Designer Dominique Sardell didn't settle for the typical dreary walls when she helped makeover a basement into a family music room. Instead, she modified an Old Italian technique for a unique wall treatment that will work on dry wall, plywood and even cement.
Steps:
- Seal the wall surface, with masonry acrylic sealer if you're treating cement walls .
- Prime the wall with a light primer.
- Add color (Universal tints) to drywall compound as shown (figure A).
- Apply a thin coat of compound---less than an eighth of an inch---to the primed wall as shown, using a rubber squeegee or trowel (figure B). Create imperfections as you go along, using the squeegee and a sponge, if you like.
- Let the compound dry completely, which might take all day. Its color will be lighter once it's dry.
- Put on another coat of compound with the squeegee, but don't completely cover the previous layer---just create another layer of texture.
- Repeat with more coats, always letting each coat dry completely before starting another, until you have the look you want---probably four or five layers. Since this might take several days, remember to cover the compound completely between uses, so it will keep.
- Apply a layer of colored beeswax (you can buy it pre-colored) with a brush as shown (figure C). The beeswax will highlight the textures.
- Brush over the beeswax with a dry cloth to even out the swatches of color.
- You can do more than one coat of beeswax, using different colors each time, if you like. You can also re-accentuate the textures of the compound using fine steel wool (after the beeswax) if you like.
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