How to Use a Feather to Faux Finish a Wall

Using a faux finish on your wall is a great way to add to the over all decor of the room. A faux finish gives a wall a sense of movement and texture. This feeling of movement can also give your room the feeling that it had an expensive make over. By doing the work yourself, you get the expensive look for just pennies compared to what it would take to have a professional painter do it. There are many ways items that can be use to achieve a faux finish. A feather is an easy item to find and use to faux finish a wall.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• 1 large ostrich feather
• 2 paint trays
• 1 gallon of a light color base coat paint
• 1 gallon of a darker shade paint
• 1 drop cloth
• 1 roll painter's tape
• 1 paint roller

Add some wow to your wall

1. Lay down the drop cloth in front of the wall that you will be painting to catch any drips and spills that may occur. Faux finishing a wall can be a little messy and taking the necessary precautions in the first place will save hours of clean up in the end.

2. Tape of the area of wall that you will be working on with painter's tape. Start out with a small section of wall on your first attempt to faux finish. You can always go back and do the rest of the wall at a later time when you have perfected the technique.

3. Pour the lighter color paint into one of the paint trays. Use the paint roller to apply a layer of the lighter base color. This will be the solid background color for your finish. If the paint does not cover the wall on the first coat, let it dry and reapply to get a solid base to faux finish on.

4. Allow the wall to dry completely. Pour the darker color paint into the paint tray. This will be the paint that you will use with the feather. The color should be slightly darker then the base color for the best finished look.

5. Hold on to the tip of the feather and lightly run the feather across the top of the darker paint in the tray. This will lightly coat the feather with paint so that it does not clump.

6. Press the feather against the wall in many places. Overlap where the feather has been placed. Reapply paint to the feather with step 5 when the impression that is being made gets too light. Repeat this step until the desired look is acheived.

Tips & Warnings

• You can faux finish many things besides a wall. This look will work on benches, dressers and other pieces of wooden furniture. Just follow the basic technique.
• The larger ostrich feather can be found and purchased at any craft store or in the craft section of your local department store.
• Buy more then one feather. You may end up with the feather clumping together after you have use it to paint for a while. It is always best to have backups on hand.