Interior Painting Ideas and Techniques

Paint is an inexpensive way to give the rooms in your home a new and updated look. You can add interest to your walls by using different painting techniques in order to achieve different looks. Many are easy to do and can be done in one or two afternoons.

• Use painter's tape to create stripes or a checkerboard pattern. Choose two coordinating colors for your walls. Paint the walls with one color. Then place painter's tape in straight lines vertically to make stripes, and paint between the taped lines. Allow the paint to dry before peeling the tape to reveal your striped walls. To make a checkerboard pattern, apply tape both vertically and horizontally. Paint inside the squares, remove the tape ones the paint is completely dry. 


• Glaze your walls. Apply a base coat of paint in the color of your choice. Once the base coat is dry, apply a coat of glazing over it. This product can be bought at a paint store. Use a crumbled up plastic bag or rags to pounce the wall, removing some of the glaze. Your wall will have a pattern once it is dry.


• Use ragging. Choose two colors of paint, one lighter and one a darker tint. Apply one color as the base coat. Allow the base coat to dry. Using rags, pounce the second color on the wall. Work in small areas at a time. Continue pouncing to apply and remove paint as needed, until you achieve a look that you are happy with.


• Paint the top of the walls one color and the bottom a different color. This is a cute idea for child's rooms. You can stencil around the room where one color ends, before the second begins. Choose a stencil that shows something the child will enjoy. Use a stippling brush to bounce paint inside the stencil. When you remove the stencil, the design will be on the wall.