Faux Finish How To: Painting Metallic Walls In A Bathroom

Holy Trinity Church, New Orleans. Interior of ...

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I was recently talking about creating a patina or verdigris on “stuff” to make it look older and a friend I’m going to visit now wants to do it on their pergola! The difference is they have actual copper on the pergola so we’ll just be accelerating the aging process rather than faux painting it on. Still…fun stuff!

But a newsletter subscriber wrote in with a question about almost the same thing…but not quite. They want to get that copper affect…and maybe patina it. I thought I’d share it with you. You know we’re alllll about sharing.

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Tawn (& Debra if she’s there!):

Your expertise is gonna be so helpful. So, thank you in advance!

I emailed you before about achieving the copper look on church bathroom and you directed me to a great article you had written that was a HUGE help. Now I’m almost ready to paint it but had some last minute questions.

I was wondering if adding clear glaze to the ready mixed metallic copper would make it even more workable and extend the volume. And now I’m thinking about adding a patina to it. But my patina mixture seems really thin and doesn’t seem like it will stay as workable like glaze is. Never worked patina before! I am pretty comfortable with glaze. Should I add glaze to it?

Woolie Pad Tool

Also, we are trying to get his copper look, sort of leafed on. As of now, the base coat is a dark tone, Cedar. Then putting the copper glaze on top. Probably sponge it on and use a woolie, I guess.

I am a little shy of rolling it on because I do not want full coverage in the copper. I hope the Cedar isn’t too dark, if so I guess I can go a little lighter on the top base coat walls are newly knife textured heavy.

Thanks for being so “accessible”.

Ann

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Have you worked with these glazes before? Have you ever added MORE glaze to pre-mixed special effects type glazes? What happened?

Debra and I have used pre-mixed glazes before and have found that if they are just a “color” and not metallic you CAN add glaze to it so it goes further. We both understand stretchin’ that dollar out a little! But if it’s metallic…no can do. Read my response to Ann -

Hi Ann -

First if you want a “leafed” look, I would use a sea sponge and pat it on or daub it on all the walls. Its a bit of a pain in the corners so you’ll need to use a tiny bit of sea sponge and gently add a few in the corners and at the ceiling and floor lines to get it to look the “same” all over. Make sense?

Don’t add any thing to the copper glaze or you will cut the shimmer. This particular glaze – the pre-mix metallic copper goes a long way as is! You won’t need it to be “workable” if you want it to look like leaf speckles.

Rolling it on does create an all over shimmer… BUT can leave lap lines (roller marks). As for the base coat…you really do need a “dark” color or the shimmer won’t show as well. You could pat it all over with the woolie (my favorite tool) and then when it’s all dry. Pat over the shimmer with the cedar to “knock it back” or tone it down and leave some of the metallic showing through.

What I’d suggest is to do some “test” areas. You can paint over the tests… but this will help you find the exact look you love best and then “Go for it”!

When you’re all done if you want to add a patina or verdigris to your copper wall I’d start at the top and bottom and corners and work my way in until I got the look I wanted. Make sure you read this article: Faux Finish How To: Aging…stuff – or – Adding patina – it has all the directions in it (paint colors, etc.) that you’ll need to make that verdigris color in order to put it on your wall. And yes, you can add glaze to your verdigris colors to make it more workable.

BUT..you may just love it without the patina added! It sounds GREAT!

Hope that helps…