3.29.2009

From Inspiration to Completion: A faux finish

These are actually after pics, but I just added to them the post, and I don't know how to move them. Sometimes, I really hate blogger.


I am often asked where I get my inspiration from for my finishes. It can come from anywhere. In the case of this dining room, it came from my client's clip files. I have to tell you, this was one of the dream clients and jobs. Not only did she know the effect she wanted, she knew exactly the tones, and she even supplied a picture that she loved from Frontgate catalog: Obviously, the front gate picture is of an exterior stucco wall, not painted sheetrock. However, I thought that I could get a very similar look using just paint. I always prefer to do whatever technique is easiest to reverse, and if I had just stucco, joint compound, or any other texturizing element on the wall, it would take extreme measures to return the walls to a flat, paintable service. Since I just paint, however, a light sanding will remore the heavily textured portions. The walls were originally a dark, olivish taupe. Since I wanted tiny bits of dark showing through the finish to give a stucco/cement look, I left the original paint color for the base coat. Then, I rolled on a mixture of benjamin moore offwhite, taken from the beige ceiling color, with a very long napped roller to give texture. Once this medium beige coat (with bits of the taupe base showing through) was dry, I think rolled on a lighter offwhite to give a dimensional look, highlighted around the windows and door frames with a trowel, and spattered on a little taupe for texture:








A detail: