Things You'll Need:
- Open-grain sponge, like a sea sponge
- Brown acrylic paint
- Blue removable painter's tape
- Stepladder
- Washable flat plate with a rim
- Newspaper
- Painting tarps
- Rag
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Step 1
Decide how big you want the pyramid stone on the wall. It should be fairly big to create a dramatic effect.
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Step 2
Remove or move the furniture from the room before you begin painting, It is much easier to do a whole room when it is empty. If you leave any furniture in the room while you work, cover it up. To do a whole wall, have nothing against that wall to block the painting area. You will work from floor to ceiling.
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Step 3
Cover the floors with painting tarps. Set up the stepladder or a sturdy chair to get to the higher areas of the walls.
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Step 4
Use the blue removable painter's tape, and beginning 10 to 14 inches from the top of the wall, stick the tape across the wall from one side of the wall to the other, parallel to the floor.
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Step 5
Repeat this all the way down the wall, making the rows the same distance between each row as the first piece placed below the ceiling. In other words, if the first row of blue removable tape is 10 inches below the ceiling, do that all the way down the wall. If you are planning on painting all the walls the same way, do the same thing all the way around the room. Make sure the lines are parallel to the floor and ceiling and not crooked.
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Step 6
Do the horizontal lines next. Do the top row first. Stick a piece of tape from the edge of the ceiling to the first piece of removable tape. Move along the wall on the same section between the ceiling and the first row of tape and repeat the horizontal taping. Keep each piece of tape about the same distance apart.
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Step 7
Begin the second line of taping the horizontal lines of the pyramid bricks by starting the horizontal line at a different spot. You want the stones to look like they have been built by a mason, so they should not be directly on top of each other (see photo).
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Step 1
Pour brown paint on a flat washable plate with a rim and spread it out a bit.
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Step 2
Dip the open-grain sponge into the paint, then tap off any excess and begin applying it to the wall in dabbing motions. You can test the thickness of the paint on one clean side of the plate or on some newspaper. The paint on the sponge should be thin enough that the holes on the sponge don’t have globs of paint in them. Any excess paint can be wiped off using the rim of the flat plate. Try not to drip paint.
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Step 3
Tap the wall with the sponge, covering all the surfaces. Don’t worry about getting it on the blue tape. That gets removed later.
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Step 4
Repeat this all over the wall. Don’t make the surface exactly the same everywhere. Real stones and bricks have variations in them. You want a mottled look, not a solid brown look.
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Step 5
Make little knobs and cracks in different areas of the pyramid stones by adding more paint and darkening areas.
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Step 6
Let all the paint dry overnight. After the paint is dry, remove the blue tape carefully from the whole room.
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Step 7
Take the sponge again and add lighter bits of color to some of the white striped areas. The lines won‘t look so stark-white, and the pyramid stones will look more realistic. Remember, you are trying to imitate real pyramid walls with your faux painting. The spaces between the stones should have texture and color, too. Let the wall dry.
Comments
Fike said
on 10/3/2009 Yeegs! I think I'd need to see more photos, but it was interesting reading. My fear from what I see is that it would wind up feeling claustrophobic, no? 4* for the good writing and clever idea!
ceholmes said
on 7/13/2009 My boyfriend would love this article, he is an artist and painter who has been thinking about painting wall murals for a while. Thank you for this info, I will pass it along! 5*