Wall painting effect

August 26, 2007 2:03 AM

How would one paint a wall with this effect.

It looks like a blue base that has a random pattern masked out. How would one apply the top coats get the soft multicolour tile effect?

posted by Mitheral to home & garden (7 comments total)

Spray paint?
posted by arcticwoman at 2:05 AM on August 26, 2007

Airbrush.
posted by RavinDave at 2:13 AM on August 26, 2007

To me it looks like the softer pattern was painted with an airbrush or spraypaint, then the polygonal tile pattern was drawn on afterward. Is there some more unusual effect that might not be noticeable just from viewing that image?
posted by contraption at 2:18 AM on August 26, 2007

I hate to give any hints, cause quite frankly that is one ugly wall. Hard to tell if that was sprayed on or applied with a tool. If you want to do it with basic tools I would do this:

• paint wall blue(or at least areas where borders will be)
• mark off the shapes with .25" detailing tape
• Paint wall base color
• Stipple in colored glaze
• optionally use a badger haired brush to really soften
• remove tape
posted by travis08 at 5:18 AM on August 26, 2007 [2 favorites]

I think the steps were:

1. Base paint the wall in the lightest shade.
2. Apply dots of color with either spray paint in the pastels or an airbrush (but my money's on spray paint). The dots join together in lines that'll then be traced in step 3...
3. Follow the lines of dots with a simple lining brush. The brush would ideally have long bristles and a thin diameter, to make good long lines before running out of paint.

The simplest way to do it shouldn't involve any masking at all, I don't think. It's a little trickier to free-hand lines like that, but would save you an entire coat (or three, given how many it'd take to do the light over dark).
posted by lauranesson at 10:18 AM on August 26, 2007

contraption writes "Is there some more unusual effect that might not be noticeable just from viewing that image?"

I've just got the picture, I haven't seen it in person.

I've got an airbrush so I'll give that a try. Anyone got any suggestions on airbrushing interior latex. I'd guess it would have to be thinned 10-15% with water?
posted by Mitheral at 11:13 AM on August 26, 2007

Travis08 has it.
posted by adamrice at 12:12 PM on August 26, 2007