How to Sponge Paint Walls

Video Transcript

"Let's talk about sponges. Sponge painting is probably the simplest technique there is in the faux finish business. It is also one of the finishes that people do and don't really think too much about what the end product is, just oh I sponged my walls and a lot of times it may look like a dog ran through the house with puppy paw prints so use colors that are very close to each other for a very elegant finish like a very tone on tone sort of application. This particular one is one of the easiest finishes that I do in my business. I start on a semi gloss and sponge it very close in color with a flat paint. I don't really even need to make a glaze. You can add water if you want to thin it out. Choosing a sponge is a critical part of sponging I believe, finding one that doesn't look all like this backside otherwise it will leave these marks, finding one that is sort of generally overall holy I would call it and for instance these are all nice sponges that I would like to use. You dampen it in water. Usually have a paint tray handy and you are going to load which means getting some paint on to your sponge full surface and apply it to the wall, this being your wall. I like to just dab it on and even it out. I don't want it to look like blops all over the place. I want it to look very even and uniform so going all to the edges, pouncing it around, adding more or less you wouldn't unless you want, if you have over sponged you are going to take your ground color which is the base and put it on your sponge and sponge it back over any areas that may have been over sponged. It is a very very simple fast effective technique and when it is finished it should look something like this. Of course this background is very light and the sponging is dark. I would suggest keeping the two tones closer together."