Painting Crown Molding And Beams To Look Like Wood

I finished up today on a job I had started last week.  In fact I had posted about the beginning of that job on a Feb 4th post but I think I'll use some of the same pictures here so if you are interested you would not have to go back to see those.

With dealing with new wood construction the first step you have to take is to the prime the wood, the second step after the primer has dried is to then fill the all the nail holes and sand smooth.

There is always a ton of nail holes with this kind of construction.  Fortunately most are small.  In the first photo I have primed the mantel areas and tv niche.  This entire wall is new, the stack stone and brick as well as the mantel.  In the second photo you tend to get an idea about nail holes.

After I sand down the patching material I apply the base coat of paint for the wood grain.  Ordinarily this is where the client says, "Wait stop!  You are suppose to make it look like wood."  I used this color as a base coat so the end product would go well along side the brick.

Once the tv is mounted in the niche there is a pocket sliding door that will cover it when not in use.
The next photo shows how I have started the process of making the niche look like wood.

The last photo on this area shows the completed look.  The pocket door comes out great and wood tone goes really well with the brick.

If you will notice the ceiling in the series of pictures above show that it is arched.  Before the remodel the ceiling was a standard 8 foot, flat across.

In the next photo you can see how the foyer ceiling was also opened up.  The red arrow shows the original height of the ceiling before it was opened up.  The beams were added and I painted them to look like wood.

 The next photo shows the ceiling in the living room which is approximately 20 feet by 20 feet.  This ceiling was also opened up.  In the photo below you can see the completed work.  The red arrow in the lower right of the picture shows the original ceiling height.  At the peak of the ceiling now it is 40 inches higher than when it was a flat ceiling.

A few nail holes to deal with when I first started, which always makes working over your head more of a challenge.  I had also taken off the fan blades and painted them to match the beams.

 Trust me, you want this kitchen.  Look at that gorgeous ceiling.  It too was a standard flat 8 foot in height then opened up and barrel rolled and lined with brick.  Then the wood molding was installed and I painted it to match all the other wood work I had painted.  The length of the molding on each side is 18 feet and ends are almost 10.  This is a big kitchen.  It is a real challenge to paint a wood grain on a piece of wood that is 18 feet long.   I had to use a step stool to reach it also.  The challenge is you want the wood grain to flow the entire length of the wood with out having any start and stop overlaps made by the brush.  Gotta work fast.

A closer look at the crown molding.

All in all a good job and the clients love it.

Painting A Wall To Look Like Driftwood Planks

I had a real busy day today creating a driftwood look on a wall niche.  This niche is in a Realtor's office.  The niche is about 7.5 feet high and 11 feet wide.  The office is brand new and as you enter there is a curved wall that has floor tile applied to it to make it look like driftwood.  My task was to paint the wall niche to match the existing driftwood look.

Here is the curved wall;

So the first step is to mark off the individual planks.  Each plank is 8 inches wide.  To mark off jobs like this I have a laser level that works great.  I make small pencil marks across the wall at 8 inch intervals and then with the vertical setting of the laser level on I hit each mark with the red laser light.  With the light shinning on the wall I use it as a guide to put the tape on. Using this technique I don't have to mark up the wall with a lot pencil marks. The next photo shows how the first set of planks were taped off.

If you look at the next photo closely you can see the red laser line in the middle of the picture.  Just wanted to show how that works.  When I tape off with the laser I just butt the tape right up to the red line.

The next step is to paint the first set of planks.  You can only work on every other one using this technique.  Once the first set is dry I move the tape over on the other side of the line and on top of what I just painted.  That way I can paint in the second set of planks.

I used 4 different colors to get this driftwood look.  That means I painted a vertical grain pattern 4 times on each plank.  After all the planks where finished I then painted in a dark seam line of about 3/16's of an inch between each plank.  I think you can see that in the next picture.

The next photo shows the whole wall niche completed.  Looks like driftwood to me.

Of course after I finished creating the driftwood look I sealed the work with a clear acrylic sealer.