 For thousands of years, the lustrous strands of the silkworm’s cocoon have heightened our passion for smooth, shiny surfaces. Silk is irresistible to the touch — and now on the walls, it’s equally irresistible to the eyes. The secret to a faux-silk look rests in a specialty metallic top coat glaze that, when brushed over the base coat, creates a shimmering finish. Try the faux-silk technique on a freestanding room divider, a fireplace screen, or a dining room wall to establish an exotic, Far Eastern or formal look.
To get an idea of color values and intensities, explore manufacturers’ color schemes or suggestions for base-coat colors and coordinating metallic paints.
When your color palette is set, start with a base coat of latex semigloss paint, then roll on a 2:1 mix of glaze to pearl-finish metallic paint. To define the satin weave, drag a wallpaper brush vertically through the paint before the top coat dries, wiping the brush clean after every stroke. “Move like the wind,” says decorative painter Patricia Mohr Kramer, who adds that preparation and timing are essential to faux-fabric finishes.
Get the Look
Gather Your Supplies
- Dutch Boy Dimensions Designer Colors semigloss wall paint: Caribbean Water
- Dutch Boy Dimensions Metallics technique pearl finish: Caribbean Water
- Dutch Boy DIMENSIONS Technique Glaze
- Mixing container
- Paint tray
- 1/4-inch nap paint roller and roller frame
- Trim brush
- Wide wallpaper brush with 2-or-3-inch-long bristles
- Lint-free cloths
Start to Finish
- Base coat with two coats of Caribbean Water semigloss finish wall paint, allowing paint to dry between coats.
- Mix a glaze in a ratio of 1 part Caribbean Water Dimensions Metallics Technique glaze. Beginning in the top right-hand corner of one wall, use the roller to apply a 24-inch-wide vertical stripe of the glaze mixture from ceiling to floor.
- Immediately drag a dry wallpaper brush from ceiling to floor in one firm continuous motion, creating a vertical pattern in the wet glaze. Wipe excess glaze off the brush with a lint-free cloth. Continue the vertical strokes until the section is complete, leaving a 2-inch-wide strip of untextured wet glaze at the outer edge of the section to blend in with the next strip.
- Continue along the wall, rolling on a strip of glaze and dragging with the wallpaper brush until you reach the corner. Complete the entire wall without stopping. Complete the opposite wall the same day and remaining walls the next day, so as not to mar the wet glaze on adjacent walls.
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