Whether your office is in Guildwood, Agincourt, Malvern or anywhere else in Scarborough or the GTA, it’s a good idea to change its look every once in a while to make sure it’s up to date or to elevate your mood.

Painting your office or home is one of the easiest and most effective ways to give it a fresh new look, and different painting techniques open up endless design and style possibilities. Partner with commercial and residential painters in Scarborough. The last thing you want is for a space in your home to look anything less than professionally done.

When done right, the following painting techniques can make your home look new again and stylish for years to come.

Colour Washing

Also known as “broken finish,” colour washing is a fairly easy technique that doesn’t require stencilling or taping. It’s done by adding a glaze on top of a solid base colour, giving your wall a textured, weathered or foggy look, depending on the colours you choose, whether you decide to compliment or contrast them and how much glaze you add to the top layer. It might help to pick a texture to mimic and choose your colours accordingly.

First, paint a base layer with an eggshell finish (so it doesn’t absorb the glaze too quickly), then apply the glaze (you can mix it with some of the base if you’re worried it will dry too quickly) with a soaked rag, sponge or brush in random, sweeping or circular motions. It’s ok that brush strokes and bare spots show. That’s kind of the point.

Stripes

Stripes are also a fairly straightforward paint design that has been around for a while for very good reason – it is a simple, timeless look that can be used to create a variety of esthetics. You can go with wide, boldly-contrasted stripes in areas you want to stand out (like an accent wall), choose thinner stripes with complementary colours for a subtler, elegant look and every effect in between. Vertical stripes also give you the illusion of being in a taller space, and horizontal stripes can make a room feel wider.

Stripes can be added to any wall, painted or not, and outside of the paint and brushes, they only require a tape measure and painter’s tape. You’ll use the measure to help you evenly space out the tape, then paint every other stripe.

Strie

Strie is French for “streak” (also known as “dragging”), as that’s how you create the final effect of a fine fabric wall covering. You’ll need a satin paint base and a different coloured glaze topcoat.

The look is achieved by first applying two coats of satin paint and leaving it for the approximately four hours it will take to dry. While you wait, you can mix some paint into the glaze at a 4:1 ratio. When the second base layer dries, roll the glaze-paint mix in vertical lines from along the wall and immediately run a long-whistled paint brush through the topcoat from ceiling to floor before it dries. Do this in small sections to avoid the glaze drying before you reach it, and clean the brush between sections.

The result is a wall with fine horizontal and vertical lines, giving it a warm, textured look as if it’s been covered in linen.

Checkerboard or Diamonds (Harlequin)

Painting your walls with a checkerboard or diamond pattern can add some style and flair to your space and cut down the amount of decorating your need to do in it. Like a striped pattern, the colours and contrasts you use fit a wide variety of design tastes.

Measure and plan out your design by keeping this in mind – use larger grid squares or diamonds if you’re painting a smaller area as they can make it appear larger. Create a grid with some painter’s tape and paint every other square or diamond.