Did you know a lowly sea sponge can help you do wonders with paint on your home or office walls? Yes this is true! A sponge can turn your plain walls into extraordinary pieces of art. This unique painting technique can be used with a single or several shades of color to create unique textures on your walls. The paints that work best for this technique include metallic ones with pre-tinted glazes or the latex paints that come in eggshell or satin finishes. The interior designers in Pakistan also call sponge painting technique ‘faux painting’. There can be nothing better than hiring the services of a professional interior designer however if you want to do it all by yourself, here are some workable tips you:

Preparing your room for the paint job

  • Before you start with the sponge paint job, you need to prepare your walls by removing everything such as paintings, portraits, decoration pieces, keychain holders etc. from the walls, cleaning up the wall and getting it free from all the dirt and dust and finally inspecting your walls if they need a repaint or repair job.
  • After having your walls cleaned up and ready for paint job, you need to move your room furniture to the center of the room or to another room in order to have a minimum of 4 feet room ahead of each wall, so as to let you paint with ease. You should also spread oilcloths or simple cloth on the floors in order to prevent paint falling down.
  • Purchase paints and glazing liquid. After bringing them home, mix up four parts glaze and one part paint into a separate bucket. After having both things mixed up well, check if some more glaze is needed? Remember! If you are using multiple colors for this paint job, make use of one bucket for each color and stir each well before application.

Starting with the sponge paint job

  • Now that you are done with all the prerequisites of painting, you need to dampen the sponge in water. Please remember the sponge needs not to be dripping wet, instead it should be moderately damp.
  • It’s time to dip one side of your sponge into the paint bucket and dab off excess paint onto a plate.
  • Remember! Always start the sponge paint job from top left corner of the wall, and not from the bottom or middle of the wall. Press the sponge gently on the wall and lift it straight off.
  • The basecoat needs to cover an approximate of eighty percent of the wall. After having done 80%, you should stand back carefully observe the areas on the wall which need to be painted more. Besides, if you plan on choosing multiple colors for the sponge paint job, you should make sure that you use all paints equally across the wall.

So this was how you can paint your walls by yourself using a sponge. The interior design & architecture companies in Pakistan these days are also making use of this simple yet highly effective paint technique in designing and renovating homes across the country.