Decorative Wall Stencils

Homeowners, Paint Experts Roll Out Wall Treatment Advice

Walk into any room for the first time and your subconscious may pick up on its ambiance — cool, warm, old, charming, inviting, sleek, rich, laid-back, relaxing … you get the point. If walls could talk, they’d likely utter those words. Walls, in fact, create a room’s personality. This is true not only with colors, but also texture and paint-application techniques.

Area homeowners, painters and artists agree that one can obtain just about any type of mood one wants by paying attention to a wall’s textures and tones. Here, they weigh in with ideas on everything from glazing, rolling and striating to Venetian plaster techniques.

It took a few years for Aimee Began of Royal Oak to settle on a career, but ever since she found it, it’s been full steam ahead. Began, who owns Lusso Artistry , has been creating highly sought-after textured and special-finish walls for the past seven years. 

“It’s endless what you can do with walls and color and texture,” said Began, who once worked for an artist creating distressed furniture and learned a lot about antiquing processes while at that job. She also was a merchandise supervisor for the former Ann Arbor Marshall Fields (now Macy’s). 

As a wall-finish expert, Began trowels away her days in several area homes. “A trowel is used for all Venetian plaster looks,” she explained.“It takes a lot of upper-body strength to work with a trowel,” she said with a laugh. "But wow … is the outcome oh so worth it." 

One of the highlights of her career was the 2009 Somerset Show Home, an eco-friendly house that was built in Birmingham. Began oversaw most of the show house rooms’ painting processes and applications.

Began uses an Italian lime plaster that, when applied, gives a subtle, warm glow. “I use Dimensions Plaster ; it’s a quality product given that there’s a lot of synthetic plaster available today.

Faux Brick Wall

Faux Brick Wall

Do your walls seem dull and uninviting? Do you long for a cozy, welcoming room? Consider ornamental wall picture techniques, such as sponging, ragging, stenciling or stamping. Even if you have no experience, you can brighten even the dullest room quickly and cheaply with one of these easy cosmetic wall painting techniques.

Before picture your room, pick out a color scheme for your walls. When you chose your paint, remember that many picture techniques use two sunglasses of one color. If you are using one of the techniques that does use two shades of color, you can pick a darker color than you normally would chose for your base color, since the lighter top color will make the final result much lighter.

To sponge or rag a wall, paint on your base color and let it dry thoroughly. Then, dip your sponge or rag into the lighter paint color and sponge or drag the lighter color over the base coat until you are satisfied with the effect. If you are unhappy with your final result, you can repaint any areas that you don’t like with the base coat. Once the repainted area is dry, repeat the faux painting technique.

If you are considering using a decorative picture technique such as stenciling or stamping, you may just want to create a wallpaper effect by stamping or stenciling a simple design over your base coat. However, you may want to go a step further with your project and use stencils or stamps to create a faux brick or stone wall. You don’t need to be an artist to create one of these faux finishes. Just follow these simple steps. First, paint the walls with the color you chose for the mortar betwixt the bricks or stones. Once the base coat is dry, stamp or stencil your bricks or stones over the base coat. Once the brick or stonework is dry, spatter a bit of the darker color over your faux art to give it depth and make it appear more realistic.

Creating faux effects such as making your walls look like they ar made of plaster or suede can also really make your room stand out. You can well learn how to create these seemingly unmanageable finishes at your local paint store. Paint bases that automatically give a suede or textured effect to the walls ar a crosscut that even artists use to create fun finishes.

The Wall

Wall, at Storm King

The wall (Intimacy) and other stories

The wall

Wall