Walls take on a historic cast with Old World paint finishes.
Whether you live in a grand estate house or a modest apartment, the beauty of Old World interiors can be yours with a modest amount of paint and elbow grease. There are kits available to mimic almost every kind of paint and plaster finish. You can use faux painting techniques to achieve exactly the look you desire with a few tricks of the trade and a little effort.
Venetian Plaster
Age your walls with the timeless texture of Venetian plaster. Paint the walls with a smooth base coat--some painters recommend that you cover this with a diluted quartz primer to increase plaster binding. Apply the colored plaster to the edge of a trowel, and work it onto the wall in the thinnest possible layer, using long strokes and working quickly before the plaster dries. If the layer is thin enough, you might see some base color showing through in spots, and you can stop here if you like the effect. Otherwise, let the wall dry, and then apply one or two more coats of plaster, smoothing the surface between each coat with a wide putty knife. Apply the final coat in a crosshatch pattern. After it dries, lightly sand the surface with very fine sandpaper. You can burnish this top coat with a stainless steel burnisher after a week of drying, or apply a protective coat of wax--either choice is optional, but will give the walls a shiny finish.
Lime Washing
For a real lime wash finish, use a base coat especially formulated for lime wash. This provides a surface that the lime will adhere to--over time, crystals in the lime expand and refract light, giving the surface a polished glow. Once the base coat has dried overnight, apply lime wash with a wide brush in a crosshatch pattern, working the paint strokes so there are softened edges. Keep a clean, dry brush handy to smooth any blobs or thick spots, or use cheesecloth to even out the look of the finish. You can fake this lime wash look with very watered down white paint, applied in a very thin layer over the base coat. Then cover the dried, dusty-looking finish with lacquer to give the walls a lime wash sheen.
Faux Parchment
Your walls can look like ancient paper or the faded plaster of old buildings. Choose two paints in similar hues, one darker and one lighter--shades of brown and ecru are typical parchment colors. Paint the wall with a satin finish, off-white base coat. In separate bowls, mix the two shades of parchment paint with untinted glaze in the following proportions: 1 part paint, 1 part water, and 1 part glaze. Work in a small area at a time, beginning in a corner at the ceiling. Put a big squiggle of one glaze on the wall and a squiggle of the other color a few inches away. Use wadded cheesecloth to rub the glaze into the wall, blending the two colors. Don't try to blend them perfectly--just move the cloth in a figure eight pattern to merge the two shades. Rinse the cheesecloth from time to time, and wring it out well before proceeding. The finished wall will look like the background of an antique map.
