Undoing a Faux Pas Faux Finish

Faux finishes can be beautiful, but what to do when you tire of the look? Photo Credit: C.B. Whittemore

As great as they are for adding class, charm, and flare to our rooms, faux finishes also have some drawbacks. They can reflect a trend that you tire of quickly, are difficult to master, and may not look as you had hoped. They are often textured, making painting over them difficult.

If your faux finish turns out to be a faux pas, don’t fret, there are ways to get rid of them, no matter how textured they may be.

If the faux finish is flat, then the job will be much easier. Two coats of a good-quality paint over the finish should cover it nicely. To ensure the colors won’t show through, if your faux finish was very vivid or dark in color, you may want to start with a primer coat first and then two coats of your new paint.

Faux finishes that are textured, with techniques like sponge painting, leather, Italian plaster, or denim will take a bit more effort on your part to clean the slate, so to speak.

• You will first need to skim-coat the entire surface with drywall compound. Make sure that you apply this evenly, or else your wall will become wavy in appearance. Once the compound has set, sand it for a smooth even finish. Be sure to wipe down the walls after you’ve sanded to ensure that you don’t have any residual flakes of drywall compound or dust on the wall’s surface - or you’ll be back to a textured wall in no time.
• The next step is to apply a coat of paint primer to the walls and then a coat or two of the new paint you’ve selected.

It isn’t recommended that you attempt to sand off faux finishes. In doing so it’s likely that you’ll sand below the surface of the finish and possibly damage the drywall, which could turn your décor changing effort into a whole other project that you never had in mind.

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