Faux Painting and Color Ideas

Faux Bois

• Faux bois, or faux wood, looks realistic when a tan base coat is glazed with a pattern of darker brown wood grain. However, using this technique can produce a fantasy finish by experimenting with fun colors. Green wood grain looks hip when painted on a pale surface. There are several ways to achieve the look of wood grain, such as dragging stiff brushes, steel wool, graining combs or rocker tools through wet glaze. Faux wood works well on furniture, floors, trim and walls that have been divided into panels.

Color Washing

• Color washing mimics the look of aged plaster walls when done with an earth-tone glaze. More noticeable colors like warm yellow and sage green, with their visible pattern of brushstrokes, resemble rural walls whitewashed or hand-painted with pigmented lime. This simple technique involves applying glaze with a large brush in different, overlapping directions.

Tissue Paper

• This technique gives walls an unusual, crinkled texture when sheets of tissue paper are applied to a wall that is still wet with glaze. Paint or glaze white tissue paper later in any color or use a colored tissue paper and a clear topcoat of glaze to seal and protect this finish. Pale gold paint on a tissue paper surface resembles parchment. Get the look of fine leather on frames and other home accessories by covering them with tissue and painting them with layers of brown or black glaze.

Ragging

• Ragging produces a variety of effects, from subtle to dramatic depending on the color palette. Some ragged surfaces resemble natural materials; gray and white glazes look like Carrara marble when ragged, especially when finished with delicate, painted veining. Beige and tan glazes form a mottled surface that can easily be mistaken for a limestone or other light stone. A pale blue and white ragged ceiling creates the suggestion of an ethereal summer sky.