Faux Painting

Faux finishing examples featuring color washing, faux wood, ragging and retouching.

Color washing can be achieved using a brush, sponge or rag, depending on the quality of the surface being worked on and the required quality of the finished texture. As it's one of the simplest decorative techniques, it's commonly used for large areas, even complete interiors. Although you can use vibrant colors, this technique is usually chosen when a very soft, subtle finish with low contrast is desired. The more colors used, or the less contrast between base coat and top color, the more soft and subtle the effect.

Faux bois is another name for Woodgraining and is used to give surfaces the appearance of wood. Of the examples shown here, one was applied to actual wood beams that had been plastered smooth; one to wood beams that had been painted white; two were applied to drywall coffered ceilings; one was applied to 4 garage doors. One set of interior doors were woodgrained over white paint and one set was not woodgrained but recolored and antiqued to match new kitchen cabinets and to harmonize with a new wall finish.

Sponge painting has aquired a poor reputation, largely, I suspect, because of some of the rather crude examples featured by many "do-it-yourself" books. In reality, the use of sponges is very common when color washing on textured drywall or when seeking to achieve a soft stone appearance. The fact that the finishes don't look like they've been painted with a sponge is because of the way the sponge is manipulated across the surface.

Click on the faux finishing images to the right for larger pictures and more detail about each project. Some of these are big files so they may take some time to show up.

More Faux Painting
Ragging, Antiquing, Metallics, Venetian Plaster

More Faux Painting
Faux Stone, Tile and Concrete

Retouching, repairing or extending existing faux finishes originally painted by other artists requires a different set of skills from an original installation project. This is because you're generally reproducing on a small scale a finish that's been applied to a large area so you can't apply the paint in the same way. For example, instead of using a rag you may need to use a small brush and build the paint in layers differently from the original technique. The criteria here is to reproduce the look of the existing finish, not necessarily the technique.

 
 
 
 
 

This can sometimes be more challenging to do than an original finish - particularly if the original colors aren't available and have to be visually matched on site. The minimum objective is to arrive at a result where if you didn't know there was a patch or a match you wouldn't notice it. The best result, of course, is when you can't see it even when you know where to look.

Back To Top

Call: 480.232.9778

© Douglas Morris / FineArtDecor.com

More Faux Painting
Ragging, Antiquing, Metallics, Venetian Plaster
More Faux Painting
Faux Stone, Tile and Concrete