and 5.
7. Blend the “seem” between the two sections with a gentle touch and your woolie pad or a brush.
8. To fix any spots you don’t like after the entire wall is done… you can take a ball of plastic wrap from your kitchen and dab it into the faux glaze and then gently pat it on to those areas that just don’t seem to blend in.

In an nutshell… that’s all there is to it.

Hope this helps in your quest to create a faux leather paint finish,

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