Debbie and Rich Paulsen were anxious to decorate when they moved into a new townhouse in Braidwood, Ill., five years ago. The great room presented the biggest challenge.
“We wanted to get rid of those stark white walls, and wallpaper wasn’t an option because the ceilings are 14 feet high,” Debbie Paulsen says.
The room was painted four times, but it still wasn’t quite right. “We needed a less formal look. Our home is on the water, and we wanted a nautical treatment,” she says.
The couple hired artist Janelle Tague of New Lenox, who color-washed the walls to look like blue denim. She created murals and stencil treatments that feature fishing rods, lures, a “gone fishing” sign, sea grass and cattails along with subtle yellow stripes that lead into the kitchen.
“We needed to bring in colors and create a feeling of warmth, and that’s what we have now,” Paulsen says.
Updating colors and adding faux finishes, murals or stenciled designs give a room depth and dimension and create a mood. Faux finishes include textured paints applied so that they resemble parchment, leather, linen or sandstone–anything but drywall.
Walls can be painted to resemble marble or embellished with metallic paint for an ultra-modern feel. Or they can be given a warm, golden glow to look like centuries-old plaster found in a European farmhouse.
Tea staining, dragging and stippling, rag rolling and sponging are some of the paint techniques that today’s well-dressed walls are wearing.
Combinations of two, three and four colors, including pearlized paints or glazes, carefully applied in layers with sponges or rags produce stunning effects.
“Faux finish is a design trend that has a lot of legs. It began in the mid-’80s when builders started using more cathedral ceilings, and it continues to grow,” says Scott Richards of Behr, a paint manufacturer. “We’re constantly working on ways to give walls a different appearance. Faux finishes are a very inexpensive way to give a room a great look, one that separates it from your neighbor’s house.”
He estimates that a 10-foot-square room can be painted with a faux finish for about $100 and that do-it-yourselfers account for more than half of the home painting projects each year.
On top of many faux-finished walls, some homeowners are opting for hand-painted or stenciled murals to depict staircases, meadows, windows, garden gates, bookshelves or stone walls where none exist. The realistic scenes are called trompe l’oeil, French for “fool the eye.”
Whether you hire an artist or a painter, or do it all yourself, one of the fastest, easiest and often least expensive ways to update a room is with a few cans of paint.
Chicago artist Michelle Hove began painting murals and creating faux finishes 17 years ago. Her recent projects include a mural of Napa Valley in a Burr Ridge home’s wine tasting room.
For a homeowner whose treasured antique wallpaper had been water-damaged, Hove recreated an 8-by-10-foot section of detailed fox-hunting scenes. And for a large European-style kitchen, she painted wall sconces enhanced with plaster that look amazingly real.
“I love doing trompe l’oeil, especially things that look like Pompeii or deteriorating bricks. Some people would say why not just put the molding or terra cotta on the walls. The whole idea is that it’s painted, but it fakes you out so you have to go up there and see it or touch it. It’s a lot of fun,” Hove says.
Hove’s home in Lake Point Towers in Chicago and several others in the building feature her work. “Because of the building codes, you can’t have a lot of wood,” she says.
She painted several doors to look like intricately sculptured wood. “Every door is different, like a hand-carved armoire,” she says.
For her infant daughter’s room, artist Beth Martin of Chicago’s Lakewood neighborhood worked with Hove to create a school of rainbow-colored fish around the walls.
“I looked at infant bedding for inspiration,” Martin says.
Bubbles ascend from seahorses and the rainbow fish feature iridescent fins and metallic outlines. The women drew the fish on brown craft paper before transferring them onto the walls.
“It’s a lot of work, but it’s definitely eye-catching. The fish are big enough and colorful enough to capture a kid’s attention. When other friends’ babies visit, they want to touch the fish because of the textures,” Martin says.
Hove charges $65 per hour, and says a child’s nursery might take three to five days to complete based on the number of walls painted and the complexity of the designs.
Artist Jackie Paul of Bijak Designs Inc. in Bloomingdale (www.bijakdesigns.com) began faux finishing in 1994 when she and her husband built their home.
“I had a blank canvas and began trying to find courses. It became a huge passion that evolved into a business,” she explains.
Bijak opened her own design school four years ago and teaches several faux-finishing classes for beginners to professionals.
“Textures are really hot. There’s everything from tissue paper called elephant hide to torn paper and plaster-type textures,” Bijak says.
It looks easy, but Bijak cautions first-time do-it-yourselfers. “The people who make the biggest mistakes are the ones who watch it on TV or watch a demo and don’t practice. They go straight to the wall and have the biggest rate of failure. You have to perfect the art form on a sample. I wouldn’t dream of taking a class and not practicing a technique,” Bijack says.
Tague’s clients are asking for subtle finishes like parchment for an Old World, mellow look. “I do a lot of that in kitchens. Sometimes I even paint cracks. My husband is an engineer, and he thinks it’s pretty funny that you’d make a wall look cracked, but it’s popular. “
Tague’s recent murals include stone walls adorned with three-dimensional bumblebees made lifelike with the help of plaster.
Fairies decorate a bathroom and an elaborate apple tree graces the wall of a kitchen. A trompe l’oeil painting of an alcove with a pot of hydrangeas enhances another kitchen corner.
“I’ve done leaves, fossils, stars, whatever someone wants,” Tague says. “The good thing about murals is that they can be painted on canvas and the homeowner can take them with when they move.”
Her living-room walls are a green metallic mossy parchment. “One of the newest things is tea staining, which looks like you’ve dipped the cloth in tea before painting,” she says.
Stripes are in demand but Tague explains, “It’s not like a circus tent. I might do green and white for a French Country look, but most often it’s tone-on-tone or pearl striping in different sizes.”
A medium-size bedroom painted like parchment can run from $400 to $600. Stripes may increase the price from $600 to $800. “Some people choose to do just one wall as a focal point,” Tague says.
Tague and Bijack note that warm colors–from tans, taupes and beige to yellows–are particularly popular now.
“People want antique golds and umbers. Dusty lavender is popular, and they’re also asking for plums and any color sage or moss green,” Tague says.
Faux techniques
– Sand washing. Sand is added to paint to produce a subtle, textured look of stone.
– Sponging. A sea sponge is used to apply or remove a topcoat of color. Using the sponge to blot or stipple the paint creates subtle variations in color and dimension.
– Ragging. A water-dampened cloth rag is used to apply or remove a topcoat of color from the wall. This creates a lacy, elegant look.
– Color washing. A blend of three different colors using a white or neutral base coat, a mid-range second coat with a deep-toned topcoat creates an illusion of texture.
– Frottage. A base coat and top coat of paint along with a plastic drop cloth, rags, cheesecloth and brushes are used to create the warm, aged look of antique leather.
– Dragging. Brush, roller and rags are used to create the look of textured fabric.
– Venetian plaster. Produces a three-dimensional surface that resembles marble or polished stone.
