HOW TO COLOUR WASH WALLS – Colour washing your walls is one way to create a really unique interior design style for your home. Colour washing really does allow you to express yourself.
Step 1
You need to start the process by ensuring that your walls are nice and smooth. Repair any cracks and holes in the wall.
Step 2
Now that your walls are prepared it’s time to decide on the paint colors you want to use. You are going to need TWO paint colours, one for the base-coat and one for the top-coat. These two colours should, for the best effect, be variations of the same color, that is one lighter shade than the other.
Try looking through a few design magazines to get a feel of the colours you would like to use. Also take a trip to your local DIY Store and get some color swatches. Once you have decided on your colours it’s time to move on to the next stage.
Step 3
Before you go ahead and start painting you really should make sure the room is prepared for the job. Use masking tape to cover baseboards and light switches. Don’t forget to put down a dust sheet or two to cover your flooring. Any painting and decorating job is made much easier if you can remove as much furniture from the room as possible. Remember that furniture items are heavy so do be careful and get a friend to help you move heavy objects like your sofa.
Step 4
Once you have fully prepared your room you can start by painting on a ‘base-coat’. This job is best done with a paint roller as it will cut down the amount of time needed to cover the walls.
When you have finished painting your base-coat leave this to fully dry. Drying times for the paint can be found on the tin. I would personally recommend that you leave the paint to dry for a full day before moving on to the next stage.
Step 5
This is where color washing gets a little unusual. Take your top coat paint and wallpaper paste. What you need to do here is mix up an equal amount of paint and wallpaper paste. Sound a bit weird? Let me explain… This mixture creates a ‘Glaze’ that you will apply to the wall which produces the overall effect.
Quick Tip: You can, if you like, buy Pre-Mixed Glass from any good DIY Store which will substitute the wallpaper paste. The choice is entirely yours and either one will produce the effect you are looking for.
Step 6
Now that you have your ‘Glaze’ mixed and ready to go you need to get yourself a bucket of clean water and a sponge. Dampen the sponge and wipe this over the wall. Work in small irregular areas, do not try to dampen down the entire wall. The process of color washing takes a little time and patience but it’s great fun to watch it come together.
With a small area dampened down, take a medium sized paint brush - on that is between 2″ to 3″ and within the dampened area, mark a series of crosses in an ‘X’ shape with the glaze mix.
When you have covered the area you are working on with the ‘X’ shape, take a smaller paint brush, about 1″ will do, and feather the ‘X’ marks you made – do not use paint on this brush, just do this with the dry brush. You can now continue this process until you have covered your entire wall.
That’s all there is to colour washing a wall. Remember have some fun and be as creative as you like – there really is an unlimited way you can create patterns that you really like, so do experiment.
Acknowledgements: Video – Howcast.com
