Camouflaging Switch Plates: Base Coat

Video Transcript

"In this clip we're going to be applying the base coat. Believe it or not, the next step in this process is going to be doing the grout color. The reason we're going to put the grout color on first is it's going to cover the entire switch plate and receptacle. That way, when you put your stone look on, it will look like the grout and the stone all came together at once. You'll be amazed at how this works. Picking out your grout colors, as I said, is probably going to be a matching process. You're not going to use just one color because grout is a mixture of things in itself, so pick colors that are as close to your grout color as possible. As you can see here, I've picked kind of muddy grays and a white because I'm going to want to cut the gray down a little bit. Using your little egg tray, you're going to squirt a little bit, remember a little bit goes a long way, and this is a fairly small project so you're not going to need a lot of paint. Keep your colors up so you can see what you're mixing. And again, if you get a little bit on your surface or on your hands, it's just craft paint and it will wash off easily. That's one of the beauties of using this kind of paint, it goes a long way, it's inexpensive, and it's easy to clean up. You're going to see that it may take a little bit to match the exact grout color that you have, and that's why you play with the paint. It is inexpensive so you can afford to lose a little if you need to. I like to put a little bit on any kind of white surface, a piece of paper, a piece of cardboard, as long as it's white, so that you're working in the same color range. Put a little bit on your paper, and then walk it over to your wall and see if you're close to the grout color, if not, just keep adjusting your paint color. Use a little bit more white, a little bit more gray, or whatever your grout color happens to be composed of, just keep adding, keep adding, and you'll see that as you work this and walk it over to your wall, you can see, we're getting close. We may be a little dark or a little light, you just keep adjusting until you hit that color that you need there. And when you think you've got it, you come back and you paint your entire switch plate cover, including the screws. Make sure you get a good coat. Once again, this is going to look like stone, so it doesn't need to be absolutely beautiful like a painting you'd hang on the wall, this is stone, this is Mother Nature at work, so we're going to try to copy what she has done. Paint the screws, make sure you keep them moving so you don't paint them in so tight that you can't use them again. Just put on a good coat, because you're going to come over this again with the stone color. Be sure you hit all the areas, the inside. Make sure you let it dry well before you move on. You're going to paint your receptacle as well, watching, again, for the little holes there, so you can keep them free of accumulated paint. Paint the edges because you probably will see some of that. And if necessary you can go over a second time if after it dries you see that there's some spots that you've missed. See, it doesn't take much paint at all. And now, believe it or not, you've got your grout done, and we're ready to move on to the next step."