A Guide to Faux Finish Painting for Your Interiors

Today’s homeowner have endless options when it comes to choosing alternatives to traditional flat paint.  There’s absolutely no reason to hang onto that boring and safe white  painted in every room throughout your house. Faux finishes could be a quiet refreshing option that could add to your home, either modern or traditional, the touch of warmth and comfort.

 

Try to explore another options.  Search in magazines for rooms that you like.  Real Homes, Elle Decorations, Period Living, Architectural Digest, Southern Accents, Veranda and others all regularly feature homes that have faux finishes on everything from walls to furniture surface.  Designers love to change the feel of a space with colour and textures, painted faux finishes are an easy first step in that direction.  You can do the same thing, too.

Faux finishes can be applied to almost any surface in your home.  From walls, ceilings, any type of solid  furniture, and floors as well.  Styles of finishes can be extremely simple and subtle, to way, way fairy tale fantasy finishes, depending on your personal taste and budget.

For your walls, here’s something to think about – a faux finishes on the wall can provide a striking and seamless alternative to wallpaper. No peeling or splitting.  Just a beautiful hand-painted unique finish individually crafted for you alone.


A skilled faux finish artist can create a look just for you that the wallpaper manufacturers would love to copy and mass-market.  Some of the more popular looks for walls include:

  • Color washes – ragged, bushed, sponged single glazes over solid paint, the work-horse of faux finishes
  • Multiple glazes – layered over solid paint, provides great depth
  • Faux leather looks – terrific in a study
  • Faux suede – stipple glaze over solid paint
  • Stencil over-all patterns – antique damask or simple borders
  • Venetian plasters – lustrous beautiful plasters
  • Tuscan old-world plasters – troweled on plaster, chipped, cracked and aged to perfection
  • Faux stone effects – limestone, fieldstone, slate, cut and fitted patterns
  • Faux brick looks
  • Faux wood – faux bois, antiqued, distressed, burled, bamboo
  • Faux metal – brilliant metallic glazes, antique iron, verdigris
  • Tissue paper – textured paper, paint and glaze
  • Stripes – glazed or just painted, always classy

On columns, trim, doors, crown molding, fireplaces and art niches there are a number of cool faux finishes painting ideas that can enhance the architecture of any room.  Classic looks feature:

  • Marble – from travertine to Rojo Viejo, the choices are wide open
  • Granite – mimic your countertops
  • Fantasy stones, such as lapis and malachite
  • Gilding – any metal leafing, gold, silver, copper
  • Strie – fine dragging of colored glaze over a solid paint

Antique style faux finishes are the right choice on cabinetry and furniture.  Adding a few worn edges and some crackled paint to those dated, tired kitchen cabinets can give them a fresh new “old” look.  Think Provence. Think Tuscany.


It’s easy to expand your options.  Change your mind about what’s acceptable for your home.  Play a little with something fresh and new.  Remember, changing the dynamics of your home is easy with the assistance of a skilled and experienced faux finish artist.

Always go to a professionals who has a track record and samples and customers who love to tell you about the artist’s work that was created just for them.  Then let them create a special look just for you.


The faux finishes professional painter can guide you to faux finishes and colors that will be appropriate to your style, your furnishings, and the money you are planning to spend.  Consult with a trained professionals and their advices and help will be benefit for the best look for your home.

On the end, just a small piece of advice. Never use faux painting on the antique piece of furniture, because in that way you destroying all the beautiful, historical and precious features. Also, too much of faux finished surfaces in a relatively small place can easily become just too overwhelming and not the sign of good taste.

2 Responses to A Guide to Faux Finish Painting for Your Interiors

  1. Suzanne gilchrist says:

    I would like to purchase the turquoise suede paint? Where can I get it or do I have to buy it on line?

  2. Leanne Wright says:

    Hi. Can I enquire how you got the ornate pattern on your gold leafed dresser to stand out so bright? Is the pattern gold leafed….and if yes, does that mean you painted the bonding medium only on the pattern so only that pattern picked up the gold leaf sheet?

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