Wednesday, January 25, 2006

Liking the Leather

I did a crazy thing...or at least it may be a crazy thing when people start calling my condo the "brown wall" place. I faux painted the textured walls a deep, rich, leather-like brown. Will the leather look kill a sale or help my house have that designer touch...hmmm.

I had textured the dining wall because we had to rip out barn wood and it left huge holes and patches of glue. That was one of my first projects. When I finally got to the 1/2 bath, just off the dining room, the surface there couldn't be saved either so I started texturizing two of the walls there (and ceiling too) and planned on beadboard paneling for the other two sides.

I had a light chocolate brown that I had bought for Crystal on one of her drama runs (those "I must have this now!" tantrums that only mothers of teens will understand) and so I painted the textured wall in that. I found that it was too flat so I tried to dry brush a lighter color to highlight the texture and it was still too flat-ish.

Well, I just went for it and got out my left-over walnut gel stain and started rubbing the walls. I LOVE IT! The stain made little puddles in the crevices and gave the whole wall a sheen and texture where the stain overlaps.



It is very dark and I know that not everyone will love it so I am taking a chance. I even warned Jeff in the car on the way over "I know that you will probably not like it but I do so you must not say anything bad because it's really cool." But Jeff has never been a good liar (which is the reason I always beat him in poker) and so he didn't even have to say anything...I could see it in his not-so-poker face.

Of course, I'm planning on doing this technique in our house...Jeff better start practicing his lying skills!

Lessons learned:

Will someone please tell Denise that this is a flip and not her personal home? I probably should have just painted it white and left it that way...but my gamble may pay off by setting my condo apart from the crowd.

Always wear gloves when you are staining...duh! It took me 3 days and many bathtubs to remove the walnut from my crevices (not those crevices!)

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