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About The
Cloud Painting
Faux Paint Technique
How To Faux Paint 1-2-3 Steps
Our Cloud painting faux finish technique is so simple that a child can do it - Hey wait, they actually do!
The key to making great looking painted clouds in a room is twofold. The secret is The Little Woolie, made by The Woolie sheepskin paint tools AND to simply have FUN!!
Having fun while you are faux finish painting shows in your end result! And the fun continues for years to come when you proudly show them off.
1-2-3-Faux!
Instruction Steps
Using The Woolie Original Faux Painting Pad
If you have never faux finished with The Woolie Faux Painting Tools and Techniques, view our detailed step-by-step instruction videos to ensure your delight and success.
Carefully review our
Preparation Instructions
before you begin. You will find them further down on this page.
If you have never faux finished with The Woolie Faux Painting Tools and Techniques, view our detailed step-by-step instruction videos to ensure your delight and success.
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Apply your base coat.
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Information about this can be found in the lower portion of this page.
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You will be using faux finish glaze in two colors for this technique, white and gray.
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You should begin at the utmost portion of your wall. Overlapping clouds from top to bottom.
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Apply the white faux glaze mixture using a small 1 inch paint brush.
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This should be done by creating an upper arc/scallop.
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Apply the gray faux glaze mixture using a small 1 inch paint brush.
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This should be done by creating a lower arc/scallop.
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Use The Little Woolie to blend the glaze colors.
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This is done by using a combination of tapping and jabbing motion.
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The clouds should have a more rough and jagged appearance at the top, making sure that the top should be the least blended.
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Next, blend the white to create a transition to the gray glaze.
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Lastly, blend the lowest gray portion to gradually fade.
This Next Section Provides
Additional Resources and
Helpful Information
For This Faux Painting Technique
If you have never faux finished with The Woolie,
view our detailed step-by-step instruction videos to
ensure your delight and success.
This faux painting technique requires the use of faux finish glaze.
What is a faux finish glaze?
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Glaze is simply a thin, translucent film of color that is applied over a base coat of a satin finish painted surface. Glaze creates a rich, dimension in many faux and decorative paint techniques.
What does faux finish glaze do?
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Paint normally dries very quickly. Faux glaze slows down the drying time of paint which gives you more time to manipulate your color to create the look you want. It also makes paint colors translucent to enable you to create the look of depth and texture illusion.
What Kind of Glaze?
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Water-based glazes and paints are the easiest to work with and to clean up.
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You can buy glazes that are already tinted, or you can mix up your own custom glaze color.
How do I mix my own glaze?
Mix Faux Glaze (clear colorless) with your chosen paint color.
Combine clear (no color) faux glazing medium with your paint (either latex or acrylic). Generally the ratio is four parts glaze to one part paint, but you should follow the manufacturer's instructions.
Test your glaze mixture on a scrap board or poster board to make sure it's the right consistency and translucency.
Due to their nature, latex glazes can be customized to suit your needs.
The amount of glazing medium you add to the paint can affect the color of the glaze. When you're using lighter paint colors, a 4-to-1 mixture will not affect the value of the color.
But darker colors may be altered to a lighter color value when mixed with too much glaze. It's always best to experiment with the color on a piece of poster board.
The translucency of the glaze is determined by how much paint you add: more paint than glaze results in less translucency; less paint than glaze results in more translucency.
The more clear glaze that is added the longer that your glaze mixture will stay wet.
The more paint that is added the sooner that your glaze mixture will dry.
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When creating the painted look of Clouds, You will need to apply a base coat in blue. There are many variations of the color blue, so choose your favorite variation.
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It is important that the final base coat color is dark enough in shade to offset the pure white that you will use. (If the color is not deep enough, you will not be able to enable the white portion of the clouds to be visible.)
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Your faux glaze colors will be pure white, and a charcoal grey.
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These recommendations are general guidelines and should be used as such. You can become more creative with experimentation and sampling of colors.
The Woolie Painting Techniques
Color Combination Samples
| Ideas | Examples | Inspiration |
The fact is that it's really very difficult to visualize paint color combinations. That's exactly why we offer many color and technique inspiration ideas and samples for your paint projects.
View our color samples to see what inspires you. This is a great first step! Next, play with the colors and blending to get your customized look.
All of our faux finish color combination samples are provided for the general purpose of visual inspiration. It's important for you to understand that each image will appear differently on every computer screen, and so will the suggested colors provided. The only way to determine actual colors is to visit your local paint store and select your preferred color swatches. We suggest that you experiment with sample colors that they offer prior to finalizing your color selections.
Create Your Own MINI-Sized Color Combination Samples!
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Use inexpensive bottles of craft-sized paint and paint extender/glaze to create your custom color combination samples!
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Use poster board from your local office supply store.
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Use The Woolie (New) MINI-sized products to create your samples on poster board from your local office supply.
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Your local Sherwin-Williams store will match your custom colors when you're ready to start your project.
Protect areas where you don't want paint
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Apply high quality 2” beige masking tape to protect areas such as woodwork, ceiling and any other areas that need to be protected from paint.
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We recommend using the FrogTape Brand in 2” inch width.
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Do not use low-adhesion or blue masking tape for this.
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Use a putty knife to seal the tape to the surface.
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Plastic or heavy plastic-faced drop cloths should be used to cover and protect the flooring completely.
Surface Preparation
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Prior to painting your base coat, make sure the area is clean of any contaminants such as grease, wax, dirt or any other material that would affect the adherence of paint to the surface.
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If peeling paint, holes or cracks exist, they should be repaired with spackle, sanded and then touched up with primer.
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If wall covering has been removed, make sure that any paste residue is cleaned from the surface. New drywall or plaster should be primed to seal the surface.
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NOTE: If the paint is not adhering to the wall properly, (clumps up or cracks) it is likely because there is wallpaper paste, wallpaper removal solution or other residue on the wall. If this happens, we recommend to apply a coat of primer to the wall before painting.
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If you have Eggshell, Satin, Semi-Gloss, Gloss or High Gloss Paint existing on walls, We recommend that you consult your local paint store professional as to the appropriate preparation necessary to paint on top of the existing surface sheen level.
