Michael Holigan: My wife Debbie and I decided to give our guest bedroom a facelift by adding a sponge painted accent wall. It's an easy project you can do in a weekend afternoon. To get started, choose three or four shades of the same relative color. For instance, we're using a dusty Rose, a dark pink and a light pink. You'll need a bowl for each color. You can use an ordinary interior wall paint and I recommend you use a latex paint just because it's so easy to clean up. You'll also need some natural sea sponges. At least one for each color you're putting on the wall. Sea sponges come in pretty large sizes, so you'll probably need to cut them up with a pair of household scissors to get them down to a size that fits easily in the palm of your hand. Before you begin painting, get the sponges wet and then wring them out, but leave them just a little damp so they'll absorb the paint more evenly. Plastic gloves are a good idea too, if you want to protect your hands, and for easier cleanup. What we want to do is start with the darkest color first, so we're going to start right here and put our base coat up. Let me grab a sponge, we'll both use this color. Dip the sponge lightly...
Debbie Holigan: On the straight side?
M.H.: Yep, on the flat side. Wipe off the excess and blot in case it looks like there's going to be too much. And start applying to the wall in a random pattern. Keep turning your wrist so all the sponge prints are not the same. It's a good idea to start our making the prints about six inches apart. From there, you can begin to get a feel of how much more you want to fill in. Okay, you're doing a little too heavy on that. See how it's sort of solid. When you dip it, try to rub off a little more paint.
D.H.: Because I'm pressing too hard or is it because I have too much paint?
M.H.: Probably too much paint.
D.H.: Paint, okay.
M.H.: Sometimes when you get too much on there, like I just did, you can take a empty place on your sponge and try to pull it off. That obviously didn't work so we're going to come back over it with a different color later. I'm going to stay with this base color for awhile. Why don't you get the next color down and start filling in between.
D.H.: You mean I start putting them on top of the other ones?
M.H.: In between.
D.H.: In between, not directly on any of them.
M.H.: You don't have to press quite so hard there.
D.H.: Okay.
M.H.: The great thing about this technique is, is it just paint, so if you don't like the way it looks you can always come back in a touch it up or if you're really dissatisfied, you can just paint it white again. Start over. Sponge painting really is an inexpensive way to dress up any room in your house. The total cost of materials for this 100 square foot wall was under $50. It's a smart idea to stand back once in a while and take a look at the overall project and just see how it's coming. Where you're a little too heavy and where you're a little too light. Like that corner down there. We need to add some of the darker colors. What do you think?
D.H.: I think so. And I think at the top too, it looks like we've stopped before we got to the end so we wouldn't almost touch the paint. There's a little bit on the tape but it's going to look like a frame when we're complete with it.
M.H.: You want to take one of those dark colors and fill in a little down at that end?
D.H.: Okay.
M.H.: Is that looking better along the top?
D.H.: Boy, that looks good towards the end.
M.H.: Yeah.
D.H.: So as you go, like right here, we're like at a medium. If somebody wanted maybe to stop at this stage, they could, right?
M.H.: Oh, yeah.
D.H.: Or you can go on and cover up all the white?
M.H.: Yeah. You can take it as far as you like. It depends on the look you're going for. What are you thinking?
D.H.: I'm not really sure what look I was looking for. I mean, it looks good. I mean, I like the color. What do you think? Does it look better filled in more or...
M.H.: Yeah. I think we ought to start about halfway and just come down a little bit more with some of the colors. I'm liking the top half pretty good right now. Well, I think we're looking pretty good.
D.H.: I think so.
M.H.: Do you like it?
D.H.: Yep, I think it's great.
M.H.: Okay. We need to pull the tape before the paint dries. That way we're going to get a clean line. Wait till afterwards and we might pull the paint off. It's easy to come off if you just made a shelf out of it and didn't put it flat. Go ahead and pull the walls and the crown molding also.
D.H.: Okay.
M.H.: Okay. How do you like it?
D.H.: I think it's great. It came out perfect.
M.H.: Let's let it dry and then we'll move the furniture up against it. In just a couple of hours we changed the whole character of our guest room with very little effort or expense. With sponge painting, you really can't go wrong. And it's easy to come up with some truly satisfying results.
Episode 40 1996 - 97 Season
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