- 1). Cover a wall with plastic sheeting to keep your practice time from creating a mess on the walls.
- 2). Set up scrap wood, plywood or unneeded portions of drywall material against the wall.
- 3). Dip a 4-inch trowel into the drywall compound and spread it onto a section of a board. The main goal with this type of texturing is to create thin and thick areas. As you spread the compound on the wall, press down on the trowel. Press harder as you drag the trowel over the surface so that the material gets thinner. Dip the trowel back into the compound and repeat the process. Cross the various strokes over each other in a crisscross or random pattern to make it more interesting.
- 4). Thin down the material with water until it is the consistency of a thick milkshake or pancake batter. Use a drill mixer to stir the compound. A thinner material is more versatile and can be used for several different techniques.
- 5). Dip a paint roller in a tray full of the mixed material and roll it onto the wood surface for a mildly bumpy surface.
- 6). Fill a paint sprayer with the material and adjust the nozzle to a fine-mist spray. Spray a section of the board fully with a thin layer. Place a long bristle brush on the sprayed compound and rotate it in a circle. This method forms a ridged circular pattern on the surface. You can repeat this all over a wall for a nice finished plaster look.
- 7). Spray the material onto the board to create a speckled look. You don't want to coat the surface fully or have too little covering the surface. If you see only a few speckles within a square inch area, you have not covered the board enough. On the other hand, if you see more compound on the board than you do the board itself, then you sprayed too much. This texture can be used by itself, or, once you practice the spraying technique, you can try to flatten it out.
- 8). Scrape a long trowel over the sprayed-on compound to do a knockdown technique. Drag the tool across the compound lightly so that you do not take off all the material. You just want to flatten down the peaks.
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