Brilliant NO-FAUX Wall Finish

Ce n'est PAS faux - c'est VERITABLE.  (It's not fake.  It's real.)

If you need a  drop-dead-easy way to snazz up a room, or if you're an easily-bored and therefore sloppy painter, or if your walls have textural issues (i.e. some eager DIYer's earlier attempt at a faux finish), I have an idea for you.   

The Italians have spent hundreds of years using authentic ingredients like powdered marble  to create lovely wall textures, frescos and stucco coatings.  That's why there's so much gorgeous variety on surfaces in Italy - no single room looks like another, because they have so many options beyond paint.

Now you can too.  And no faux.    True, real finishes that move beyond paint to texture, luminescence and depth.  Much like moving from a blended scotch to 22-year-old single-malt.

I used the highest quality (and easiest) product I could find to create a distressed stucco finish.  The stuff I used is called Desire and is imported from Italy by a family-run Canadian company called Adicolor.   They have a huge range of products, from genuine lime plasters to stucco.  Some glisten, some emulate weathered, flaking centuries-old wall finishes, some can be burnished to a subtle sheen of amazing depth. )

The effect of Desire's textured glaze is fantastic - soft, irregular shadings with mingled tones of varying intensity (18 colours to choose from).  It's not a cheesy, trowelled on, opaque nightmare; it's subtle.  Application is fast and doesn't require precision.  In fact, the less precise, the better.  Slap, swirl and flop it on with a brush, wait a few minutes, then flatten the bumps with a flexible plastic spatula called a Distender.  That's it, you're done. 

Here are step-by-step instructions.

Step 1 -  After applying a base coat of Adicolor Fondo (thick primer that creates a slightly rumpled texture and paves the way for Desire) mix tint into the Desire base (I used DT09, a sort of creamy honey colour).  The Desire base looks like marshmallow fluff combined with raw egg whites.  Mix in tint until it's distributed evenly.  Dip a brush into the mixture and start blobbing, streaking and cross-hatching it onto the wall, keeping your motions irregular and random.  Throw in a big sweeping curl once in a while, just for variety.

Step 2 - Wait 10-30 minutes (depending on humidity and room temperature).  The Desire finish should be starting to dry and flatten out on the wall.  If it's still bulgy and goopy, as shown in the photo, it'll just pop back up again when you 'knock it down' it with the Distender.   

Once you figure out what the drying time is you can work on large sections of wall, doubling back every so often to distend another section of the drying finish.

Step 3 - Distending is easy.  Just sweep in large, generous strokes or little delicate passes, whichever you prefer.  Use the length of your fingers to apply pressure to the back of the flexible blade.  (The Distender is sold wherever you can buy Adicolor products in your area.)

And that's all there is to it.  When my walls dried I wanted to bump up the intensity of the colour a bit, so I applied a second coat and I really liked how the layers worked together.  The finish seemed even deeper and prettier than the first pass. 

If you're in the Toronto area, you can take classes in applying Adicolor finishes.   Classes are offered once a month, usually mid-month on a Thursday and Friday.   The cost of the 2-day course is $400, and this includes lunch, instruction and up to 6 sample boards.  There are also Saturday classes  - $110 - which include instruction and 2 sample boards. 

October 28-30 Adicolor has invited a special guest teacher from Las Vegas.  He does wall finishes and murals for casinos, so if you want to learn top techniques featured in hot spots like Bellagio, this is your chance.  The cost of the 3-day course is $1500.  For more info, call Adicolor at 905-660-6686.

Comments

[Kari]

What happens in a few years when I want something different? Do I need to sand off the 'desire'?

[Mag]

Hi Kari,
I can think of two possibilities. The Desire texture is subtle, it's not gravelly or pocked. A layer of plain paint over the finish looks like a subtle 'knock down' treatment, which is used widely on the west coast and is a lot more interesting than a perfectly flat wall - it's random but soft. A single colour of paint would blend the Desire texture away, much like foundation makeup over skin imperfections. Another option would be to use a drywall sander to flatten down the finish (although, it's not that lumpy to begin with, just sort of rough), then paint. If you prime over the Desire finish with a thick primer (I'd suggest Adicolor's Fondo), that will also even the texture and prepare it for a coat of paint. Using a premium paint that's really rich and thick would be good too - Devine Colour (http://www.devinecolor.com) is the thickest paint I know of.
Hope that helps. Have fun.

[Dan]

Kari,

Other tips to intensify the colors of the Desire` is to either tint the fondo to a contrasting color of the glaze, or color wash over the white base fondo with standard utc's and water, and wipe with a mason's type grouting sponge.

Also, if applying the glaze over a textured surface, flattening the beads with a brush as opposed to a distender will create a softer looking finish given that you hit the glaze sooner than later, as the beads will become more firm the longer you wait.

Hope this helps.
Dan

[Dan]

Hello Tool Girl,

Other tips to intensify the colors of the Desire` is to either tint the fondo to a contrasting color of the glaze, or color wash over the white base fondo with standard utc's and water, and wipe with a mason's type grouting sponge.

Also, if applying the glaze over a textured surface, flattening the beads with a brush as opposed to a distender will create a softer looking finish given that you hit the glaze sooner than later, as the beads will become more firm the longer you wait.

Hope this helps.
Dan