Faux painting and glazing techniques have become more common and popular. No longer a skill practiced by a few professionals, decorating with paint glazing is within almost anybody's reach. Most paint and hardware stores carry glazing medium and specialty tools so you can create your own leather-look, faux wood or stone, ragged or rolled, sponged or striped walls. The possibilities are almost endless, and you can customize colors and finishes to match your decor.
Instructions
1. Choose the effect you want to achieve in the room. A leather finish on the wall adds gravitas to a library or home office, while rag rolling with glaze adds depth and texture to most walls. A soft effect complements hard-edged decor elements such as kitchen cabinets and tile floors.
2. Apply a multi-colored glaze with sponges or rollers on high-traffic walls such as hallways. This finish can disguise the appearance of scratches, dings and children's fingerprints.
3. Use a clear glaze to create subtle stripes in a dining or living room. Apply a base coat of flat wall paint. Use painter's tape to mark stripes on the walls, and paint stripes with a clear or pearl-effect glaze. The effect is shimmery and elegant without overpowering the room.
4. Choose colors that agree with your base coat. The base coat is the main color that you paint on the wall. In most simple glazing finishes, a glaze is mixed with a darker version of the base coat color and applied with sponges, rags, rollers or other applicators to achieve a wide range of effects.
5. Create more depth and texture to your wall by using several different colors. Instead of just using a darker-colored glaze over your base coat, use two shades of the same color and introduce a third, complementary color drawn from your decor. For instance, if your glaze includes shades of brown and you have burgundy upholstery, dab a little burgundy glaze on the wall to pull the colors together.
