Accomplishing A Warm and Organic Look

Q: While visiting a restaurant I noticed the walls had a faux finish with vertical straitions like wood grain or the texture of certain plant leaves. I liked the warm and organic look. How is this accomplished?

A: We’ve seen a faux finish like this accomplished with a tire brush. Just like it sounds, a tire brush is designed to scrub automotive tires, and it comes in a variety of sizes and bristle textures. The coarseness of the bristles will determine the size of the striations in the faux finish texture. This is a “negative” technique, in which a glaze is applied over the painted wall and the texture is achieved by removing the glaze to reveal the complementing paint color beneath it. For a tire brush negative effect, pull the brush downward across a wet glaze to create the thin parallel lines, similar to a wood-grain effect.