Sponge Painting

Sponge painting is a good finish for those who are just beginning in the world of faux finishes. Sponging has been in vogue for awhile now, which makes some of my pompous faux-finish contemporaries look down upon it as being a simpleton finish only used by beginners. I disagree. I think that their view is largely influenced by the fact that sponging can be so easy to do. However, many DIY-ers have done very poor sponge painting jobs in their attempts to decorate their own homes

But I won’t, as they say, "throw the baby out with the bath water."

The fact of the matter is that, when it comes to sponge painting, poor work can be done by an inexperienced applicator using even the most expensive tools, and excellent work can be done by a skilled craftsman using the most simple and crude instruments. I still consider the sea sponge to be a valuable faux finish and decorative painting tool.

Sponging is easy to do.

Sponge painting does not require a lot of tools or a lot of experience to do a fairly decent job. When I sponge, I don't even use glaze—just straight paint, sometimes thinned with a bit of water.

So, let’s delve into the subject with an open mind and a creative spirit.

The Sponge:

The sponge that is used for sponge painting is usually a natural sea sponge, since every sponge is a little different from the next. A good random appearance can be created with a sea sponge, whereas a synthetic sponge will give you a rhythmic pattern that doesn’t work well with a mottled finish (but is good if you are "stamping" a uniform pattern).

Ideally, you want to have several sponges for a painting job—one for each color and one or two that you can modify for getting into corners by cutting them into small sponge fragments.

Pick your color scheme: Light over dark, dark over light, or two similar hues.

The first thing you will do is base-coat one of your colors onto the wall with a roller and brush. For a little more dimension, you can use a satin or semi-gloss for your sponging color and a flat paint for your base coat. Don't use a latex flat over a semi-gloss or you might end up with another faux finish (crackle) by accident. The general painting rule, which applies to all types of painting, is that you can paint glossy over flat, but be careful (don't do it without priming with a solvent based primer) about painting flat over glossy

Before you begin sponging, you will need to prepare the sponge. This is done by wetting the sponge in a bucket of clean water or under a faucet and ringing it dry.

Technique

Begin your sponging away from any corners (you should work toward the corners, don't start in a corner). You can stop and start at any time to step back and look at your work to determine overall balance. First, load the sponge by dipping just the tips of the sponge into your paint tray, then blotting off the excess on a roller grid (and then a paper towel, if needed). It is important that the paint not be too heavy on the sponge and that your hand pressure also be light or you will get a smudgy mess. Using a light touch, pat the sponge onto the wall, changing your hand position each time you pat the wall. Even with a sea sponge, you can get a repetitious pattern if you don't change your hand position with each pat of the sponge.

The variety of sponges will give your corners a more natural look, and taping off the opposing wall will allow you to bump it without putting smudges all over the next wall you will be sponging. I use a feather to "print' into the actual grove of a wall’s inside corner, using a random here-and-there approach.

1—Keep it light and to a minimum - and hope for the best. It is better to test a spot first, to see if it does crackle, before correcting your walls this way.

2—Buy a quart of the same base-coat color in a satin sheen and use that to open up and correct any blotches or flaws.

Softening and varying your sponging

I won't delve into this at length, but using a variety of tools will give you a more varied look and will make it hard to determine just how your finish was created. Just because you are sponging, doesn't mean you have to only use a sponge.

One way to soften your sponging is to use a lamb’s wool pad. If you are using latex, as soon as you sponge on your paint, you will need to immediately follow up by randomly blotting over it with a lamb’s wool pad to mute areas here and there. This will give your sponging a softer look. If you over-blot, you can re-sponge or use the correction method above to make any adjustments.

You can create a shimmer by sponging semi-gloss over flat paint, or clear waterbased "varnish" over a flat paint for a very subtle shimmer.

Sponging a Room With One Color.

Sponging with multiple colors

You can achieve more depth with your sponging by using two or three colors in combination with a coordinated base-coat color. You can blend these colors, using three colors that are in the same hue, each being 50% stronger than the next. You can use a variety of complimentary colors to create a bouquet colored band around a stenciled or wallpaper border

If you are creative, you can come up with dozens of finishes using a sponge—some simple and some very sophisticated, and all, if cleanly done, fabulous finishes.

Corners

Continue sponging from the middle of the wall out to the corners and edges. When you get to an edge, you will need to tape off the opposing wall with either paper tape or blue masking tape. Then you will need to cut a couple of small fragment sponges. Be sure that you also have a bigger flat-edged sponge or two. Use these sponges in an alternating random mix to work the paint into the corners. The flat-edged sponge will allow you to butt right up to the corner—but don't overuse this one. Use a mix of all the fragments and flat edged sponges you've made.

Mistakes: How to correct them

If you get some heavy handed smudging or find that your sponging is a bit too dense, you can open it back up and correct it by sponging your base coat color back on over the flaws and smudging.

If you used a flat base-coat with semi gloss sponge paint, you could get some crackle if you do this so you have two options:

Sponge Painting

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