A short history
Painted imitations of marble and of costly timber go back centuries, and in Victorian Britain graining and marbling were standard skills of the decorating trade: deal doors grained to look like oak, plaster columns marbled, the woodwork of public houses combed and varnished.
The looser broken-colour finishes reached ordinary homes in the 1980s, helped by Jocasta Innes's book Paint Magic, published in 1981, and for a decade ragged and sponged walls were everywhere. The fashion then collapsed. Its successors are subtler — soft colourwashes, limewash, plaster-effect finishes — and the word "faux" used in older American guides has largely given way to "paint effects".
The glaze
A glaze is a transparent medium, traditionally called scumble glaze, that is tinted with a little colour and brushed thinly over a dry base coat. It stays workable for much longer than paint, which is what allows it to be patterned.
The base coat is eggshell or satin, not matt. A matt surface soaks the glaze up before it can be worked. Glazes are made in water-based and solvent-based forms; the water-based dry faster, which shortens the working time, and on a large wall two people — one applying, one patterning — work better than one.
The broken-colour techniques
- Colourwashing. The glaze is brushed on loosely in all directions and softened, leaving a cloudy, uneven depth of colour. The most forgiving effect and the one closest to current taste.
- Sponging. Glaze is dabbed on with a natural sea sponge, or brushed on and lifted off with one, giving a mottled surface.
- Ragging and rag-rolling. A crumpled cloth is pressed into the wet glaze, or rolled down it as a loose sausage, leaving a pattern like crushed fabric.
- Dragging. A long-bristled brush is drawn through the glaze in continuous vertical strokes, leaving fine lines. It is used on woodwork and panelling and needs a steady hand.
- Stippling. The glaze is struck all over with the tips of a broad, flat-faced brush, producing an even, finely textured bloom.
Imitating materials
Graining reproduces the figure of wood: a glaze over a base the colour of the pale parts of the timber is combed and brushed to draw the grain, then varnished. Marbling builds up veins and clouds of colour in several glazes, softened with a dry brush. Both take practice, and both are still offered by specialist decorators, chiefly for the repair of historic interiors.
Stencilling repeats a cut-out pattern with a nearly dry brush. Trompe-l'œil — painting that deceives the eye into seeing panelling, a view or an object — is artist's work.
Method
- The wall is prepared and painted as for any other finish, since glaze emphasises every flaw beneath it.
- The effect is tried on a primed board, with the chosen base and glaze colours, until the result is repeatable.
- The glaze is applied in vertical bands about half a metre wide, each one patterned at once and blended into the wet edge of the last.
- A wall is finished without a break; a join that has dried cannot be disguised.
- Surfaces that will be handled or wiped are given a coat of clear matt or satin varnish once dry.
Limewash, which produces a naturally cloudy surface without any glaze, is described under limewash walls.