Faux Marbling: Faux Painting
Marble gives that look of elegance and luxury to your home. Real marble can be quite the expensive purchase, so why not paint some faux marble? It still looks classy and is a fun project to work on. It may be one of the lengthier faux painting techniques to try, but the results are a real ‘wow.’
Insider Tips
The trick to get your faux marbling technique to look real is to imitate the veining in marble. That means you’ll want to study some marble blocks to see how nature did it. The other aspect is getting the right color combinations. You can try a white background with grayish veins or a green background with white veins. Again, find some pictures of marble to decide which color patterns you like best.
If you’re doing a green background, you’ll want to use a dark green latex base coat and a lighter green latex glaze coat. For white, you may want to use a grey base coat with a white top coat.
How to do Faux Marbling
The technique represented here uses plastic sheets to create the background color effect, similar to the effect used in frottage. The technique described here would be used for a marble panel, but you can certainly apply faux marbling anywhere you see fit.
The veining will be accomplished by using a turkey feather. You want to stroke the turkey feather from its tip to its tail to make separate clumps of fibers. You can find a turkey feather at a costume shop, fly-fishing store and potentially at a hardware store, such as Home Depot.
What You’ll Need
- low-tack masking tape
- paint roller
- plastic drop cloth
- latex base coat
- latex top coat
- paint for veining
- latex glaze
- a carpenter’s level
- feathering brush
- turkey feather
Prep Work
Section off the area you’ll be faux marbling and then apply your base coat. Let it dry.
Faux Marbling Technique
Mix the glaze; one part paint to four parts glaze. Roll the glaze onto your faux marble panel.
Apply a large plastic drop cloth onto the glaze. You’ll want to wrinkle it randomly as you apply it to the paint. Mush it around a bit. Then remove the plastic drop cloth. Use a fresh plastic drop cloth for each new area.
You’re ready to start veining the marble. Dip the turkey feather into the vein color paint. Then drag the feather on the wall to make thin, diagonal lines that twist and turn a bit. You can twist the feather to change the width of the lines to make it look like authentic marble veining. Try letting a first set of lines dry and then creating a second set of lines.
The last step is to take your feathering brush and to drag it over the veins to give the illusion of veins beneath the surface. If you’ve only drawn one set of lines, then skip this step.
