by THAT Painter Lady on Thursday, August 7, 2008
HI Debra,
I have a question, I a friend of mine has just gone to Vietnam to adopt a little baby girl, her husband asked me to surprise her and do the nursery for her.
There neighbors started the project for me and did a river rock technique on the bottom and then they put the first coat of pink on the top above the chair rail, they want it to be stripes with flat and satin of the same color.. since they painted the base coat for me already, I was wondering how you do the measuring for the stripes?
Her husband said he got a 1×8 piece of wood that I could use as a guide, but its been so long since I have done stripes, I wondered what you thought about my taping and all do you use a pencil and make the lines first , then do the tape?
I want this to be perfect, just wondering your thoughts, if you get a chance can you email me back your suggestions??? thanks, Dena
Hi Dena
Isn’t this wonderful? I love this idea!!
Now… because you want the walls to just be shiny and flat stripes, this will be easier!
Several ways of “drawing” in the stripes are available:
- I use a watercolor pencil for all my drawing on walls. Because it is water soluble… it can be just washed off. That is,as long as something hasn’t been painted over it.
- Using a laser level can be extremely helpful in getting strait lines. Yes, you can get the lines to go up and down!!!
- Tape makes the job so much easier! It’s a pain to put up and take off, but the actual painting goes really fast.
- If you use tape, remember to be extra careful when removing the tape, as it can pull off “all” the paint with it and make a mess.
Instead of using a flat and shiny paint! Paint the entire wall in one finish and then do the stripes in a clear sealer with the other finish. This way you don’t have to worry about bleed under the tape… it wont show!
Click Here for Nursery Style
by THAT Painter Lady on Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Call for help with Faux Wood Painting. It’s always fun to see what you come up with to “stump” THAT Painter Lady. You know… you haven’t stumped me yet. 
Dear Debra, …..HELP!
I need some pointers as to how to create faux wood wainscoating on a wall that has the original wainscoating covered with plaster.
Removing the plaster is too difficult and dirty. The original chair rail is still in place.
HELP! Judy
Hi Judy… what a problem! And a bit comical… I mean, you are asking how to re – create what used to be on these walls and was covered over. Now you want it back. It’s probably a lot more funny to me, than it is to you… you have to do all the work. :-{
Anyway… my first thought was, “why wouldn’t she cover with new wainscoting?” I am assuming that wainscoting is too “thick” to add another layer to these walls.
So… on the the Faux Wood. I think with a bit of plaster and paint… you can pull this off.
You can spread a thin coat of plaster on the walls and “score ” in the wood paneling effect. This is definitely something that would take patience but not overly difficult.
Preserving this thin layer won’t be much of a problem, as long as the under layer is prepared to accept the plaster.
Now… here comes the fun part. The Faux Wood Painting is easy… really easy to achieve.
There are a few tricks and a few cheap tools you will need.
It’s all explained on this faux wood graining video:
Faux Wood Painting Video
Good Luck…. Debra THAT Painter Lady
Click Here To See Paintable Faux Beadboard Wallcovering
by THAT Painter Lady on Wednesday, August 23, 2006
I have spent entirely too much time on my hands and knees cleaning up after myself. Its automatic now, my dropcloth goes down first.
It is amazing what you will find has dropped on the floor, without your knowledge.
Don’t leave paint to dry on your floors, use a dropcloth and avoid another clean up nightmare. 
Protect your floors and also your furniture with dropcloths.
Move all the furniture away from your faux finishing painting area at least 5′.
While you’re at the big box store getting your paint, check out your options for a dropcloth. You will find paper, plastic or cloth dropcloths. I have professional dropcloths for obvious reasons.
Try to stay away from plastic dropcloths if you going to be working on carpet. Plastic dropcloths and carpet together is just asking for a slip and fall.
If you’’re on wood or tile, plastic dropcloths work great and they are cheap.
But if you’’re around carpet, stick to something like an old sheet if you don’t want to spring for new canvas dropcloths.
Taping the dropcloth to the baseboard is a good idea if you’’re doing large painted areas. Run a length of tape half on the wall or baseboard and half on the cloth/plastic dropcloth. It should stay put for the entire job.
If you have baseboards or a tile-board, run a strip of tape on top of it while you’’re painting. It will catch the tiny drips that somehow always seem to sneak between the wall and the drop cloth.
When you get ready to paint near the floor, and you’’re already on your hands and knees, strip off this protective tape so you can get up close to the edges.
A professional looking job is one that doesn’t have a white gap where the tape was.
Excerpt from “The Beginners Guide to Professional Finishes: Faux Brick” a THAT Painter Lady Publication teaching Faux Finishes Bricks to Beginner Artists.
Click Here To Find Out More About Galaxy Products Paint Essentials 12-by-15-Foot Canvas Drop Cloth
