Decorative paint a wallpaper alternative

Elaine Griffin is crazy about stripes -- in small rooms and children's rooms, powder rooms and halls.

She also likes glazes and metallics. Stencils, too.

Decorative and faux painting is back, although in a subtler style than the "Dallas" and "Dynasty" days of the 1970s and '80s. "We overdid it then," said Griffin, a New York decorator, designer and contributor to Better Homes and Gardens magazine.

Bonnie Roberts-Burke, a real estate agent, had 80 feet of stripes painted in her 100-year-old Washington town house. They start in the living room, go up the stairs and all the way down the hallway on the second floor. "It pulls it all together," she said.

The stripes -- each 5 inches wide -- are of the same creamy blush beige color, but alternate between satin and flat finishes. "It just makes the most interesting patterns," she said. "It changes as the light in the house changes."

Tracy McGranaghan taps a stencil in place while working on a decorative painting project in a client's Annapolis, Md., home. (Ann Heisenfelt ~ Associated Press)

Roberts-Burke said it gives the house an elegant feel. Her husband, David Burke, finds it warm and calming.

The couple hired a professional to paint their stripes. Griffin said many homeowners try decorative and faux painting themselves; "civilian painters," she calls them.

Paint and glazes can be used to create a marbled look, textured effect or a wood finish. With them, you can produce patterns that rival -- or even surpass -- what is available in wallpaper.

Faux painting simulates nature and makes a surface look like something else -- "making a plain door look like cherry or a plain plaster column look like marble," said Tracy McGranaghan, a decorative painter with studios in Annapolis, Md.

"Decorative painting," she said, "is creating patterns and color dimensionally on walls and surfaces."

It's not just walls that are being painted creatively. Furniture and cabinetry, even floors and ceilings, also are fair game. Meghan Carter, who runs the website AsktheDecorator.com, said painting the ceiling a color other than white can produce a more intimate feeling, especially in rooms with "abnormally tall ceilings."

"Paint is a wonderful thing because it's instant gratification," McGranaghan said. "In a very short time, you can completely transform a space."

Faux finishes can add depth and dimension to a surface.

"It's all about subtlety, not so much knock-you-in-the-head drama," she said.

It also makes the walls more durable, said Gary Lord, a decorative painter and teacher in Cincinnati.

"It hides a multitude of sins and you can get it customized just for your own particular taste and color."

That customization is key for people who choose faux and decorative painting.

Often the color in wallpaper is just not right. Or the pattern is too big or too small. Or it repeats too often. Or maybe they're looking for a less expensive alternative to wallpaper.

For faux and decorative painting, the first step is putting on a base coat. Glazes, washes or patterns go on top of that.

There's a positive technique for applying glazes or washes: Apply the color with a sponge, rag or other tool and leave it there. In the negative technique, you put the glaze or wash on the wall and then extract it, using a sponge or other tool.

Griffin said professionals tend to choose the negative technique because it looks better; amateurs go for the positive technique because it's easier, she said.

Wood graining also is popular, McGranaghan said, as is the use of Venetian plaster, which results in a marbled look.

She also paints patterns -- "things that almost look like wallpaper" -- on walls, cabinets and furniture. And she uses stencils, some that she buys and others that she cuts herself. "I generally do a faux finish underneath for texture and I apply a stencil to that and it's more dimensional," she said.

Wall decals are another option for people who like the look of stencils, Carter said. "In some ways I think they are a lot nicer," she said. "You can put them on and take them off."

Before starting any decorative or faux painting project, Lord recommends that do-it-yourselfers educate themselves. There's a wealth of resources, in the library and on the Internet. YouTube has many free how-to videos.

And if you make a mistake?

"People get so apoplectic about color," Griffin said. "Color is the easiest thing to fix. If you don't like it, just paint over it."

Faux finishing

Among the many types of faux finishes, according to Better Homes and Gardens:

* Sponging: Dip a wet sea sponge into glaze and press it on the wall. The glaze also can be applied to the wall and then lifted in patterns using the sponge. It creates almost a marbleized effect.

* Ragging: Press a rag against a wall in which a glaze already has been applied, removing some of the paint. This will create a textured appearance.

* Strie: Move a brush vertically over a wall to created a striped or streak effect, either applying the glaze with the brush or removing some of it as you work.

* Stippling: Use a brush to create the appearance of little dots. "That's when you put on the base coat and put on a glaze and pounce with it," Griffin said.