Painting Techniques

Decorative painting, glazing and faux finishing are painting techniques that can be used to imitate the look of natural finishes such as marble, granite, stone or natural wood. Sometimes a simple paint job just isn’t enough and the homeowner wants more texture to the room. The average homeowner now has the opportunity of turning their walls, paneling, cabinetry, furniture and flooring into decorative masterpieces by using unique painting techniques.

Architects, interior designers and design-conscious consumers are pushing to make decorative painting techniques an alternative to your everyday paint job. Common areas to use these techniques on include walls and ceilings, columns, fireplace mantles, doors and moldings. Due to demand, there are now classes, books and videos available for the do-it-yourselfer to help make the painting technique process simple and attainable for most homeowners.

In the past and even still today, wallpaper is a popular wall finish, but it doesn't provide the homeowner with the level of creativity and expression that decorative paint finishes offer. Besides, certain wallpapers are meant to emulate marble and wood grain, but it just doesn’t compare to the realism of hand-painted surface finishes.

Light vs. Heavy Painting

When it comes to painting techniques, there are two kinds; light and heavy. For light textures such as stipple painting or shallow swirls you can use premixed texture paint. For heavy work, you should purchase your paint in powdered form and mix the powder to the consistency that creates the textured effect you want. Also, some painting techniques can be done with one coat of standard water-base wall paint, but others require special types of paint such as texture paint, glazing paint and sometimes multiple coats of paint.

When mixing your paint, the consistency you want will depend on the pattern you decide to create. The consistency will alter the effect regardless of the application technique. Just remember that the more water you use the less consistency it will have. And the less water you use the more consistency it will have.

Textured Painting

A help tip with texture painting is to practice it before you begin your project. A good way to do this is to use old cardboard boxes to test your technique out on. Also, you should treat textured painting in the same way you would any other painting process. Basically this means that you still shouldn’t paint wood trim with textured paint and all necessary preparation should still take place.

Textured painting is made simple with the help of texturing tools. These tools are easy to find and include stipple brushes, sponges, various combs, various length nap-paint rollers, rags, lacing tools, paint brushes, whisk brooms, house brooms, concrete trowels, grout trowels, sponges, fingers, and putty knives. These tools can be used to create popular wall finishes such as sponging with sea sponges, rag rolling, dragging and color washing which achieves the illusion of plaster and stone-block walls.

If texture painting seems like something that will be too hard or take too much time to complete, then you could also consider pattern painting. There's sponging, smooshing and much more. Many times, several colors are used when pattern painting to create the desired result. The process is really quite simple. All you do is pick the colors and use a sponge to apply the paint. Some prefer to use water-base paint because it dries quickly which allows you to use an additional color as soon as you have completed the previous one.

Looking For More Information On Painting?

Painting your home is a great investment. You'll want to make sure you are choosing the right painter for your house and your budget. We offer Free Painting Price Quotes from local, prescreened house painters.