Leather Faux Finishes Boulder CO

This is our first DIY (Do It Yourself) guide in the series of many professional DIY guides that we are going to write in order to help you in getting a wonderful faux finished surface in your home. It is imperative to read our yesterday’s post, ‘DIY Tips for Faux Painting’ before reading any of our DIY guides.

We decided to start this DIY series in a style. And what can be more stylish than a leather faux finished wall in your living room? So, we thought to start from helping you in getting a leather faux finished wall.
Leathers are sophisticated, timeless, very rich and elegant. Leather faux finish will speak volume of your class and signal the world of your good taste. On this note, we should start with our first DIY guide.
Leather faux technique uses a very rich palette; the color range can be anything from sandy brown to deep blue. Faux finishes comes, even in green and red colors, rich mahogany reds.

Preparation
The first step in the process is to finalize the color for the finish. Look at the color cards and choose the shade you like most. The color cards are available with all the paint dealers and can be found in all the home improvement stores.

Time Frame
The entire process, from preparation of wall to giving the final touch to the finish’s top coat, will take three to four days. If you can prepare the surface, and apply base coat in a single day, than you can save one day and finish this work in three days. I’d strongly advise not to rush through the step of preparation. To get a professional level of faux finish, a well-sealed and well-primed surface is a must-have.
The base coat needs one day to set, after it is applied to the surface. It’ll take two days to apply the top coats, and complete the leather faux finish.

Word of Caution
Always use a sample board before you apply paints or glazes to the surface. Perfecting the art, before final application, will save you hundreds of dollars, in terms of money spent and time invested.

Tools and Materials
You’ll need following materials to get an elegant leather faux finished wall. Keep the following items handy before starting to explore your creative genius.

Paints
1. Latex Semi-Gloss Paint
2. Faux Technique Glaze

Tools and Supplies
1. Leather Faux Finish “Stippling” Brush
2. Small Leather Faux Finish Corner Stippling Tool
3. Lint-Free Rags
4. Roller Frame
5. 3/8” Nap Roller Cover
6. 2” Angled Nylon/Poly Brush
7. 2” Painter’s Tape
8. Spackling compound
9. Painter’s Tape

Procedure

STEP 1
Shift the furniture and movables to the far end of the room, or move it out of the room, if the room is small. This is necessary. It will give you freedom of movement around the wall.

STEP 2
All the depressions in the surface should be leveled, cracks should be filled and holes should be patched using a spackling compound or a patch.

STEP 3
Start by placing painter’s tape around windows, doors, woodworks, floor trim, and places where you don’t want to apply the paint.

STEP 4
Use a moderately loaded 3/8” roller to apply the semi-gloss base coat. When rolling, try to use one ceiling-to-floor stroke to avoid roller marks on the wall.
Wait for at least one hour, before applying the second coat. We recommend the pause of 6 hours, before applying the second coat. Now leave the base coat to dry for 24 hours.

STEP 5
The base coat is dry and now it’s time to do some glazing. Dip the roller in the glaze; allow the roller to soak up glaze. The Roller should be completely filled up with glaze.
While applying glaze, keep in mind that, once you’ve started applying glaze to the wall, you should finish the entire wall in a go. Even a brief pause in-between will be detectable.
Start from the top corner and spread the glaze in a 2’ wide column (approximately). Glaze dries out in 30 minutes, so glaze should be applied in small sections. Apply glaze on entire surface and go as close to the taped area as you can.
Don’t worry if the glaze looks spotty or transparent because glaze work differently from normal paint. Just relax, wipe off the sweat on your forehead and continue working.

STEP 6
Now it’s time to do the corners. Work fast. Immerse the Small Leather Faux Finish Corner Stippling Tool in glaze and apply glaze to the corners or the places that is out of roller’s reach.

STEP 7
Without wasting time, start using the Faux Leather Stippling Tool to blotch the dampish glaze. This process should be done really fast. Use the brush in a swooping motion. Change the angle of pounces by rotating your wrist on every pounce. This will give the systematized randomness to the finish.
Use the lint-free rag, after every 20 pounces, to wipe the bristles off the surface. Sometimes, bristles begin clumping together, ruffle them but do it very gently.

Make sure the speckling brush hits the wall straight, never drag or twist the brush, when the brush is in contact with the surface of the wall. It will smear the glaze, which you should avoid from happening.
Don’t speckle 2-3” (approx.) of the surface at the edge of each section.
Before applying the glaze to the next section, don’t forget to speckle the edge where the sections meet. This will prevent any detectable lines from forming at the edge, where the sections are meeting.

STEP 8
Now it’s time to remove excess glaze from the corners, ceiling edge, and trim works. Use the Small Leather Faux Finish Corner Stippling Tool to redistribute the excess glaze, so that, it blends with the surface. This should be done, only when the work on the wall is over.
Wipe the bristles off the surface using lint-free rags, after every 20 pounces, as we did in step 7.

STEP 9
You are done. Now remove the tapes from windows, doors, woodworks, floor trim, etc., while the glaze is still wet. Do this very carefully. You will not want to ruin the hard work you put in to create this leather faux finish.

BRAVO!
Congratulation! It’s party time now. Bring in Champaign and raise a toast; you have just completed your first faux finish (leather faux finish) on your own, without any help from any professional or contractor. It’s time to sit and enjoy your master creation. See you tomorrow, with a new DIY faux finish.

For more information, visit Welovepainting.com

Boulder Sealwize

303-641-6496
3465 Berkley Ave
Boulder, CO