Put some pizzazz onto your walls. Whether you’re adding color, texture or even fabric to those walls, you’re dressing up your basic background. And that seemingly small change can literally transform the feeling of the place you call home.
Interior Painting
Painting a living room, kitchen, bedroom or bathroom is one of the easiest, least expensive and most effective ways to enhance the appearance of a home.
Consider the ever-popular Navajo white color scheme of many – if not most – homes throughout the 1970s and 1980s. Today’s savvy designers are eschewing such sterile backgrounds in favor of walls with color – using everything from subtle earth tones to bright jewel tones, mixing and matching shades like never before.
Instead of simply painting any given wall with just one color, designers and do-it-yourselfers are using techniques that incorporate two or more colors to fake more expensive finishes – faux finishes, they are called. Most of these faux-finishing techniques require the use of one base color on top of which are applied one or more layers of colored glaze. Ragging and sponging, for examples, require painting one base coat of color, then applying glaze in another color or two – either contrasting shades or lighter or darker shades of the base coat – using a rag or sponge.
Stippling and combing are similar to ragging and sponging, but where ragging and sponging techniques usually apply second or third colors with the rags or sponges, stippling and combing remove – with a stippling brush or comb – some of the glaze coat before it has dried.
A comb can be drawn through the wet glaze to create lines, curves, waves or other patterns.
Decorating with Texture
Textured paint is another such option. Depending on the application method, such texture paint can resemble stucco or adobe walls or can be swirled, looped, combed or rolled for rougher, textured surfacing.
Wall Coverings
Consider adding the following textures for walls that go beyond paint, some of which can be expensive:
- Vinyl relief that resembles tiles, deeply embossed vinyl that can mimic the carved plasterwork of yesteryear, cork, grass clot, burlap and silk.
- Wallpapers can be used to cover an entire wall or to form a border at top or bottom.
Here are several tips on what’s hot in wallpaper today:
- Clean and bright looks - A designer said that as an antidote to the heavy, ancestral look, consumers are seeking simplicity in their homes, and by extension, their wallpaper.
- Multicolored minis – One expert said that foulards, half-drops and thin stripes are easy on the eye and go anywhere. And in multiple colors, they can set the stage for a wide assortment of situations and color schemes.
- Tonality – Expert said that no one wants just one shade of a particular color in a room anymore. Therefore, wallpapers with variations on a single color seem to be the future.
Stenciling
A stencil is a pattern cut out of oiled cardboard or acetate, which is laid on a wall and then painted. You can buy stencils ready-made or you can cut them yourself following a pattern you like or create.
Stencils are typically used as border highlights around the edges of walls or alcoves. They can be painted in one color, they can be washed on with glaze for a more translucent look or they can be elaborate drawings that require separate stencils for every color.
So, go ahead. Dress up those walls.
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