Feature Walls : How To paint a feature wall

Feature walls have become very popular in recent years, they are a great way of giving a room a new look without the expense of changing everything in a room or completely redecorating. Simply by re-painting the feature wall can transform the look of a room. You can also follow the latest trends simply by re-decorating the feature wall.

Feature walls can be painted or wallpapered, it is personal choice and it will depend on the type of look you are going for.

Sometimes a feature all is called an accent wall, but they are both the same thing.

Deciding on paint for a feature wall

Deciding on what colour paint to buy for a feature wall will be determined by how the remaining walls have been decorated, typically a contrasting colour is used. But if the other walls have been wallpapered you can pick a colour from the paper to use as the feature wall colour.

Once you have decided on the colour for your feature wall you can buy the paint, you can buy ‘Feature Wall’ paint, this is just over a litre in size and should be enough to paint one wall. You don’t have to go this route, you can buy any colour in any sized can of paint. You could even use leftover paint if it suits your needs.

If you are unsure how much paint you will require for your feature wall, give our paint calculator a go, simply fill in the required figures and hit the calculate button and you will be told how many litres you need to by for your given area.

Painting a feature wall

To paint your feature wall, you can either mask the adjoining walls, skirting and ceiling with low tack masking tape, then cut in with a brush around the edge of the feature wall, just overlapping the masking tape but being careful not to paint any other surface. The use a roller to fill in the main wall area. By using masking tape you should achieve a straight line.

If you are confident in cutting in you can cut in without masking up. Cutting in is the term used whereby you use a paintbrush to go up to an adjoining surface, be it a wall, ceiling or skirting boards.

Once you have cut in or painted up to the masking tape and painted the first coat onto your feature wall, allow the paint to fully dry before applying a second coat. When you have painted the second coat you can remove the masking tape, if you used any.

Making a statement

By painting a feature wall you are making a statement, and making this one wall the focal point of a room. You may want to do this to highlight some pictures that are hanging on the wall, you maybe make a fireplace the focus of the room or simply it can give orientation to a room.

Whatever the reason for painting a feature wall, it can quickly and easily transform any room and give a focal point to an area of a room.

Colour trends for 2014

Dulux Colour Futures™ from AkzoNobel have come up with the upcoming trends for colour for 2014, through their international research they have selected a range of colours they think will be in trend throughout 2014, and have picked a dominant colour for the year.

Colour palettes and colour trends for 2014

The colour theme is being called ‘Unlocking Potential’

” we see a world in search of answers, which provides us with an open and exciting palette of colours to inspire renewal in the year ahead.”

Quote from ColourFutures™

The theme consists of the following five colour palettes and colour moods:

• Silent Revolution
• Margin of Proof
• Urban Folk
• Secret Garden
• Do It Now!

What is to colour for 2014

The colour of the year 2014 is……. 90GG 19/151 (also known as Teal).

“A tertiary colour, teal is the combination of primary blue and secondary green which today is used to describe several different tones of this majestic colour. Somewhere between blue and green it has come to symbolise balance, but should be combined with neutral tones and shades of wood so as not to overwhelm a space.”

Quote from ColourFutures™

You can see more of this years colour schemes here:
Dulux Trade website or here:
http://www.colourfutures.com and download the Colour Futures book(PDF).

Paint Calculator

If you would like to use the colour of the year (90GG 19/151) or any other colour you need to buy and need to work out how much you need to buy, use our FREE Paint Calculator.

Save money on paint

In these hard times we have to save money where we can, this tip is simple but so easy to do but you will be amazed at the amount of paint you save! And another benefit to this tip is it also help the environment so your carbon footprint will be reduced too.

When you have finished painting with a roller or brush by scraping out as much paint as possible will save your money as your tin of paint will go that little bit further. Take your roller and with a scraper scrape the paint out of the roller back into the tin or paint tray, you will be amazed how much comes out, especially a thick piled roller sleave. Do this also with your paint brushes. Also, take time in removing as much paint from paint trays when your finished for the day.

Wrap it up

If you are using a roller for a job but don’t finish in a day, don’t wash your brushes or roller out, wrap them up in a bag they will stay usable overnight and you can come back to them and start work straight away and you save time as you didn’t spend ages washing out the brush or roller the night before.

Going green

The added benefit to this tip is to the environment, less paint is washed down the drain, less water is used and the paint lasts longer so you don’t have to use your car to buy more.

Saving money

If you use this tip you will be saving money, which in today’s economic climate we all need to do.

Removing paint video

Here is a quick video of paint being removed from a roller, the thicker the roller pile the more paint you should be able to recover for next time.

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