Camouflaging Switch Plates: Start Stamping Colors

Video Transcript

"In this clip we're going to start stamping the paint colors. Okay now we're ready to actually work on the wall and do the, complete the faux finish effect. One note, is that you might want to be sure that your screws are in perpendicular to the outlet. It's a finishing touch that gives your project a real professional look. So be sure your screws are going in the right direction. Taking a look at the paint colors. Once again I've used, I'm going to be using three colors, you can see here, that mother nature has made a variety of colors in her stones. So we're going to be trying to match it as close as possible. And of course one color won't work, we're going to be blending three. And we're actually going to be using several coats, several sponging effects on here to give the stone look. Because you'll see, there are numerous colors in each stone, so we're going to try to duplicate that. And once again, a little paint goes a long way. So you're not going to want to use a lot of paint, and you don't want to get it too thick on the switch plate, otherwise it's going to look too gloppy and it won't look real professional. So if you pour out a little bit of your paint, the paint colors that you've chosen, a little bit at a time. And try to get as close to the stone that you're working on. Say for instance I'm going to be doing this stone, this has got a lot of white in it, and it's not very dark. So I'm going to try to keep with the lighter colors with this one. I'm going to mix a little bit of paint, in my bowl, I need a flat surface so that when I put the sponge in, it will pick up the paint. And again because it's a stone, it's got a modeled look, so you're not going to want this totally blended, you're not going it so that it looks one color. And again, if this, if this color doesn't work for you, and you put it on there and it's not exactly the right one, you can wipe it off quickly and start again, and I've done that many times. So we'll see if we're getting close. Once again, now you're going to want to wrap around this corner. So you're only going to pick up a little bit of the sponge, you're going to put it on here and try to match the corner and press in with the paint, and pull it off. Now you see you've got stone texture there because the sponge accepts the paint a little differently, so that's good, that's a good start. And you?re going to doing another one, in the same range, if the colors are the same. Now you're going to try to pick up a color, for instance here, and you're going to leave a little bit of space between each application because you do have grout line. So you just put that there and squeeze. And see your stones are starting to pop now. Now you're going to look back and you're going to go, hmmm, that's looking pretty good. A little light in some areas, a little dark, but I can come back and put another coat on, another color. Once again you're going to pick up here because you've got just a portion of the stone. So you're going to wrap around and hit the cover. Not bad, it's looking pretty good. So we'll continue this process, we're going to cover up the entire switch plate with this one color and then we're going to come back and put another coat on with a different shade, so that you're going to start picking up the different variations and textures of each stone."