If there’s one thing that constantly bothered Mindy, it was how bland the living room in her home looked in terms of its texture. She’d recently purchased a single-story house. Though she liked the house, she wanted to paint the walls of the living room with a different texture to make the room look aesthetically more pleasing. She started off by planning out how to paint walls with texture and the multiple ways of adding texture. She thought of multiple ways to go about doing this.
After enough brainstorming, she ended up settling for red and white stripes as the texture. She contacted a painting crew to help paint the walls with texture. The process took a week in terms of the painting crew arriving, painting, and allowing the paint to dry. During the following week, Mindy took a look at the results and was mostly pleased. The living room looked more pleasing to the eye with its red and white stripes. The newly added texture of the walls adds personality to the living room.
One thing she noticed, however, is one red stripe was uneven compared to the rest. It looked as if the painting crew didn’t make accurate enough measurements before painting in the stripes. Instead of making a fuss about it, she decided to take matters into her own hands. She purchased paint and other materials in order to finish up on the painting crew’s work. Before starting, she prepared her working area, she placed plastic sheets around the floor of the living room to avoid spilling paint on the carpet.
Using a tape measure, she measured the length and width of each stripe in order to figure out how much paint is needed to make the red stripe look even with the rest. Using her paintbrush, she carefully added a coat of red paint to the stripe. By the time she was finished, the red stripe looked neater than before and similar to the rest of the red stripes. By making accurate measurements using her tape measure, it makes painting and texturing a lot easier and precise.
Introduction
Having to paint the walls within a building is already a lengthy and tedious process as it is. The previous article I made, “Painting Procedures: How To Paint Walls”, demonstrates that to be the case. Now, there is another process of painting when it comes to adding texture to the wall as you’re painting. The extra amount of time it takes to add texture to the wall as you’re painting is worth it though when adding personality to a building’s interior decorations.
The materials used for retexturing and refinishing walls vary, but you’ll often be using whisk brooms, combs, and sponges. There happen to be multiple methods when it comes to retexturing walls. The methods of texturing walls are as follows:
- Texturing using joint compound
- Texturing using wallpaper
- Retexturing using textured paint and special tools
Method 1: Texturing Using Joint Compound
To start off with, we’ll get into texturing using joint compound since it’s the first method mentioned and listed. Joint compound is a water-based substance that dries within an hour. It can be applied to a wall to create a number of textures depending on your choice. It creates a smooth finish on top of the drywall, which makes it a good canvas for retexturing walls.
Preparation
Before going through with the painting, you have to place painter’s plastic sheets around the floor of the room. You wouldn’t want to make a mess and get paint on both you and the floor as a result of your negligence. I learned that the hard way and ended up getting paint on both the floor and my jeans. Painting and retexturing walls is a messy process after all. Don’t forget to also remove any outlet and switch covers that are on the wall.
After getting your work area prepared, use a roller and apply 1/8 inch (0.3 cm) thick of joint compound on the wall. Put a good amount of joint compound on the wall since some of it can get wiped off during the texturing process.
Texturing Process
Next comes the texturing process. As mentioned earlier, use either a whisk broom, comb, sponge or squeegee in order to create textures on the wall. There are multiple ways you can paint walls with texture using these methods. If you use a whisk broom, you create the look of grasscloth on the wall. Grasscloth is a cloth that woven from plant fibers like seagrass, jute, hemp, arrowroot grass, bamboo, and raffia. It creates a texture that’s similar to linen. You also can create circles with that texture when using the brush. Turn the brush around in one revolution.
Clean the brush and then work on the next revolution. Rinse and repeat. If you use a squeegee, the texture looks vertical and neat compared to using a whisk broom. You can even create a woven texture using the squeegee. Draw vertical lines with the squeegee and then make horizontal lines. When you use a comb, the texture is curvy or straight depending on how you use the comb to create textures.
There are multiple ways to create inventive textures on a wall. Old rags, tissue paper, and sponges each create a unique texture on the wall in order to give the wall personality. Once finished with retexturing, let the joint compound dry before painting. It usually takes several hours for the joint compound to dry. Once it’s completely dry, use a roller and apply two coats of paint on the joint compound.
Method 2: Texturing Using Wallpaper
The next method of texturing is using wallpaper. The wallpaper either comes in rolls or uniform tiles that you stick onto the wall.
Next, apply the textured wallpaper onto the wall. Measure the wall first before applying the wallpaper onto the wall. It would be a pain accidentally forgetting to do the measurements. You end up having to make last-second cuts on the wallpaper. This is very much the easiest and most convenient method out of the three since all you have to do is find and purchase wallpaper and apply it to the wall.
Not much painting required and very little mess. There are arguments in terms of whether painting and texturing is better or using wallpaper is better. Both methods have their pros and cons, so the choice is entirely up to you on what you want to do.
Method 3: Retexturing Using Textured Paint and Special Tools
The third and final method is retexturing using textured paint and special tools. First, pour sand-textured paint into a paint tray. Use the Popcorn- textured paint. Apply the paint onto a wall using the roller. Apply two coats of paint and then let it dry. Next, apply Venetian plaster paint to a steel spatula.
A large spatula is recommended since you’re going to create the look of marble and stone on the walls. Once you’re done painting, allow it to dry for 1 to 4 hours until it is a lighter color and matte finish.
Another thing to do is use a double roller in order to retexture a wall with two colors of paint. Use colors that actually complement each other. For instance, blue complementing orange, red complementing green, and yellow complementing purple. If you want though, you can be creative with your color combinations.
Case in point, the usage of a double roller is a very helpful method in creating interesting color patterns on the wall. The final thing you can do in terms of texturing walls is to replicate the look of wood on the wall using latex paint and a wood grain tool.
Apply a neutral color of latex paint (white, for instance) on the wall. Then, roll the wood grain tool in a tray of paint and roll it vertically on the wall. By doing this, you create the look of wooden boards on the walls. It’s interesting because a random observer would assume that the wall is made out of wood. Once they take a closer look, however, it’s actually just a pattern that looks similar to wood. You end up tricking a lot of people with this method.
Conclusion
There are multiple ways of painting and texturing the interior walls of a building in order to add personality to the building. Whether you resort to painting or using wallpaper, what should matter is making the interior of the building have an aesthetically appealing look to it. Painting walls with texture can be an art form in of itself.