How to Mud Walls With a Trowel

Prepare your work area, and mix your drywall mud. Cover the floor at least 4 feet out from the wall with drop cloths if you are working in a lived-in home to protect the carpet and flooring from drywall mud. Mix your mud with a drill and beater. For premixed mud, simply whip the mixture for a few minutes to remix all the additives. If you're using dry mix, add water according to the manufacturer’s instructions to achieve the right consistency.

Fill a mud box with as much as you can comfortably carry. This is held in your off hand, and you trowel the mud out of the box onto the wall with your main hand and the trowel. Dip the trowel into the mud box and scoop out some mud. Transfer it to the wall. Repeat the process until you have a couple trowel’s worth of mud on the wall so you have sufficient mud to work with.

Spread the mud onto the wall outward from your application point. Cover all of the wall with at least a scratch coat of mud, and then build outward as you see fit according to the texture you want to achieve. Move the trowel in all different directions with mud underneath to create patterns of varying thicknesses, and work your way from the floor up to the ceiling to mud the entire wall.