Painting Over Cheesecloth on a Wall

Wipe down the wall with a mild cleaner to remove grime and dust. Allow the wall to dry as needed. Run painter’s tape around the perimeter of the wall to mark off adjacent walls or baseboards, and apply the tape around fixtures such as vents or sockets.

Paint a white or cream base coat over the wall if it isn’t white or cream colored already. Use the 2-inch brush to paint along the tape areas for more control, and switch to the paint roller for larger areas. Allow the base coat to dry for four to six hours until it is no longer tacky.

Mix equal amounts of one accent paint color, glaze and water in a bowl. If you’re using two accent colors, then repeat this to make a paint/glaze with the second color.

Apply a paint/glaze to the wall with a 2-inch brush working in foot-long, diagonal squiggly lines which run parallel to one another spaced every six inches. Alternate paint colors, if using two accent paints. Fill a three-foot-square area with these lines.

Ball a piece of cheesecloth in your hand and rub over the squiggly lines in random rounded patterns and figure eights until the colors appear blended together with some variation. Rinse the cloth with warm water and wring out if it starts to feel sticky along the wall as you work.

Dab or tap at the area with a second cheesecloth to blur the lines between the colors and allow for a smooth fade, or skip this step to allow some of the portions to have deeper contrast where colors shift.

Continue to work the wall in 3-foot sections as in Steps 4 through 6 until you are finished. As you create each new section, run the cheesecloth back by a few inches toward completed sections to blend the sections. Allow the wall to dry for one hour before removing the tape. Let the wall dry overnight to finish.