Faux Paint Your Walls To Look Like Ikat Fabric

I have been painting faux ikat "fabric" in a room I've been redoing this week (more on the whole room redo coming soon) and I thought I'd share how to do it with my readers. While the process is somewhat complex, the finished effect is amazing, and well worth the time it takes to complete!

As I considered the look I wanted, it occurred to me that I could take advantage of the threaded nature of the existing grasscloth and paint over it, making use of its pronounced vertical texture. The pulled thread look that is the hallmark of ikat would really pop on the texture of the grasscloth.

It's hard to see in the photo (above), but the grasscloth has very evident ridges.

My first design step was to pick paint colors. I decided to go with neutral colors that were in the backgrounds of the fabrics I had picked for the room. I chose all Benjamin Moore Aura paints in matte for the walls, semi gloss for the woodwork.

The base color was rolled on first. Often with Aura paints, second coats are unnecessary (totally justifying the high cost of this paint), however this grasscloth soaked up the first coat like a sponge, so I ended up doing two coats of the base color.

For my repeating pattern, I took inspiration from one of my favorite traditional Provençal prints (naturellement!), La Petite Fleur des Champs, from Souleiado. 

La Petite Fleur des Champs, in three colorways, (above).

I also drew inspiration from this slipper chair by Urban Outfitters (below, left) which is upholstered in Kiliman Ikat by Duralee, and calls to mind old Provençal repeated medallion designs. And I incorporated  the wavy element from my favorite ikats of all time, Pierre Frey's Toiles de Nantes (below, right). (The chair fabric is also available as at Calico Corners.)

I first stenciled the medallion shapes, and later put in the details by hand. To create my stencils, I printed out a size-appropriate black & white version of the pattern I wanted to use. Using an X-acto knife on a cutting mat, I painstakingly cut around the medallion, delineating lots - but not all - of the "pulled thread" lines. (Too many would have run together when the paint was applied.) I used 12" x 18" blank sheets from Stencil Ease, which I found at A. C. Moore (also available on their website).

This is what the cut stencil looked like before paint was rolled over it. Note that I marked the borders of the surrounding medallions for placement.

I used a small roller with a 3/8" nap to roll on the medallions. Normally with stencils, a foam roller is better, as it lays on a minimum of paint, but once again, this grasscloth needed extra paint (although I only had to do one coat here). It is necessary to roll inwards toward the center, all the way around the open design. Otherwise, paint collects in the small openings around the edges and pools under the stencil, creating unwanted blobs. It is also important to wash the stencil frequently, to avoid drying paint to build up and alter its outlines.

Once I had mapped out the distance I wanted between the medallions, I took some dark thread and pulled it across the wall, using a level to make sure the line was straight across, horizontally. I taped it in a couple of places to keep it from sagging.

After painting over the thread in even intervals, I pulled it off the wall (left) and was immediately struck by how much the thread resembled ikat dyed threads (right) - an expected coincidence which had no bearing on the design, but which I thought was really fun.

Ikat weave is created when the warp threads are first resist dyed before being strung on the loom, creating an uneven pattern (as in the example, below). This is what gives ikat its distinctive pulled thread look.

This is what the medallions looked like after painting them along the guide line.

I did all of the wavy lines (above) and the chevrons (below) by hand, just eyeballing where they should go, without measuring exactly. By its very nature, ikat is imperfect, so my random hand painted accents look natural.

Next, I cut a second stencil for the pattern inside the medallions. When cutting a stencil with various openings, make sure to leave little connectors between the various parts so that the whole stencil comes out as one piece. (If you forget, you can always tape a loose piece into place.)


After painting over the inner stencil pattern - this time with a flat stenciler's pouncer brush... 

...I went back by hand and connected the parts that had not gotten painted in, due to the connectors. I also went around and pulled out some of the lines, randomly with a thin artist's brush, to accentuate the ikat look and to individualize all of the medallions.

Immediately after stenciling (left) and then after adding details by hand (right).

The wavy lines after I went back and accentuated the "threads" by hand with a very thin artists' brush (above).

The finished pattern, after I added a border to finish the room.

I will admit that this process took me MUCH longer than I had anticipated, but I am really happy with the end result. Also, this can certainly be done without a base layer of grasscloth. I would love to hear from readers who try this in their own homes!

Natural Christmas Decor - Woodland Vignette

The third vignette in a "natural holiday decorating" group I created recently for the Boston Globe g Magazine, was a woodland setting, which is absolutely one of my favorite subjects to play with. There is something about all of nature, but especially woodsy materials, that I just adore. Mosses, twigs and pinecones remind me of glorious walks through forested areas, under canopies of leafy trees, where the mysteries of animal and plant life are all-surrounding and quietly poignant.

When I was little, and then again when my children were little, imagining and building fairy huts and villages was a favorite activity. My kids even wove together little sticks to create fences to encircle fairy homes. I remember the joy in their voices as they would run into the house calling for us to come outside and see what they had built for the fairies in our gardens.

In my decorating, I also love bringing woodsy materials into the house, connecting the outdoor world with the one indoors. A couple of summers ago, I wrote a blog post on one of my favorite table settings of all time, which I did using various mosses as a way to frame my Herend Rothschild Bird china.

For the Globe article, I wanted to incorporate three of my paintings of songbirds in topiaries, which I hung over our dining room sideboard. Additionally, I used some wonderful Italian ceramic pieces designed by The Mane Lion - a footed serving bowl and a pair of candlesticks, all with pheasants on them - and other birds, including cement garden ornaments and several Herend china pieces from Hungary. 

I love the natural colors of these hand painted Herend china birds.

Jaci Conry, who wrote the Globe article, had asked me specifically to incorporate a fruit topiary into the setting, so I decided to make two, since the sideboard in my dining room is formal and some symmetry seemed appropriate. I used two planters I had with rustic birds and vines on them, but instead of making tall topiaries, I kept them low, using dry floral foam cut into dome shapes. I then skewered kumquats on toothpicks and stuck them into the foam, varying the heights as necessary to create nicely rounded domes.

Next, I tucked bits of moss into the holes between the fruits and finally gave the topiaries some interesting color and height variation with small sticks of bittersweet berries, gathered near my home.

The vibrant kumquats and bittersweet complement the oranges and reds in my paintings.

I have always loved birch trees, logs and bark - probably a throwback to my childhood in Minnesota, where we camped in the woods "up North" every summer. I wanted to use birch logs in this setting, so my husband, Jack, made me some great candle holders by cutting logs to varying sizes (3" to 8" high) and hollowing out the tops to create cavities for votive candles.

Using a hot glue gun, I attached different colors and textures of moss to the tops of the candle holders, allowing some of them to drape down over the sides for a more natural look.

Mosses included a number from my own yard, plus some I had purchased at Michael's Crafts. The bluish green moss, above, grows naturally on trees all over Cape Cod, and I have a plentiful supply in my yard.

Before lighting the votive candles, I spray the moss with water, to prevent it from catching on fire. (Of course, one should never leave burning candles unattended in any case!)

I cut lots of greens - holly, arborvitae, cedar, spruce, laurel, etc. - to tuck into the pheasant centerpiece. Here again, I used floral foam, but this time I soaked it with water ahead of time so the greens would stay fresh and alive for a week or more. On the top of the sideboard, I had such fun arranging various greens, birds, pinecones, leaves, mosses, sticks and walnuts.

Finally, I topped off the whole scene with more arborvitae, tucked in above and behind the paintings.

What could be more perfect with this dining room setting than a French buche de Noel cake for dessert? That's what I'll do next year!