by THAT Painter Lady on Friday, February 13, 2009
How to Paint Just About Anything
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If you are embarking on your first faux painting project, then it’s worth ensuring that you’ve mastered the essentials.
Beginners may make some errors that prevent them from attaining the effect that they’re looking for. Here are a few tips that will help you in the process:
1. Good materials produce good results. Buy the right paints and brushes and make sure your painting surface is well prepared. Painting onto flat paint is almost a guarantee of failure.
To ensure a good result, use a satin or eggshell paint as your base layer. Flat paint inhibits the slow drying that faux painting requires and somehow creates a dull finish. A base coat that dries slowly will also give you time to fix mistakes.
2. You may be tempted by artist’s palettes and specially designed sponges and applicators. Save your money for good paints and brushes. Gadgets and special tools aren’t necessary. A soft sponge sold for household cleaning will do for applying color washes and an ice cube tray doubles as a practical paint palette.
Don’t waste that paint! You can always stick it in the freezer rather than letting it harden. Another money-saving tip is to use dishwashing liquid for cleaning brushes. You can buy fancy cleaners but a grease-cutting dishwashing liquid works just fine with water-based paints and with stencil creams, which are partially oil-based.
3. If your surface is pitted or cracked, it will need filling, and sanding when dry. A common error is to assume that that once your faux finish is completed your job is done. Wrong! You MUST seal with water-based sealer before painting, or your wall will look blotchy and diseased.
Seal with a color that blends in with the rest of the wall or patches will show through. If you don’t have that original paint, mix the sealer with suitably colored acrylic paint to minimize the contrast.
4. Keep oil and water-based paints separate at all costs. Knowing the ingredients of your paints can save you from catastrophe. For example, don’t assume that latex paint is an oil paint. It is partly water and so will not mix with oil paint.
5. Dirty Brushes can spell disaster. Brushes that haven’t been properly cleaned are a key cause of problems, including color contamination. There’s a middle way between casual rinsing of your brushes and splurging on expensive custom cleaning products.
In your local art store look for cleaning pads in the children’s section. The same item targeted at professional artists will cost you a lot more.
6. Paint is designed to spread and spread it will - on shoes and in many other ways too. Accidents do happen, but there are ways of dealing with them.
Using water or chemical cleaners on carpets is not advisable, since at best it can spread the paint further. You can try trimming the stain with nail scissors when it has dried. If the worst comes to the worst, a product called Goof Off is a useful remedy.
7. Wet and dry don’t mix. If you’re using glazes you need to make sure that you’re not creating areas where wet paint meets dry edges. The dry paint won’t spread at the meeting point and the join will show. Plan to paint areas in one session, without a break.
That includes, telephone, tea and toilet breaks. The hotter the weather the faster you will need to work before areas of glaze dries.
8. You may not recognize your painting style, but everyone has their own unique technique. That’s why collaborative efforts don’t work.
People can work together as long as they work on different layers or walls, not different sections of the same layer/wall. Your style can even change during a day: pre- and post-lunch. Plan your sessions and breaks to maximize uniformity in technique.
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by THAT Painter Lady on Saturday, February 7, 2009
Your Home A Living Canvas: Create Stunning Faux Finishes & Murals with Paint
I think decorative and faux painting techniques look great, are fun to do, and add a personal statement to a room. I’ve been adding my personal look to the walls in my homes ever since my husband and I purchased our first “fixer-upper.”
When I first starting using faux and decorative painting techniques on the walls in our home it was a financially motivated action. We didn’t have a lot of extra money. I couldn’t afford new furniture or flooring for a room but I could afford to buy some paint.
But just painting the walls a solid color seemed boring to me so I started exploring faux and decorative painting. It didn’t take me long to get hooked. Why do I like faux and decorative painting on walls so much?
- 1) It’s an inexpensive way to change the look of an entire room. Paint is the most economical way to change the look of a room.
- 2) A painting technique on the walls minimizes and hides cosmetic flaws such as surface cracks and less than perfect patching jobs.
- 3) It’s easy to change when you’re sick of it. Repainting a room that has paint on the walls is a whole lot easier and much less time consuming than stripping wallpaper off walls and preparing those walls for paint.
- 4) It adds your own personal look and style to a space. Color and texture are fun and interesting. An entire home painted the same off-white color is dull and boring to me.A faux painting technique can evoke any mood you want in a room whether it’s a Tuscan look, retro 70’s look, a country look, something elegant, a cheery bright look for a child’s room, or any other look you want.
- 5) The choices of techniques and paints are nearly endless. Some of the more popular technique choices include: sponging, ragging, dragging, color washing, stenciling, crackling, marbling, gilding, wood-graining, spattering, feather-dusting, and stippling. You could also use one of the specialty paint products on the market today such as Venetian plaster to create the look you want or buy a faux painting kit such as a Woolie painting kit to help make your project as fun and easy as possible.
While I highly recommend faux or decorative painting, there are a few things I’ve learned since I’ve started faux painting that I’d like to share with you. Some of these items are things to “not do” that I’ve learned the hard way. Others are tips and suggestions that were helpful to me.
- Go to your local paint store or decorative painting store and look at the samples they have.For example, Home Depot has lots of different booklets and paint chips with faux paint finishes on them for you to look at and even take home to look at in your lighting. That pretty metallic finish on a paint chip in the store make look garish when you get it home and look at it in your home’s natural lighting.
- Consider taking a class before doing your first project. Some paint stores and home improvement stores, such as Home Depot, offer free faux painting clinics and workshops.You can also find some very good faux painting classes for a reasonable fee by looking in your local paper or doing an Internet search.
- Practice your technique on a piece of scrap wallboard before doing it on your wall. This is especially important if you are blending colors.A few years ago my son wanted his bedroom painted. He wanted me to use a Wooliel Faux Tool (a great faux painting tool available at most paint supply stores) to blend together a burgundy and a caramel color.Each color looked great by itself, but when they got blended together too much a dark fuchsia color emerged. And anything resembling pink was not something my son wanted on his wall!
Because I had been faux painting for years I didn’t listen to my own advice about trying the technique on a piece of scrap board first nor did I buy sample sizes of paint to try out. I bought gallons because I wanted to save time.
Luckily the store agreed to exchange the paint for me free of charge but we did have to paint over a wall and wait for it to dry before starting over with new colors.
- If you get tired while painting and need a break, don’t stop in the middle of a wall. Stop at a corner. If you stop in the middle of the wall and don’t come back to work on the project again until after the paint is dry, you’re going to have a noticeable line on the wall. It won’t be pretty.
- Think twice about mixing your own color with paint you have at home unless you are absolutely positive you’re going to have enough paint to do the entire job.
If you mix your own color and run out of paint before you finish it will be time-consuming and challenging to match that color.
You might be able to match it because many paint stores have specialty machines that can match a paint chip you take in, but if you’ve mixed together two different sheens of paint (for example let’s say you mixed a flat paint and a satin paint together) you’re going to have a hard time reproducing that same sheen. In some cases it may not be noticeable; but in other cases it will.
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Dorrie Ruplinger is a featured writer for
http://www.decorativepaintingzone.com. Visit the web site for more information on decorative painting and
faux painting.
The Art of Faux: The Complete Sourcebook of Decorative Painted Finishes (Crafts Highlights)
by THAT Painter Lady on Saturday, January 24, 2009
I’m always striving to organize my home office… It’s a daily struggle. I hate paperwork. I have lot’s of systems and solutions – if I would just use them consistently. Is my office organized in everyones standards? Nope… but I can find what I need to find quickly.
First – I want to explore why more and more home offices are becoming a necessity in almost any home:
More and more people are starting to work from home, either to replace a “real” job or to supplement the stretched budget. One of the best ways to improve your chances of success is to establish a home office.
Not only is it a tax write-off (be sure to check with your accountant as to what you can and cannot deduct), but it is also a way to help stay organized and be more professional.
The type of business you are running will dictate the type of office you need.
- Will you be having clients meeting you in your office?
- Will it be your workspace?
- Will it be a multi-purpose room?
- For example, if you have a business based mainly on a computer and internet, then you won’t need as much space as you would for a craft production or product distribution business.
The steps I took to get my home office organized – and you can do these quickly and easily -
First, eliminate anything from the room that isn’t directly connected to your business (unless it is a multi-purpose room, such as a wall that serves as the family library). The fewer distractions you have, the better. It also helps reduce unnecessary clutter. Store things in boxes or move them to another room.
Get a Filing System
There are many nice filing systems – from the traditional filing cabinets, to hanging folders that can attach to the back of a door.
- Sort through all the papers in your office. Decide what you need to keep and what can be thrown away.
- When in doubt, set up another folder or box for things to look at again later. I have a “I think this is cool” box. It’s a box that all the catalogs – stuff I print off the internet – old cards (business – greeting- etc.), Nothing important goes in this “file” box. If I don’t look in this box for anything in at least 6 months… the box and all it’s contents goes to the dump!
- Once you establish a filing system, keep up with it on a daily basis. It is too easy to become overwhelmed if you don’t. Color-coded systems work nicely. One color for tax-deductible related items, another for invoices to clients, another expenses, etc.
- Then you simply place the papers or receipts in the appropriate color folder.
The Desk Needs To Be Clutter Free
The workspace is often the most difficult to keep organized, but if you have a handle on the paperwork, it helps reduce one area of clutter.
Make sure the workspace is large enough, and comfortable. Whether you have to sit or stand do to the work, make sure the surface is at the correct height. This will help reduce back strain and allow you to work for longer periods of time, thereby increasing your productivity.
There are many nice desk organizers that allow you to keep items close at hand but out of the way. If you only keep the items you need most often on the workspace, it will also reduce clutter.
Keep the rest tucked away in storage units in your desk drawer, shelf or box. There are drawer organizers that can be customized to meet your needs.
If you use a computer, make sure you have enough space for the computer itself, the monitor, printer and any other hardware you may need, such as scanners and fax machines. Many companies produce multi-purpose units that combine those features into one machine, which takes up much less desk space.
Don’t forget to organize the computer itself.
There are many organizational software programs that can help you track appointments, clients, and your work. By using these programs, you can keep on top of things and waste less time. Set up special folders in your documents folder, so you can file things away for easy retrieval. Databases and spreadsheets are also very helpful tools in tracking your inventory and other business related needs.
If you aren’t using Google to help you organize your computer… you’re missing out on the best of the free stuff. Google has calendars that keep you on time ( I mean they will even email you a reminder of an appointment). They have an online document service (just like microsoft word) and of course Gmail – is by far the best email system – Bar None!.
- Want to conquer your office clutter once and for all?
- Ever wondered how you can have a happy, organized, clutter-free desk?
- Do you want to know the secret to finding anything in your filing cabinet in seconds?
- What about keeping up with your business reading, making every second you spend in meetings count, or how to delegate without stress or worries?
It’s time to get organized! Get 1,875 simple organizing ideas to help you organize your office:
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