Ragging Off

Michael Holigan: Today we're going to take a look at a different way to paint your walls, but Penny has given us good advice and said start with a sample, not the whole wall.

Penny Sanders: Yeah, let's try to do this. Today we're going to do an application of a ragging off technique. I'm using a latex glaze and I'm going to apply it to a sample board and then what I will do is I will take my rag and I will pull it off. Now some applications, Mike, you go ahead and you put the paint on with a rag, but this is a reverse application which gives you a little more subtle look on the wall. I'm just painting all this glaze on, it's a latex glaze, so it's a real easy clean up, and as long as you work fast, this is the easiest way to do it.

M.H.: And how long do we wait before we start taking it off with a rag?

P.S.: We can do immediately.

M.H.: Okay.

P.S.: I'm just going to cover this whole board for you.

M.H.: These rags look just like diapers.

P.S.: That's right. This technique uses a rag like a diaper. Now be careful that it's not too fuzzy, or like a terry cloth, 'cause it could leave those little fuzzy things on your wall and you'll be picking off them later after it dries. But today, I've gotten these rags from the paint store. You can buy them. They're very inexpensive. Now, what I want you to do is I want you to put the rag on, but first give it twist.

M.H.: Okay.

P.S.: You really cannot mess this up, because it's paint. We can always paint it over.

M.H.: Okay.

P.S.: And you put this on and pull it off. And put it on, and pull it off. You're almost making a little smile.

M.H.: And just go down and around?

P.S.: And go down in a row and you can change it here and press it and move, press it and move. Do you see how subtle that is? Now you do your turn. That's great Mike. Roll your rag so you get a cleaner side on the other one. When your rag is pretty much, not completely saturated, but certainly wet, throw that rag away, and use another one. This way it'll give a real subtle look to your wall, very sophisticated and professional. This is fun to do with a friend.

M.H.: And can you do other patterns besides the ones we're doing?

P.S.: Yes. As a matter of fact, if we wanted to, number one, if we wanted to do a really soft pattern, and I'm going to do this real fast. I'm going to cheat a minute. Let's say you made a spot that you don't care for. Go ahead and put a little glaze down while it's still wet. I'm taking another kind of rag. This is just like a Scott Towel. There again, you could by the heavy duty ones in your local paint store. And you can make like a rosette and have it this way. Keep on twisting. It's a lot of exercise for your hand. Just twist and roll, twist and roll. And you even get a subtler look. This way, you've got a linear flow to it and this is more of a rosette or a mottled pattern.

M.H.: Do you have to put anything over the top of it once you're done?

P.S.: Yes. If you want to, that is, you can be the judge as an artist. When it dries, it's going to dry a little darker and a little bit more distinct. That may be the look you want. But in case you don't, you have to wait a day and a half at least, depending upon the weather, be sure everything is cured in the room, then go over with your same glaze, one coat and rub it softly with your rag again. Like you're putting on your makeup and you put powder over the whole thing.

M.H.: 'Kay.

P.S.: And it's a very subtle look. One other trick I'd like to show you with the Saran is another way to rag off. Just take some Saran of Glad Wrap I've got, any sort of plastic coating, pull it taut, or however you'd like, press it down with your hand, and lift. Now, you can see our board is getting saturated and it's not pulling off as well.

M.H.: Ah-huh.

P.S.: But this might be hard to see on the television, but if we started out with a clean board, you can really see a linear pull. It's pretty, like a grass cloth.

M.H.: And these walls around us look great and this looks like the first technique we did...

P.S.: Yes.

M.H.: ...we ragged straight down the wall.

P.S.: That's right. And the trick to these walls, well first they were done in grass cloth. The client did not want to take the grass cloth off. They wanted a tropical feel to the room, so we left the grass cloth on. We took a rag and we rolled this back and forth and we specifically used this pattern to create a look of a palm or a tropical feel. It could either be waves or palm leaves.

M.H.: Okay, and you have a couple of other samples behind from our other techniques we just used.

P.S.: Yes we do.

M.H.: And this one?

P.S.: This is a soft rag technique where we took rosettes, very softly applied it. And if you're not really good at making clouds and you want to soft blue cloud look, this works extremely well using a blue undertone with a blue glaze on top.

M.H.: So you can even do it on your ceilings for that cloud look?

P.S.: Exactly. This board is a little more sophisticated. The trick here is the same rag, but what we did is we used three or four different glaze colors, applied it and pulled it off, and frankly, this sounds more complicated, but for a beginner it's really good because you can mess up a little bit and you can hide some of those little boo-boos.

M.H.: Well I like your suggestions. Try it on a small sample before you go do a whole wall in your house. Penny, thanks for the help.

P.S.: Thank you.

Episode 021 1995 - 96 Season

| Electrical Finish Out | Meter Reading | Chimney Caps | Plumbing Finish Out | Freezing Pipes | Aerator Cleaning | Ragging Off | Relative Assistance | LIST |

To order a Video Tape, call 1-800-TO-BUILD and ask for Episode #021.