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How To Create A Faux Plaster Wall Using Paint (And A Scraper!)

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I’ve been wanting to give my office a refresh for a while now and finally decided to try something quite different because, well, why not? It was a gamble, but so fun to create a faux plaster wall using paint!

I wanted it to look like an old, aged plaster wall, with a beautiful patina look, like some I have seen in my travels to Sri Lanka.  I have to admit, it felt a little daunting to create something that’s such a big statement, but painting this was surprisingly simple. Layer by layer, adding details and stepping back to assess, I took my time and slowly covered the whole wall in this layered paint effect, that ended up looking like beautiful aged plaster! Read on for how to create a faux plaster wall using paint.

The Inspiration

I spent a fair amount of time workshopping what I wanted to do in this space, I even took it out to a vote over on Instagram, sharing a few different options. Resoundingly you guys liked one inspiration image I shared in particular (via this design studio). So I set out to create something inspired by that!

Choosing the Colours to create a faux plaster wall using paint

I worked with British Paints on this project and spent quite a bit of time testing their colours to make sure I chose the right ones. In the end I chose Forever Peach, Rose Candle, Ballet Princess and Natural Paprika. I decided to use 3 different shades of pink and then one darker colour just to add a small amount of detail at the bottom. I think it’s important when creating a plaster/aged finish with paint that the colours are quite similar.

Testing the Technique

Before starting on my wall, I did a practice piece on some plywood to try some different techniques. Because I did this and figured out what tools work, you don’t necessarily need to do one yourself, but a trial on a piece of paper or wood is always valuable for getting used to the technique or testing colours.

How to paint a faux plaster look using a scraper

Materials you need

How to

1

Begin by prepping your area - lay down drop cloths, tape along the floor or skirting board and give all your paints a really good mix. Having everything ready and prepared always makes the process much smoother!

2

I began by rolling on some big patches of colour to cover the bulk of the wall. Rolling the first layer gives a nice consistent base for the rest of the scraped layers. I also decided to do a 3/4 wall like my inspiration photo, and because of the aid conditioner that's in the room and wouldn't have fit into the painted section.

3

I then rolled another section of the next darkest tone, and tried to blend the colours well along the edges. I also painted the skirting boards for this, but you can also leave them unpainted if you prefer. Next I found that swirling a very small amount of a different colour through the paint tray before rolling helped in adding a little bit of depth to the block of colour. Having said that, one thing to remember with this paint finish is that you can always cover and add layers as you go so don't worry too much about the finish at this stage. 

 

4

I then started scraping out the edges so they didn't look like a flat rolled edge. First I simply used the wet paint that was already there to soften out the edges, and then I found dipping the scraper into the paint tray and then pushing out the paint in different directions worked well. 

5

Now it's time for layering, the fun part! Using the scraper, I dipped it in paint before scraping it across the wall. The more paint you use the more solid the look, and the less paint on the scraper, the look will be lighter and more transparent. Holding your scraper flat against the wall will also give texture to the look. Working in sections, I simply scraped on paint, in places allowing it to mix and in other keeping it more of a block.

6

I did one 'coat' of layers, simply alternating colours as I went along. Then I took a break and let it dry so that I could see the true colours and decide what more was needed. I ended up adding larger blocks of single colour to the wall during my second painting session, to make it a little more simple. 

  

7

I also added a few lighter tones of pink at the top and darker tones of pink at the bottom, to ground it a little more, without being too ombre. Once I was happy with the pinks, I added a very small amount of Natural Paprika, scraping it up from the bottom and sides of the wall. Less is more with this, I just wanted to add some depth and ground the wall, almost to make it look more aged.

Voila!

Honestly I am so happy with this design! It’s A LOT I know, but I think it has really lifted the space and made me look forward to sitting at my desk. I think this technique would work so well in different colours, even in lighter tones for a really neutral, plaster look. I can’t wait to experiment some more with it!

 

 

 

 

This post is in collaboration with British Paints

Faux Plaster Products - Acrylic Based

Plasters are an essential supply to have in your faux painting tool kit because they are incredibly versatile, and can be used in the creation of a number of faux finishes. The Venetian faux plaster finish is among the most popular types of effects in this category, but you can also use plaster to create many different textures, including metal, stone, and even textiles. Furthermore, many acrylic plasters can be tinted using products like Faux Crème Color, allowing you the freedom to make unique and creative finishes for your home, redecorations, art projects, and other decorative endeavors.

Achieving a Faux Venetian Plaster Look with the Venetian Gem System

Venetian plaster has a long tradition, and although it was popularized in Venice during the Renaissance, it actually dates back to Roman times. The look of true Venetian plaster is made with special materials and techniques, but you can easily recreate the look and ambiance with faux finishing techniques and acrylic-based plaster. Faux Masters Studio carries a range of products you can use to replicate the Venetian plaster faux finish look, including the Venetian Gem Base Coat, Venetian Gem, and Venetian Gem Bellissimo, all of which are versatile and easy-to-use products that can be used to produce a number of effects. The Venetian Gem line of products are available in a range of colors, including reds, purples, black, blues, browns, greys, greens, and gold.

A Variety of Products You Can Use to Create Other Faux Plaster Finishes

The classic Venetian plaster look isn’t the only effect you can achieve with acrylic-based plaster, and you can also use these products to reproduce the look of linen and heavy textiles, chipped paint, stone, textured iron, grained plaster, distressed finishes, and more.

The specific products that are ideal for these applications include:

Versatile Plasters for All-Purpose Use

Beyond creating specific styles of faux finishes, plaster can also be used to texturize a surface and make it more dynamic and visually appealing. For instance, NüVilla is a light, smooth, and creamy plaster that’s great for decorative finishes, and that’s available in a number of earthy tones, such as driftwood, bark, and olive. O’Villa Sabina, on the other hand, is ideal for any bold patterns, but because it contains refined marble dust, it can also be used for a sandy finish. Finally, Palette Deco is a water-based product that’s available in both pearlescent and metallic versions, and it’s perfect when you want to create striping, combing, and embossing patterns.

Basic Application Instructions for Faux Acrylic Plaster

Although the application instructions will vary from product to product, most acrylic-based plasters have a similar application process. The first is to clean the surface to remove dirt, dust, grease, paint, and other debris. Typically, the second step is applying a coat of SetCoat, which acts as a base coat that can be applied to most surfaces. When the SetCoat is dry, use a trowel to apply an even layer of your plaster material, and allow it to dry for several hours before applying subsequent coats. Any final texturizing or faux finish effects can be achieved using the right technique before the final coats dry completely.

Faux plaster finishes are ideal for revamping, redecorating, and bringing a brand-new old-world look to rooms. With the acrylic-based plaster products, tools, and supplies available through Faux Masters Studio, you’ll have everything you need to create a traditional Venetian plaster look, textures, designs, or other creative faux finishes that will completely transform your home or decorative project.

Gypsum forgery - a spectacular imitation of stone and brick

Modern stylistic concepts suggest combining different textures and materials to achieve a bright contrasting interior design of the walls. One of the most popular practices today is the use of brick and stone masonry as a decorative interior element. Such a decorative solution looks really great, but the use of real decorative bricks and natural or artificial stone for this purpose has a number of disadvantages.

All the problems listed above can be solved by using modern gypsum stucco molding technique, which offers a spectacular and very natural imitation of almost any finishing texture.

Gypsum is a universal material

The best way to imitate any texture of facing materials is to use a universal pliable material - gypsum. The sculpting technique allows you to create an unlimited number of various shapes and textures, as well as achieve a three-dimensional visual component, which is impossible to obtain using the concept of artistic painting, which creates only a flat drawing. Even touching the wall, which is decorated with "gypsum brick" or "stone", it is almost impossible to feel the substitution, because the professional work of decorators creates a complete imitation of the rough surface of brick or wild stone, and opposite the smooth texture of marble or granite.

However, the versatility of a material such as gypsum used to imitate brick or stone is far from the only advantage of such a solution. Gypsum stucco has a number of completely unique characteristics:

Imitation techniques with plaster molding

First of all, it should be noted that not only brick and stone can be imitated with plaster, but also wooden beams and surfaces, ceramic tiles and even mosaics. Design possibilities when working with this material are limited only by the imagination of the author. In this case, there are several methods to achieve the final goal:

Each of these techniques has its advantages and disadvantages, and the choice is determined by the direct texture that the author of the work seeks to recreate. So, in the case of brickwork, it is more convenient to work using the bas-relief method, while complex Roman masonry is easier to recreate by applying the gypsum composition directly to the base of the wall.

Most often, gypsum imitation is used in small areas, as this technique makes it possible to save some space by not using sufficiently thick bricks and stone panels. The recreation of gypsum bricks in modern interiors looks very impressive - high-tech, minimalism, eco-style, and, of course, such a popular loft today. Moreover, fashionable interior trends often combine the natural texture of stone or brick with imitation, which creates a completely original aesthetic picture.

Another interesting variant of gypsum imitation is artistic masonry of individual panels and gypsum stones, which are laid on the wall in the order determined by the author. Each element of such a composition is made specifically to create a harmonious picture. It is almost impossible to achieve such a stylistic effect using natural stones, due to the uneven structure and irregular texture. As for plaster, the artistic possibilities here are exceptionally wide - panels and mosaics, map outlines and animal outlines, unusual abstract and floral motifs.

Due to its high performance properties, this decorative version can even be used for facade decoration. Today, this option is especially often used in the case of exterior decoration of lightweight frame houses - SIP panels, sandwich panels, Canadian technology, etc. These house structures do not imply a reinforced foundation and massive load-bearing walls, which makes the use of heavy stone for decoration undesirable.

To create decorative elements of gypsum stucco that will most accurately repeat the structure of stone, brick, wood or ceramics, Gesso Star stucco decoration studio offers not only high qualifications and many years of experience, but also impeccable design taste. Our experts are ready to implement even the most unusual and original idea of ​​a designer or customer, as well as to develop a unique stylistic model using gypsum moldings, which will become the center of attention in any interior. High quality material and incredible aesthetics - all this is the author's gypsum stucco molding from Gesso Star.

imitation of decorative gypsum bricks with photo

Many people like to enrich their home interior with brickwork. But this pleasure is not available to everyone, most often because of the price. Plus, decorative brick often makes the walls visually heavier; for a small room, this design is very rarely suitable. But with a small and selective use, even in a small apartment, brick wall decoration looks cozy.

There are various techniques for imitating brickwork, which is many times cheaper than buying and laying ready-made bulky decorative bricks. You can, of course, carefully drawing, just paint the wall. The so-called brick wall painting. But such an imitation is too frank and unattractive, because the convexity of the bricks is not the last factor, in terms of aesthetics for us. So let's set aside the paints for now and consider the imitation of gypsum brick wall decoration.

Plaster bas-reliefs are often used in decoration, but, in the case of brick molding, it is not necessary to have the skills of an artist, although, of course, it is better to take a finished work as a sample, elementary fragments of finished bricks, of which there are a lot of types, from chipped front pointed ones to the simplest whole-looking ones. Moreover, stucco is also preferable because you can copy the brick that is on the market, making it much thinner and even almost flat.

Prepare materials and tools

Gypsum itself is relatively inexpensive, very affordable and popular.

We need:

Brick ready on the wall must be painted and decorated later, sometimes even using a sponge.

Before starting all work, cover the floors in adjacent areas with cardboard or foil. You can wear thin latex gloves so as not to wash the plaster that has dried from the skin.

Brick-like wall decoration - work procedure

After priming the walls and waiting for drying, we proceed to designate the fragments, make a sketch on the wall with a pencil. It is enough to draw only the edges in which the plaster mass will be enclosed.

Examples of composition of bricks on the wall photo 1 and 2.

Having drawn the “steps” of bricks, we proceed to carefully pasting the contours with paper tape. Naturally, we glue the lines on the outside so that the bas-relief does not penetrate the contour. Next, we dilute gypsum with water to a comfortable consistency, much thicker than sour cream is better, because. he can’t “slide” along the wall.

Using a spatula, we spread the mass, unevenly beforehand, so that the blocks later protrude somewhere more, and somewhere less protrude or have an uneven surface. It is better to do no thicker than 1-2 centimeters. Yes, and the structure of gypsum is very fragile, someone can accidentally chip off a strongly protruding element of our “picture”. It is necessary to do it in parts, it is not necessary to fill the entire area at once. Gypsum dries quickly, it is desirable to have time to finish the work with the applied mass in an hour. We stuck about half a square meter and proceed to sculpting bricks.

We make light horizontal markings with a spatula or a knife on the building level or along the rail in wet plaster and asymmetrically outline (cut out) the bricks separately in the finished strips. When an approximate drawing on plaster is applied, we proceed to the study of the elements. If somewhere quickly dries up, then you can sprinkle with water from the sprayer. To give texture, walk in places with a rough dry brush, and to smooth it, on the contrary, with a soft or wet one. Having finished, we sketch the next meter.

Masking tape should not be left stuck for a long time and should be carefully peeled off immediately on finished areas so as not to peel off adjacent paint, coating or wallpaper.

When the brick is dry, go over it with lightly fine-grained sandpaper, and then you can paint it to taste and color. As an option, first paint over with a roller and brush in one tone or with transitions. And from above, with a sponge, patinate over the protruding parts with a darker or lighter color.

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