A Sampler of Faux Finish Techniques

There are so many options available to homeowners today when it comes to choosing an alternative to traditional flat paint. There is absolutely no reason to hang onto that boring tried-and-true white (or taupe, taupe, taupe) painted in every room throughout your home.

Explore alternatives. Look in magazines for rooms that appeal to you. Architectural Digest, Southern Accents, Veranda and others all regularly feature homes that have finished at the beginning of the false wall to furniture. Designers love to change the feel of the space with color and textures, painted faux finish is the first step in that direction is easy. You can do the same thing, too.

Faux finish can be applied to almost any surface. From walls, ceilings, cabinets in kitchen and bathrooms, floors, for all types of solid furniture as well. The style is completed can be very simple and refined, by the way, way over-the-top fantasy finish, depending on your personal taste and wallet.

For your walls, here something to think about – a false wall finish can provide a striking and seamless alternative to wallpaper. Seamless. No peeling or splitting. Just finished a beautiful hand-painted individually crafted unique to your own.

A skilled artist can create a false finish just for you that the wallpaper manufacturers would love to copy and mass-market. Some of the more popular looks for walls include:

• Color washes – ragged, tired, single sponge glaze over solid paint, faux finish the work-horse
• Multiple glazes – layered over solid paint, provides great depth
• Faux leather looks – terrific in a study
• Faux suede – glaze dots above the solid paint
• Stencil over-all patterns – antique damask or simple borders
• Venetian plasters – lustrous beautiful plasters
• Tuscan old world plasters – troweled on plaster, chipped, cracked and aged to perfection
• Faux stone effects – limestone, fieldstone, slate, cut and fitted patterns
• Faux brick looks
• Faux wood – fake bois, antiqued, distressed, burled, bamboo
• Faux metal – brilliant metallic glazes, antique iron, verdigris
• Network of paper – textured paper, paint and glaze
• Stripes – glazed or just painted, always classy

In columns, trim, doors, crown molding, fireplaces and art niches there are a number of spurious cool finish that can improve the architecture of any room. Look classic features:

• Marble – from travertine to Rojo Viejo, the choice is wide open
• Granite – mimic your countertops
• Fantasy stones, such as plywood, and malachite
• Gilding – any metal turning, gold, silver, copper
• Strie – fine dragging of colored glaze paint a solid

Finish or distressed faux antique is beautiful choices in cabinets and furniture. Adding edge wear and some paint crunching to them, dated tired kitchen cabinets can give them a fresh new “old” look. Think of Provence.

It is easy to expand your options. Change your mind about what is acceptable for your sweet home space. Playing a little with something fresh and new. Remember, changing the dynamics of your home is easy with the help of an artist who is skilled and experienced complete fake.

Always go to a pro who has a track record and samples and customers who like to tell you about the work of the artist who created just for them. Then let him create a special room just for you.

He can guide you to complete fake and a color that will suit your style, your furnishings, and your wallet. Consult a trained professional artist and get the best look for your home today.

Oh. And remember, if you are tired of the old chest-of-drawers and thinking about throwing out, maybe all it takes is good old-fashioned antiques. A drop of this glaze, apply again in there. Exactly.

Grandma would approve, no doubt.