How to sponge on paint

SOME WALLS DO talk--or at least they can make a statement. A new 128-page guide helps you make your walls say what you want them to by choosing what covers them.

You'll learn all the ways you can treat your walls in Decorating with Paint & Wall Coverings (Sunset Publishing Corporation, Menlo Park, Calif., 1991; $8.95; if ordering by mail, add $2.50 for shipping; California and Washington residents, please add the appropriate sales tax). A useful first chapter on color and design helps you learn through observation how colors, patterns, and textures are used, making it easier for you to narrow your own design decisions.

The four chapters that follow cover the ways you can treat a wall: paint, wallpaper, fabric, and paneling.

Here we show a decorative technique--sponging on paint. It's the easiest of the many techniques highlighted in the painting chapter.

Sponging leaves a mottled impression on the wall. You can use one or several layers of a thinned latex paint. Or use a glaze.

Pastel colors over an off-white wall will produce a fresh look; a dark color over a light background will create a bold, dramatic look. Variations of the same color can help give the wall--or whatever surface you're working--a feeling of depth. With multicolor applications, the last color applied will be the dominant one.

A large, flat, medium-pored sea sponge is best for the technique. Find one at decorating and art sotres, bath shops, and cosmetic departments of drug or health-food stores. Ask for a wool sponge rather than a grass one. Slice round sponges in half to get a flat surface.

1 AFTER MOISTENING a sea sponge in water and wringing well, dip it into thinned paint wash, then squeeze until it just barely stops dripping.

2 DAUB SURFACE lightly with sponge, rotating it when you lift it to vary pattern you're creating. Reload sponge as color fades.

3 WORK SPONGE into corners as well as you can; be careful not to jam it in, or color will be heavier there than elsewhere on the wall.

4 IN CORNER AREAS where sponge will not reach, use a fine artist's brush to make dots simulating mottled impressions of sponge.

5 LET ENTIRE sponged surface dry completely. If desired, apply a second color, following the same procedure as in previous steps.

6 LET SECOND sponged color dry completely. If desired, apply a third color. Final result should be a pleasing blend of colors.

COPYRIGHT 1991 Sunset Publishing Corp.
COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group