Fine Furniture Finishing Newsletter, Issue 11
This issue's topic: Faux painting walls
****************
Painting walls? you say, where did that come from, I thought
this was about Fine Furniture Finishing? You're right of course,
but there are so many inquiries about, and interest in various
aspects of the rest of interior finishing, that I thought
(and hope) you would find this useful. You'll find that once again,
you already have most of the information you need for making your
rooms beautiful from the tapes, but there are some additional tips
that are different from finishing furniture.
As with many other things, there are several ways to get the
results you want; I'll give some examples, and you can adjust it
for your situation.
Begin by removing everything you can from the room. Sometimes
large pieces of furniture can't be taken out, and you'll have to
settle for scooching them toward the center. But it's well worth
the effort to get it as cleared out as possible. Remove the shades
from any light fixtures that are attached to the walls, and mask
off any parts of them that would be damaged by paint. Take out
their bulbs if you can't keep the masking well away from them, or
the heat could start a fire.
Take down any window coverings and rods. Use a central container
(like a pie tin) for all the miscellaneous hardware, screws,
picture hanging hooks or nails, etc. I also remove all switchplate
and electrical outlet covers, even if I'll later be painting them
the same color as the walls. Put a piece of masking tape over each
switch and electrical outlet to keep them clean.
It's easiest to cover the entire floor with one, or several,
dropcloths rather than move a smaller one around as you go. And
speaking of dropcloths, the best ones for the floor are either the
old fashioned heavy canvas, or the paper/plastic laminates. Plain
plastic on the floor is slippery underfoot, and paint spills and
spatters are not absorbed; you'll likely track the paint out of
the room and onto unprotected areas. Old sheets and fabrics are
okay for spatters, but will allow spills to penetrate to the floor
(or furnishings) underneath. Furniture and other objects are fine
with the inexpensive, lightweight plastic.
For a sharp line between the ceiling and walls, or between the
wall and a ceiling molding, pull long lengths of masking tape and
apply to the ceiling or molding, making a straight, or nearly
straight line. Particularly on older surfaces that have been
painted many times, it can be hard to decide exactly what is wall
and what is ceiling. Split the difference, and try to make smooth
curves rather than jagged lines. After masking, run a very thin
bead of LATEX caulk along the edge where the tape and the wall
meet. Then smoosh it down with a finger, leaving a thin smear that
is partly on the tape and partly on the wall. This will keep paint
from creeping under the edge of the tape. This tip also works
anywhere that two surfaces meet, such as trim-to-wall.
For masking tape, I'd recommend one of the "long mask" types of
tape. They're usually blue in color and are made to stay up for
several days without leaving residue behind, as standard tape can
do.
Overlap this line of masking tape with your hand masker loaded
with a 6 inch or wider band of masking paper onto the ceiling, or
tape lengths of newspaper out onto the ceiling. This will prevent
paint smears on the ceiling as you manipulate the paint on the wall
with your sponge or rag, etc. Do the same with all the other edges
of the walls where they meet baseboards, door and trim moldings.
Getting ready like this takes a little time, but you can now be
quite sloppy with your brush, roller, rag, or sponge, and it will
be much faster and less frustrating than trying to go around
wiping up paint or touching up later.
What about the preparation of the wall itself? Obviously you'll
want to repair any major damage first, using wall patching
compounds for the big stuff, spackling for small holes or cracks.
Paint these repairs with the same paint that's already on the wall
if you are going to be using that existing color as your base for
your faux effects. Large repairs should be primed with something,
whether it's primer, or just some extra wall color you have around,
or it will show as an area of sunken color when you apply the new
base color, and it will not take the subsequent sponging or
ragging the same as the rest of the wall.
Kitchen walls should be scrubbed with TSP or other wall prep
formulas that you can find at your paint store. Bathroom walls
probably should be scrubbed, or you can use a dry cleaning sponge
(it's like a big dough-ey eraser), also available at most paint
stores.
Walls that have a sheen to them (i.e., not flat) should be rubbed
down with the dry cleaning sponge. Flat painted walls are usually
okay to be re-painted without cleaning. Incidentally, if you use a
wet method to clean the walls, do it before all the masking.
Whew! All this, and we haven't even lifted a brush or sponge yet!
But all this preparation work not only makes for a better job,
it's an easier one as well. When you don't have to worry about
bumping into things, or working carefully around exposed details,
or wiping up after drips or splatters, you can focus on your
painting and the effects you're creating. I really believe it also
takes less time overall to do it this way.
If you're going to be using the existing wall color for the base
of your new look, you are practically there, -ready to start.
Hold on for a minute though, let me mention a couple of tips if
you're going to be starting with a new base coat of paint. First
of all, you have to ask yourself what kind of technique you plan
to use for the decorative part, or the faux part. If it's an effect
that doesn't rely on "slipperiness", you can use a flat sheen paint
for your base wall color. An example of this would be sponge
painting, or sponge "printing" where you plan to use a technique
similar to the faux granite that was demonstrated on volume 2 of
the tapes. Here you don't particularly count on any areas of
squishing one color onto or into another.
But that might be one of the few, though popular, effects that will
work on a flat sheened surface. For most other techniques, you will
want the ability to move the top coats of paint or glaze around a
little (or a lot) and here you will want a little bit of
slipperiness. For these kind of looks, you'll be better off with
an eggshell, satin, or semi-gloss base paint. These paints are not
only smoother, they're also less absorbent, and so will let you
manipulate the glaze mixture around without immediately sticking
to the base paint. This is the same as several of the
demonstrations on the tapes. A satin is probably the best choice
for most finishes except maybe for a stippled look, where I would
choose the semi-gloss.
Now the next choice (decisions, decisions!) is whether to use a
latex paint or an alkyd (oil base) paint for your base coat. For
furniture, I usually prefer using oil products for their
durability, ease of manipulation, and transparency of color. For
walls, my preference for the glaze coats is the same, with the
added advantage of a longer open time as well. But they sure are
stinky, even dangerously so, when you're rolling it out in great
quantities, and, at least for the base coat, I wouldn't blame
anyone for choosing latex. If your walls are beautifully smooth,
and you want to end up with a high gloss final look (maybe for
some faux marbles, or a faux leather or lacquer look) I would
still choose the oil base as it really rolls and brushes out so
smoothly. But for other stuff, the latex is an easier choice.
Still, it's a choice, and you get to make it...
So get out your roller and tray, and a brush for cutting in the
edges that a roller can't reach. Use a short nap (1/4 inch, or foam)
roller for smooth surfaces, a 3/8 or 1/2 inch nap for textured
surface walls. Latex or alkyd, open windows and put a fan in one
of them to exhaust air out and help keep the rest of the house
from smelling like paint. You may choose to wear a respirator with
latex, and I would certainly do so if you're using alkyd paint.
Have at it! This part usually goes very quickly if you've done
all your prep work, even for a fairly large room. Using an
extension handle on your roller will save you from going up and
down a ladder, and will speed things along.
Remember to paint any of the switch plate or electrical covers that
you want to blend in with the walls. Personally, I prefer to blend
in the outlets by painting, but like clean, metal switchplates that
I can easily see, and that won't get dirty or chipped by frequent
use.
Here's a big thing not to forget! Before you get to this stage of
base coating your room, I really, really recommend that you have
prepped and/or primed a (biggish) piece of drywall for a sample.
In fact, if you're at all unsure about what base color you want to
use to achieve the final effect that you want, you might want to
do this long before you buy a gallon of paint. Buy a quart. Buy a
sheet of drywall (it's cheap) and cut it (you can do this at the
store so it fits in your trunk) into pieces that are large enough
for you to judge the effect, and to practice the technique(s)
you'll use.
You can make your samples out in the garage or the basement way
before you start taking down the curtains, but it's probably more
important than doing it for your furniture projects because you
can't just wipe it off so easily to start over, and, there's so
much of it when you're done. I certainly don't mean to make the
whole process sound scary, but it's very much worth having a sample,
and looking at it in the light of the room that you will be
painting. Even with just a plain old solid color paint job, I'm
sure most of us have had the experience of seeing an entire room's
worth of a color that came out too ____ or not enough _____.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
A small aside here, there is a paint store ( http://www.belcaro.com )
that sells small "samplers" of colors that are very helpful for
testing out your options if you are using Benjamin Moore or Pratt
and Lambert paint. Quite handy for those decisions.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Okay, you've got a nice fresh basecoat of the perfect color. Let
it dry overnight, longer is fine. Does it need a second coat? If
you can see different sheens as you sight along the wall, it
probably does. If you are just going for a pure, opaque color
instead of secondary applications of glaze, it probably needs
another coat. But if you are planning on any of the broken color
techniques that will get a glaze coat or more, one coat is
probably enough.
If you will be using a technique that involves little or no
"scrubbing" of the subsequent glaze color(s) such as sponging,
ragging, frottage, positive styles of faux marble or other faux
stone, you can move on. If you will be using any pressure to move
or remove some of the glaze like negative faux methods or "antiqued"
looks, let the base paint dry for at least another day. This assumes
room temperature (or warmer) air and normal (or lower) humidity.
Moving a lot of air around helps quite a bit. Keep the exhaust fan
going in the window, with another blowing into the room. Maybe
another small one in any corners that are out of the main flow.
Over a latex base you can use a water or an alkyd glaze, but if you
choose alkyd, try to give the base coat an extra day for drying.
If you used an alkyd paint for your base color, you must use an
alkyd glaze.
The secrets to getting good results with wall glazing include
having enough of your glaze/paint mixture already mixed in enough
quantity to do the entire room, so that you don't have to try to
match and mix more for that last several square feet. How much
you'll need depends on what technique(s) you've chosen; sponge
painting and ragging on use a lot less than negative methods,
for example.
You'll treat each wall the same as if it were a large tabletop,
working from one corner until you reach the other corner. For
right-handers, it's usually easiest to start at the left edge and
work to your right. If you are using a "positive" or printing
technique, you can be quite casual about this. But if you're
using any method that requires blending, or softening, that
requires working wet into wet, you must work quickly enough to keep
a wet edge moving forward along the wall until you reach the next
corner or other break in the wall.
This means that you may need (and it's always nice to have) a
second, and maybe even a third person to help. Typically, the first
person will apply the glaze with the chosen tool(s) while a second
will follow, manipulating the wet glaze with another tool. A third
person may be softening the effect of the second, or may be
applying another accent color, or be directing the others while
standing back far enough to see the larger effects happening on
the wall. In practice, these positions may often shift as one
person climbs a ladder while another works below, etc.
The important thing is for the person applying the wet glaze to
work fast enough that they are able to keep going forward from
still wet glaze, but not so fast that they, or the others, cannot
keep up with the manipulation of the wet glaze. This is why the
alkyd glazes are generally easier to use since they usually have a
longer "open" time. Meanwhile, you have to try to stay out of each
other's way...whew! You quickly discover what a relief it is to
reach a corner, where you can rest (and regroup?).
Here, once again, is where having a finished sample is so
worthwhile. You'll have a good idea of how to get the effect you
want, and know where you can dawdle along, and where you'll have
to keep moving to keep the glaze wet.
Before starting with the glaze, remember to replace any switch or
outlet covers that you want to have receive the same techniques as
the surrounding walls. I like to remove them for the base color
earlier so they don't get welded in with paint. Or you can replace
them later, and touch in the effect to blend them in.
You'll usually want to begin with the shortest wall, or least
conspicuous wall. I hate to say that it's for "practice", because
theoretically, you've already done that when you were making
samples. But the full sized wall will always be a little different,
and so this gives you a place to "warm up." If the worst disaster
befalls you, or you don't like the full size results, a short wall
will be easier to repaint. In fact, if the base color coat has had
plenty of time to dry, you may be able to wipe off your first
effort and start again. A fresh base coat will not stand much
scrubbing though.
More likely, you'll be at least reasonably pleased with your
results, and may just slightly modify your techniques on the next
section. Keep in mind that you will probably not be seeing most of
the walls in their entirety after you replace furniture and
pictures, and will not notice small differences, especially if the
glaze color(s) stay the same throughout.
Lacking an inconspicuous wall, start with a window wall. Not only
does this usually have a smaller surface area because of the space
the windows occupy, but they also break up the wall into smaller
sections above and below them, and small differences will be
harder to see. Also, the fact that they are letting light into the
room makes it more difficult to actually "see" what's on that wall.
Conversely, the wall opposite the windows will be more highly
illuminated, and hence, more important to get right.
If your chosen effect involves more than one glaze coat (such as a
lacquer look, or multiple colors for faux marble, for example), be
sure to let the first glaze dry thoroughly; it's more fragile than
the base color coat against abrasion or solvents.
When the glaze has dried overnight, sight along the walls to see
if you're happy with the sheen. Cured glaze is reasonably tough,
and doesn't necessarily need a protective clear coat, but
oftentimes there is a big difference in sheen where there is a
difference in how much glaze was left on top of the base. If
you're pleased, you are finished; otherwise roll on a coat of
clear varnish in the sheen of your choice. This will give you
additional depth usually, the exception will be putting a low
sheen varnish on top of a deep colored wall, where it will
sometimes give a frosty effect (might be just what you want). Once
again, your sample can guide you. A varnish coat goes on quite
quickly compared to everything else, so don't let that stop you.
Wait until your glazework or varnish is at least dry to the touch
to begin removing masking materials. If the tape is pulling up any
of the fresh base coat and/or the glaze coat, use a razor knife or
blade to slice the edge between the tape and the wall. This is
particularly likely if you used caulking on the joint between the
two.
Removing the masking and folding up the dropcloths is certainly
the most fun part! Seeing your walls bordered by the crisp lines
of moldings and ceiling is most inspiring and rewarding. I find
myself admiring the work after each part of the room is
reassembled with its furnishings, artwork, lamps, etc. I can't
wait to see how it will look in the daytime/nighttime, how it can
make many of the old things look different with the new colors and
textures of the walls. Definitely a worthwhile project...
In the next newsletter,
I'll cover a few specific techniques that are used for walls, and
weren't used in the tapes for furniture demonstrations.
***************************************************************************************
Please forward this newsletter to interested friends.
Best wishes,
David Sorg
|
