the painted surface

How To Paint Over a Faux Finish

Sand the Walls

Many faux painting techniques leave a slight texture on the wall. This texture will not be hidden by just applying new coats of paint. If a smooth surface is desired then the old one must be sanded. No, this is not the fun part! Hand sanding an entire room or even one wall would be time consuming and probably ineffecient. Use a palm sander or vibrating finish sander. These sanders are small, lightweight and produce results quickly. Use a 40 to 80 grit size sandpaper, anything finer will quickly clog and quit cutting. Plan on using several sheets of sandpaper as you will need to change the sandpaper on the vibrating sander often. Even the coarse grits will lose their sharpness and clog after a few minutes of sanding. Test the before and after smoothness by running your palm across the surface. Keep the sander moving across the surface in horizontal then vertical motions until the surface feels fairly smooth. A palm sander will be able to reach almost everywhere, leaving only a few spots to sand by hand. If possible, place a fan in the window to help exhaust the dust and always wear dust protection over your nose, mouth and eyes. After sanding the walls and room will need to be dusted or vacuumed.

Prime the Walls

If you are dealing with incompatible paints or the sanding has penetrated into the drywall now is the time to use the appropriate primer. If priming over an oil-base paint be sure to use one for that purpose. You will have a choice of different types of primers such as oil-base, water-base and alcohol-base. The labels will state if they should be used as the intermediate coat between oil and water-base paints. If there is only some slight drywall damage from sanding a common drywall primer can be used.

If no primer is needed you can apply the first coat of paint now. Getting a coat of your finish paint on the walls will reveal any places that need to be patched and repaired. You can do this patching before the first coat but it will be hard to see all of the spots that need attention.

Patch the Walls

After the primer is dry you will see the condition of the walls and what kind of repair work is needed. Cracks should be taped, mudded, sanded and primed. Holes and dents will need to be repaired and any faux finish texture not smoothed by the sanding can be skim coated with drywall compound. See How To Patch a Hole or How To Patch a Crack for more information.

Sand and Spot Prime

Allow the patch work to dry completely. Depending on the materials used this may take several minutes, hours or overnight. A fan circulating the air will usually speed up the drying times. Sand the patches and spot prime. Drywall primers/sealers do a good job of providing a good base for the finish coats of paint. If the topcoat of paint has any sheen a primer is required to prevent an uneven finish. At this stage the walls should look really good. They are now ready for the finish coats of paint.

Paint the Walls

A lot of work has been done to get to this point. That old, tired faux finish is gone, finally! With a couple of coats of quality paint in a new color a brand new room has emerged.

More tips about painting techniques are covered in the additional articles. In those will be found details, tips and techniques gathered from over 20 years of painting experience. Here is a list of links to the articles: