How to Faux Panel a Room With Paint

Clean the walls with a liquid soap and warm water mix. Add just enough soap to the water to make suds, and then apply to the walls with a sponge. Rinse with clean water, and then wait about 4 hours for the walls to dry.

Prime the walls for painting using a premium latex primer. Roll the primer onto the walls with a paint roller, covering the surface with an even coating of the primer that hides the old paint color completely. Allow the primer to dry 4 hours.

Apply a base layer of burnt sienna latex paint to the walls using the paint roller. This will give you a mahogany like base for your wood coloring. Make certain none of the primer color shows through by using multiple layers, if needed. Wait 24 hours for the paint to dry.

Create lines to represent the joints between adjoining panels. Place a straightedge against the wall at the ceiling and use a carpenter’s level to ensure that the straightedge is plumb. Draw a pencil mark along the edge. Extend the line to the floor. Repeat the process every 32 inches to represent a new panel placement.

Go over the lines with burnt umber paint using a small paintbrush. Place the straightedge against the wall to aid in painting the lines as straight as possible. Allow the panel lines to dry overnight.

Mix a can of burnt umber colored glaze with a mixing stick, to use as the secondary color for the paneling. Apply the glaze to the base color of paint on the wall using a graining tool. Dip the tool slightly into the glaze, then drag the tool from the top of the wall to its base, moving the tool in a slight rocking motion occasionally to vary the lining of the wood grain being applied with the glaze. Cover the entire wall with the glaze in this way to give the appearance of a natural wood paneling. Wipe excess glaze from the tool after every run with a piece of cloth to avoid creating too thick grain lines on the wall’s surface.