Textured Paint, Kansas City, Missouri!

Textured paint finishes are a form of changing the look and texture of a substrate in Kansas City, Missouri by use of paint and often glazes or scumbles. I.e. dragging, combing, sponging. Textured paint is a form of imitating existing finishes onto our existing substrate. i.e. tortoise shelling, marbling, graining.

Textured paint finishes originated as the poor man's way to emulate the look of materials such as exotic woods, expensive fabrics and precious metals in Kansas City, Missouri. The techniques for these finishes were not only complicated and time consuming, but the recipes were carefully guarded by the artisans.

Today, it's a whole new can of paint. Walls are being ragged, bagged, dragged, flogged, rubbed, and feathered. We're transforming common furniture with battering, layering and gilding techniques. It's all faux and it's all fantastic fun. Here's what you need to know.

Paint on its own is an opaque medium. Its purpose is to cover up the surface so that you cannot see what lies behind it. When creating faux finishes you want more than a flat coat of colour. You want to break up a single colour into its various shades, or apply two or more colours that will all be visible but blended together. This broken colour will give your surface depth and dimension.

To do this you require a glazing liquid to mix with the paint. It has two purposes. Glazing liquid, when mixed with paint, changes the paint from an opaque to a translucent covering. It doesn't change the colour of the paint, but allows the paint colour beneath it to show through. Also, and equally important, glazing liquid has extenders in it that slow down the drying time of paint. We are fortunate to have more environmentally friendly latex (water-based) paint and water-based glazing liquid available at all paint and hardware stores. They have little odor, and clean up with soap and water. But latex paint dries quickly. It requires the glazing liquid to keep it wet, or open, long enough so that you can manipulate it. Glazing liquid is the secret behind textured paint in Kansas City, Missouri.