Not Paint....

 

Pick a color you love that you want to see on a wall or in an entire room or above/below a chair rail or on a stencil...

Via Golden Touch, work in progress

and instead of using paint use Interno Lime Wash which you can find here. It is a glorious finish that "blooms" with the light, is saturated with pigment and has the look of weathered stucco you find only in Italy except..

Entry Hall by Golden Touch

it comes in EVERY color you can imagine.  Porters Paints of Australia manufactures, without a doubt, the most beautiful speciality finishes I have ever worked with.  Their supplier in the USA is Sydney Harbour Paints (the websites are exactly the same). You can email them to order. I have the "real" painted out fan deck which literaly must have my saliva on it.

Interno Lime Wash is watery and is SO easy to apply. It dries in about 3 seconds and is a bit smelly. It is the lime and the immense amount of pigment that provides all that glorious-ness. A quart will cover an entire room.

Via Porters Paints

Pigment, my dear readers, is what they put in a medium to make color. Pastels (chalk) are made up of tons of pigment with a bit of binder. (I must have a jar of pigments in every color. It is PURE color. You want to drown in it if you are a color freak)

Via Golden Touch

And it is the slight unevenness of the application that also lends itself to the luminosity.

Via Golden Touch ( I will discuss photo tomorrow)

To Apply: First water down some joint compound so it is the consistency of very thick paint. Pour in paint tray and roll on with cheap 9" roller. Throw away roller and plastic tray. Let this dry overnight. Shake lime wash well and pour into a plastic paint tray. Use a dense foam roller with rounded ends. Roll on wash in 3 to 4 foot patches up/down and criss/cross. Do not over lap too much. This first coat will look very patchy and uneven. Let dry and put on a second coat and a third if you like. There is no "perfect" to lime wash so you have no reason to worry.  This entry hall is two coats and I prefer that you can see the uneven application. Dry over night and then stencil if you like (stencil here is via Royal Design Stencil, see this post) 

via Golden Touch

Trust me on this. You will be glad you spent more then the cost of a quart of paint.  Every time you pass by your soul will fill with delightful saturated color and light

Very Important Tip : DO NOT wash your roller and brushes and tray if you are doing another coat even if you can't do it until the next weekend. Put the roller in a plastic bag (I leave the handle on), put the brushes in a zip lock bag with the handles hanging out, put the paint tray right in a plastic bag too even with paint in it.  Then throw everything in the frig! Even for a week, I swear. It all stays perfect and nothing dries out.