Faux Painting Project

So now it’s a week before Thanksgiving and the rush is on to get my bathroom remodeled.  I have the vanity sitting in my family room and the toilet sitting in my kitchen.  I want this over- NOW!

But I did snap some photos of my painting  project.  I’m pleased with how it turned out.  I had envisioned a wall of pearlescent tiles.  Out of the budget and not enough time. So I decided to do some dramatic faux painting.

Small bathrooms are a great place to add some drama.  I was going to go with a light color scheme, but this molten penny metallic paint at Lowes was really pulling me in.  I thought it would add some great contrast.

I started with a base coat over the walls and ceiling of some leftover paint from my laundry room in an ivory color. Then I added sponging of some lighter colors- all paint samples or leftovers that I had in my basement mixed with a glaze.

Next, I grabbed my Teal Stencil paint (leftover also) and mixed it with glaze.  This was the gutsy part.  I color washed  large irregular patches on the wall.

 

 

After it was dry, I mixed my molten penny paint with glaze- not quite as thin, maybe 1 part paint to 3 parts penny paint. I rolled it on and then using a wet, terrycloth rag with ribs in it, I took it off by rag rolling. This created a very dramatic pattern., which was what I was going for.

 

 

The room seemed a bit too dark and the copper color wasn’t as reflective as I had hoped for, so off to Home Depot I went. I ended up buying Ralph Lauren’s metallic paint in Palladium Silver (a warm , almost yellowish silver).  Wanting to keep the texture, I dry bushed over some areas and lightly rolled over other areas,  Allowing some areas to peak through more copper than silver.

Faux painting is very forgiving. Glazes wipe off easily if you don’t like the result.  You can always add more layers or different techniques and best of all, your walls are one of a kind. Years ago, I was intimidated by trying something like big teal blotches as part of my design, but in the end… it’s just paint. What’s the worst that can happen? Hope this inspires you to try something new.