Textured Wall Painting Ideas: From Faux Wood to Linen Effects

There are so many different wall painting techniques that you’ll never have to settle for a one colored wall again. Using a combination of paint and glazes you can create a range of different textures, from linen to marble. The main tools used for these techniques are quite basic: paint roller, painters tape, painting combs, sponges, brushes, even steel wool – depending on the style and texture you want. Here are some ideas on how you can paint your walls and the basic tools you’ll need.

Fabric: Linen is a great texture to have painted on a wall, just like the walls in pictures (1) & (2). Ways to create this effect include dragging a dry brush over wet paint. You can even have multiple colors by having a base paint, say yellow, let it dry and then paint over it with red – while that is still wet drag a dry brush over it. This creates grooves that show the yellow paint underneath (3).

Frottage: This is a cool and creative looking texture (4) (5). What you need here is a lint free rag. Either paint the wall then sponge the wet paint with a rag, or dip the rag in paint and apply it to the wall (6) (this is called ragging).

Silk & Weaves: Steel wool can be used to create a silk effect (7) while brushes and combs create a weave texture (8).

Marble and Faux Stone Effects: There are a few ways to create a stone like texture. There is sponging (9), using a cloth (10), or using a paint brush. Colorwashing is another way – this is when you use a combination of diluted paint hues to create a stone like effect.

Faux Bois (Fake Wood): Yup, you can even create a wooden looking wall with paint (11) – just by using a painting comb and a wood grain brush.

Decorative Wall Painting Ideas: Other decorative wall painting techniques include creating stripes using painter’s tape (12) or a stripe comb – and stenciling (13).

Looking Up: All of these ideas don’t just have to stay on the walls. Check out the ceiling in picture (14).

For a great guide on how to do most of these faux painting techniques for your home, have a look at this step by step guide by Martha Stewart here.

Martha Stewart has a complete kit that can get you going with most of these painting techniques and ideas – which can be found here. Some of the individual tools, like the linen brush, can be found on Amazon here. But most of these paint designs won’t need much more than some simple household items (sponge, rag). 1/2/3/4/5/6/7 & 8/9/10/11/12/13/14

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