SUNDAY, OCTOBER 13, 1996
Fakes Take the Cake
Paint and Courage Create Faux Finishes
By Rhonda Stansberry
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER
What follows is a fresh way to
cover your walls. Faux - give
yourself if you try any of these
techniques and get less than
perfect results. After all, it’s
only paint.
Faux, in this context, de-
scribes an ancient painting
method that has been revived in
recent years, creating any num-
ber of illusions - exquisite mar-
ble, precious stones, crushed
velvet, watered silk, leather and
wood graining.
The effect is realistic. The re-
sult is a custom, one - of - a -
kind finish.
Best of all, experts say, a faux
finish is better than wallpaper.
It’s seamless. It won’t peel. It
doesn’t have to be removed to
change wall colors or patterns.
And nicks can be touched up
with a dab of leftover paint.
Inexpensive? That depends.
One - step processes involve no
more than paint, a little practice
and a lot of courage.
Courage is necessary if you
have qualms about veering from
the traditional roller - and -
brush approach. Courage also
may be necessary to get beyond
the stigma of drawing and paint-
ing free - hand on the wall.
Some projects are probably
better left to the pros, who know
RHONDA STANSBERRY
THE WORLD-HERALD
LEAPIN’ LIZARDS: Sage Lassley’s
bedroom carries a Southwestern
motif through stencil and spat-
ter-paint techniques.
all the tricks and move with con-
fidence around the room. The
murals, portraits and other com-
plex subjects are almost always
pro territory.
In either case, specialists in
faux finishes say, the painting
possibilities are unlimited, and
require the simplest, most basic
tools. Rags, paper and plastic
bags, feathers, pencil eraser
tips and sponges are among the
common household objects used
to create patterns in paint and
glazes.
Techniques include ragging,
dragging, sponging, stenciling,
marbleizing, crackling, stip-
pling, skim - coating and color -
brushing. In addition, texture to
mimic an Old World finish can
be created by gluing paper to
the wall or by troweling on a
coat of gesso or spackling com-
pound before glazing.
Glazing - not to be confused
with decoupage - creates the
faux finish. In glazing, said Matt
Jones, “you’re putting a trans-
parent color on a transparent
color. Transparent paint with
color added is glazing, and the
more times you apply the glaze, RHONDA STANSBERRY/THE WORLD-HERALD
the more depth you achieve.”
SERPENTINE COLUMNS: Sandra Lassley gave PVC pipes supporting a
Finishes evolve, Jones said. bookcase the look of a veiny dark green marble.
The base color will seem too
strong, but a glaze or multiple lays - various marbles around a ture to the walls by gluing tissue
glazes will calm down the color. centerpiece of deep blue lapis paper to the wall and covering it
Jones, one of the leaders in lazuli - on a 2 - by - 2 - foot Ma- with a color glaze.
faux finishes in the Omaha - sonite board. Kelly King of Faux Effects
Council Bluffs metropolitan Faux finishes can be applied said the technique people as-
area, said the art is typically re- to “anything that can be sume is most diffi - cult - mar-
vived at the end of every cen- painted,” Jones said. And if Ms. bleizing - can be one of the easi-
tury. He first studied the tech- Prosser’s Masonite board is one est, requiring tools such as a
niques 10 years ago with master example, Sandra Lassley’s PVC pencil eraser to create veins and
faux - finisher Joanne Day of pipe is another. the torn edge of a paper bag to
San Francisco and New York create drift lines in the sur-
City. A pair of columns supporting
rounding “stone.”
bookshelves made by Mrs. Las-
The process was new in the “Marbling has a lot of tricks,”
sley’s husband, Jeff, are the
Omaha area then and Jones be- King said, “and the do - it - your-
type of plastic pipe commonly
gan to try his skills with furni- selfer can do it.”
used in plumbing, but they now
ture pieces at Nebraska Furni- As Matt Jones said, “It’s only
have a dark green serpentine
ture Mart, where he was paint.”
marble finish.
working in 1986. Over time, he
progressed to wall - size por- The columns are one of many
traits, murals and trompe l’oeil, faux finishes Mrs. Lassley has
or “fool the eye” paintings, so chosen for her Omaha home.
realistic that the viewer may not There are stenciled lizards
be sure whether the object is and spatter painting on son
real or representative. Sage’s bedroom wall. Teen - age
Creating marble and semipre- Sasha, who works with her
cious stone finishes are exam- mother one day a week in the
ples of the work that Maggie home - based Fe Fi Faux paint-
Prosser, an Omaha artist and ing business, has a bedroom
now Jones’ fiancee, learned by wall of wide rag - rolled stripes
in deep purple and green.
taking one of Jones’ classes. As
an end - of - class project, she In the master bedroom, Mrs. MARBLE: Charcoal was used to
created a realistic surface of in- Lassley added a leatherlike tex- create the veins in this wall panel
REPRINTED FROM THE OMAHA WORLD-HERALD