Before painting your room, pick out a color scheme for your walls. When you chose your paint, remember that many painting techniques use two shades of one color. If you are using one of the techniques that does use two shades of color, you can pick a darker color than you normally would chose for your base color, since the lighter top color will make the final result much lighter.

To sponge or rag a wall, paint on your base color and let it dry thoroughly. Then, dip your sponge or rag into the lighter paint color and sponge or drag the lighter color over the base coat until you are satisfied with the effect. If you are unhappy with your final result, you can repaint any areas that you don’t like with the base coat. Once the repainted area is dry, repeat the faux painting technique.

If you are considering using a decorative painting technique such as stenciling or stamping, you may just want to create a wallpaper effect by stamping or stenciling a simple design over your base coat. However, you may want to go a step further with your project and use stencils or stamps to create a faux brick or stone wall. You don’t need to be an artist to create one of these faux finishes. Just follow these simple steps.

First, paint the walls with the color you chose for the mortar between the bricks or stones. Once the base coat is dry, stamp or stencil your bricks or stones over the base coat. Once the brick or stonework is dry, spatter a bit of the darker color over your faux art to give it depth and make it appear more realistic.

Creating faux effects such as making your walls look like they are made of plaster or suede can also really make your room stand out. You can easily learn how to create these seemingly difficult finishes at your local paint store. Paint bases that automatically give a suede or textured effect to the walls are a shortcut that even artists use to create fun finishes.

Finally, no matter which decorative wall painting technique you choose, remember that it is just a few layers of paint. You can always redo the finish on your walls as you learn more about the art of decorative painting.

Decorative painting makes use of these feelings and combines them in such a way that they may even create multiple moods in one setting. Generally, decorative painting attempts to set an overall mood while the objects and/or appliances in a room complete the mood. For example, a room that’s painted blue may include light purple carpeting and dark green blinds. The blue walls tie the purple and green together because both purple and green contain a little blue inside of them: red + blue = purple; yellow + blue = green.

Complimentary colors are hues that blend in well with a main color because they contain a little of the main color. And our carpet and blinds example demonstrates the use of complimentary colors. Accent colors on the other hand are small bits of color that make a main color stand out. Back in our example room, a collection of small red pottery or a yellow lamp might appropriate serve as accent colors. Decorative painting – whether it’s applied to half a wall, one wall, two walls, or all the walls of a room can certainly exploit this science of color theory and help to make a statement. The statement needn’t be bold – your environment can certainly quietly speak through muted colors and subtle variations. The important thing is that you’re aware of its power and use its power to your advantage.