Color and texture are essential elements of design. Many people ignore texture, however, in interior decoration. They may spend hours poring over color chips and books without ever giving a thought to what a texture might add to the look of a wall or ceiling. Texture can add visual interest. It also can cover up small mistakes in installation, such as slightly uneven seams, or small cracks or pits in the wall's surface.
Three Basic Types
Learn the three basic types of texture: splatter, popcorn and knockdown. Splatter is just that --- bits of wall compound, or mud, splattered onto a wall; light splatter looks a bit like an orange peel, while a heavier splatter will have dots on the surface. Popcorn looks like bits of popcorn that exploded and stuck to the wall or ceiling. It helps with soundproofing, but can be hard to keep clean. Knockdown resembles a stucco wall. It can look similar to subtle cake icing or meringue, with deep ridges.
Mechanical or Hand Texture
Use mechanical or hand painting techniques for texture. Use devices called texture machines or hopper guns to spray wall compound on walls or ceilings. These devices use compressed air to spray on the texture, with nozzles that vary the mixture and consistency. Buy spray cans of texture for small areas. Paint on light textures with a brush, using paints that have a perlite-type material or similar coarse ingredients mixed in, or with rollers. A stippling roller sticks to the paint a bit, causing it to raise up and create an uneven surface resembling plaster.
Be Creative
Express your creativity with hand-applied texture. Use wall compound, which is sometimes thinned to make it easier to work with, and sometimes with coarseness added through sand or other texture additives. Apply this material with a mason's triangular trowel, which is a drywall trowel with one flat and one serrated side; a stiff-bristled paint brush; or a whisk broom. Spread the compound over the wall in broad strokes or splatter it with a brush. Spread it smooth and rough it up with the serrated trowel, or sweep it with the brush or broom to create any type of texture you want.
Test It First
Test any technique before committing to an entire room. Put a spare piece of drywall against a wall, with plastic sheeting underneath it. Experiment with different techniques and looks. Scrape off the test before the compound sets for another try. Use different techniques on different sections of the test to compare and see what texture and pattern works best.
