Applying Decorative Painting Techniques

Now let's meet Kim Sweet. And let's talk about faux finishes.

Hi.

Hi, Bob.

Nice gloved hand there.

So we have a very yellow master bedroom and you are gonna tone it down and change it around. But why don't we talk first about what you expect as a base?

Well we worked off of this sample board and the base is done in this color is oil based finish. There are three coats on it now , and it's a finished coat. I mean, you could be fine with a room like this. And what we're gonna do is apply three glazes, different variables, with a yellow glaze on top and just work the finish so we get a little more light.

Its a complicated paint scheme in order to get this effect. Now you said oil based. Is it preferable to start off with an oil base paint as your background?

I think it is. I mean an oil finish has really has a nice luster to it. It's very durable. Yeah, it's a good finish.

And then, the glazes themselves, do they dry out right away or?

The glaze will give you a little bit of time to work the wall. You are probably talking about on a wall like this.You 've got, maybe 3 hours to work the whole surface? I just did a test here and already it's starting to pull back a little bit I'm not having as much, you know, luck pulling the glaze off the wall.

You know, the test that you're doing seems a little bit less green than this. I like better.

Oh, great I did two tests, there is one of there. I thought may be it is seen little bit darker, so I came down here and had and added a little bit more umber to the glaze.

I think its also good to test in two places because the room has different qualities of light. And if you test it, it will sort of give you a variable of how it's gonna be throughout the life of the room.

Don't you have to worry about having that sample look right with the rest of the wall, once you do it?

Well, actually what I'm gonna do is I am gonna wipe this down So that we don't run into an edge. This is just too dry to work a glaze against, its going to give you sort of a ridge.

So you're going to erase that?

If this is what you want, if this is what we've approved, we'll work from this.

Yeah.

And I'll take it down before we get started .

Go ahead and take it down.

OK.

The only thing I would say is when we actually rag it, I'd like to see a little bit softer look.

OK.

What are you using, this paint thinner?

Yeah. A little bit of mineral spirits will just take the glaze right off.

Oh wow!

Once it dries it's going to be set and unmovable. But we've got about we got probably 24 hours before it totally dries, and then about a week before it's totally cured.

Here, let me take the other sample off for you.

Great.

While you work on that one.

OK. So this is also glaze, and you just actually roll it on. Can I help get it up there?

Yeah, that'd be great. Thank you.

So what I'm going to do is apply the first glaze.
And, you prefer to start on the left hand corner. Is there any reason?

Yeah, I am right handed and it just seems like you're not in your own way. So, what I usually do is, start from upper left hand corner and then work my way across the wall to the bottom right.

So, I've got, what I'm calling sort of the base glaze, on. And now I'm gonna brush in three different pigments.

They're all glazes as well. They're sort of, they call it sienna, a yellowish green and a little bit more of an orange.

Great, thank you.

You're kind of at random, huh?

Yeah, you really want to, you know, you're just thinking about moving in across the wall and just giving it a sort of richness.

This is what makes it fun, because you're kind of...

Yeah, definitely.

You're kind of being erratic and creative and applying it without any real pattern in mind, right?

Yeah, exactly.

What you wanna try to avoid is any kind of pattern at all because you want it to look natural and most things in nature have sort of a random feeling to them.

Exactly.

Now can two of us do this?

That would be great, yeah.

Can I help by rolling on some of the base glaze?

Yeah, that would be great. I think its a really good idea if you gonna do that, split the labor to sort of give each person a very specific task.

Even though it's not that complicated a technique, everyone has a different hand, you know, how you will brush the paint into the wall?

Its going to just read a little bit different with each person, so splitting the task is a good idea.

So, I noticed that you rolled it on relatively thin. Is that the best thing to do?

Yeah. We're gonna really work the glazes in, so the lighter the application, the better it is.

Once I've got my glaze sort of on and I've worked on the other two glazes I am taking my rag and I am just going to sort of basically pound into the glaze.

Now Bob, you said you didn't want a lot of texture.

So what I've done is I've kind of softened the rag.

Made it a little. You know.

So there aren't too many folds in it?

Exactly.

So.

If you have fewer folds in it, then you have a softer effect.

Let me show you when I tighten it up, I'll do it over here 'cause I think you'll be able to read it.

This is sort of what we're trying to avoid.

I've got a little more scrunched. It just seems to leave a lot more rag mark.

Which is great, if that's not what you're looking for you just want to kind of, you know soften the rag out a little bit, and then just pad it over.

We're looking for more of a parchment.

Now, I've got to try my hand at brushing some kind of...

Yes, please. I think it's gonna dry. I've got this brush up here.

Ok.

The other thing you you want to do is when you've got roller marks you just want to kind of make sure you take care of those or else you are going to start having lines through out the space.

And of course you take care of them with the rag right?

Right. The other thing you can do is you can brush in real soft so that there is not, like, pockets of color.

So, do you want to go all the way across at a single height? Or do you want to do a whole wall section at a time?

You kind of want to work the whole wall.

I mean you want to sort of be brushing in to different areas at the same time moving across.

I've still got an area over here, I'm just going to work this in and then I'm going to jump over here.

You've got the magic touch. I don't.

We're going to have to break for some messages.

When we come back, we're going to be working on paneling.

But we'll check back with you towards the end of the show.

Great.

Thanks Kim.

Thank-you.