A reader wrote in and asked a question about Faux Painting on Textured Walls. She had tried a Dragging Technique, but that only works well on smooth walls. Working with the texture is much more fun and you will have better results.

You will be so surprised at how quick and easy this Faux Painting Technique is.

You can faux finish a small bedroom in less than 2 hours. It's really a matter of slap, slab - dab, dab.

This basic faux finish can be adapted and added to for extremely aged looking walls.

Supplies needed are simple:

• 1 gallon of white latex satin or eggshell finish paint.

• 1 chip brush or other small paint brush about 1 ½ " - 2"
• The Woolie decorative paint pad or a sheepskin type mitt that you would use for washing the car.; I found The Woolie at Home Depot
• Universal Tints available at Lowes or Home Depot.

• 1 Tube Raw Sienna
• 1 Tube Burnt Umber
• Or - If your only doing one wall, it would be less expensive to use acrylics in the same colors from your local craft store.

The photos show this technique on textured walls, but it works just as well on smooth finished walls. It justs takes a bit more time to get a textured look to the paint.

The walls must be painted, preferably with a white or off white satin or eggshell paint.

Don't try this over a flat base paint. It will wick all the water from the paint and leave you with a streaky mess that can't be blended.

Pour ½ the white paint into a separate container and mix with a squirt or two of each of the tints. Keep mixing and adding color until you get desert sand or adobe brown brick color (tan).

Time to Paint!

Step 1 - Slap some paint on the wall. Work in 4 ft. irregular sections. It's easier to control the paint. Brush it on in all directions.

Step 2 - Now pick up some of the plain white paint you saved and slap it into the areas without the tan paint. It's a slip - slap motion. Nothing to be afraid of. Use the same brush so the colors start to blend somewhat. Overlap some of the desert color working in all directions.

Step 3 - Blend with the dampened (not wet) Woolie or your wool mitt. This is a pat-pat motion with a little bit of slide along the wall. Don't Rub or you will have all the paint completely blended into one color.This is about keeping the colors a bit separated.

Step 4 - After the paint sets up (dry to the touch) - you can now add some white drifts.  This will be much like the drifts you would see in marble. There will be an obvious color change but somewhat blended.

Just dip your dirty brush in the white and lay it on the wall.  Don't hold it like you normally hold a paint brush. The brush is held almost flat against the wall and then pushed up to get an irregular "drift".

If it's too defined an edge, use your wool tool to blend slightly. 

 Click on the picture to see The Woolie