The art of colorwashing

Nancy's family said they debated what color swiss coffee might be. Well, quite simple it is a shade of white. When researching colors and the variety of ways to look at them, we quickly realized this was more than either of us had ever learned in kindergarten, no less high school. Jason's theater background was somewhat helpful, though it focused more on mixing light and not paint!

With our eyes seeing more shades of color than we thought possible, we found some information on faux techniques. With a little bit of research and making some adjustments to a color scheme someone else put together (which means it has to work, right?), we decided to colorwash the walls with sunset beige and skipper blue. To make the colorwashing process work, you add the paint to a glaze.

We read in several places that it is a good idea to practice the technique on poster board before putting it on the wall so that you become comfortable with it. Either poster board was translated from another language incorrectly or they didn't mean the 39 cent type that you buy at Target or they didn't try it out on poster board to realize that it would come out like the messes below. We were so disheartened thinking that this "easy" technique was impossible and that we were back at ground zero. Well, maybe more like ground 2 cause the wallpaper and priming were done and we weren't doing those again!
So, Nancy sat on the floor near a portion of wall that would end up behind furniture and began playing around. Jason stood back trying to think of a plan in case all was lost and swiss coffee was all we had. Finally, after several attempts, we figured it out. For those of you wanting to try this, here are our directions:

1. Mix paint and glaze. One color will be more of a base (sunset beige for us) and the other is an accent (skipper blue).

2. With a paint roller, roll on your base in a small area. Do not give the paint any time to dry and work quickly. 3. Add a few streaks of your accent color with a wide paint brush. There isn't a right or wrong way, just get it on there.
4. With an old towel/washcloth, blend the paint in circular motions. Reapply a second time, if you want it darker.

Before you knew it, we were colorwashing! The artist in us came alive as we mellowed out with the music of Nora Jones and Enya.

As we worked on each wall, the softness of the colors warmed the room and restored our dreams of what we wanted it to look like.

While we learned a lot in kindergarten, colorwashing taught us these lessons:

1. There isn't always a right or wrong way to do things.

2. Each of us has an artist inside filled with creativity; we just need the right medium.

3. Don't give up if it looks bad. Keep trying until it is right, and then hide the mistakes with a BIG piece of furniture.

Next time: the border and trim.