Faux Stone Wall Techniques

Marble

• White and gray Carrara marble is an iconic marble that is fairly simple to replicate. Begin with a white base coat in a satin finish. White and gray glazes, randomly brushed on and blended with a bunch of rags, create the soft look of light marble. Long, thin sign painting brushes or feathers create very fine, wavy lines that look like veining in marble. For the most realistic look, make sure that most of the veins run in the same diagonal direction and that the lines are parallel to each other.

Limestone

• Limestone is a simple finish to recreate. Apply a thick, rough base coat of white paint in a flat finish. Thin tape creates faux grout lines when you remove it at the end of the glazing process. Limestone is fairly light and warm in color, so mix a few similarly colored glazes with glazing medium and white, yellow ochre and burnt sienna paints. Painters duplicate the slightly textured surface of limestone through a variety of glazing techniques, such as stippling, sponging, ragging or spattering. Pouncing the glazed wall with a stiff stippling brush or a natural sea sponge creates an all-over textures of pores. Dabbing the faux limestone with rags makes natural looking, lighter areas where glaze is removed.

Granite

• Granite comes in a range of warm and cool gray tones. Apply a medium gray base coat, and use thin tape to block out grout lines. Mix a variety of gray glazes to capture the range of shades found in granite samples. Apply the various glazes in random patterns with a brush. Recreate the mottled, natural looking surface of stone by dabbing and dispersing the glaze with a handful of rags or plastic bags. A natural sea sponge, applied to a random area, leaves behind an uneven texture.

Malachite

• Decorative painters create the look of semiprecious malachite with a light green base coat and a dark green glaze. A simple strip of cardboard, dragged through the glazed surface to create layers of ruffled, organic shapes, is the only tool you need to achieve the striations of faux malachite and other agates. Begin in the corner of your section of faux malachite, and overlap your cardboard strokes, working from the outside in. Create a final, central area by dragging the cardboard 360 degrees, making a rounded shape. Faux semiprecious stones are most believable when used as small accents or as inlays for other wall treatments.