DIY: Making your own bark paper

"I think that I shall never see a faux as lovely as a tree"

"But you can come pretty close."

I have always loved applying finishing products to paper. The papers innate property of wrinkling adds a lot to a finish plus you may complete the paper in your home and hang it on site. It is also a very inexpensive way to get a layered look using very little of your leftover products.  Gary Lord of Prismatic Painting in Ohio has made his own paper finishes for years and shares several recipes in his books and videos.

For my project I wanted to re purpose the wine room in our home into a space for my craft and holiday/party decor. It is a luxury to have a room already outfitted with built-in wooden shelving that is also cool, dry, well-lit, and has a work shelf.  We usually serve and drink wine as soon as we get it and as I told my friend, Jack, you don't need climate control for Wine-In-A-Box!

Try doing this with a wine refrigerator.

I wanted to do a bark finish and discovered Yellow Birch Bark while on my Google search and really liked the gold and silver mash-up which I have through-out the rest of the house. I started with regular 3M Masking Paper used for painting. I like this paper because it is thinner then Butcher Block paper and comes in various widths. Just tear it into different length sections.

I needed the background to be a buttery metallic gold and selected FE Metallic Iridescent Gold Fresco for this layer. I use this for way more then the traditional fresco application (brush, pounce, and pull-out with a foam brush).  Metallic Fresco rolls out nicely without thinning (compared to rolled Palette Deco) and covers well in one coat (compared to Metal Glow). I also like to trowel this product straight out of the bucket-use it where you would normally apply tinted metallic wax, Venetian Hi-Lite Plaster, or Palette Deco Plaster.  Metallic Fresco comes in Gold, Iridescent Gold, Bronze, Copper, Hi-Lite Violet, Hi-Lite Green, HI-Lite Red, Hi-Lite Orange and Hi-Lite Blue. Metallic Fresco is a gold label product. If you use the Silver Label Line, apply Palette Deco Gold instead which is thicker but will give a similar look.

The Fresco will look cloudy when applied but dries to a rich solid metallic.  A pint covered 52 3'-long pieces of paper. It also has a fast dry time and you can apply the next layer within 30 minutes.

Birch Bark has a distinct horizontal grain.  For my next layer, I rolled our Bark Roller in Silver Sharkskin and off-rolled the pattern on the paper. For Silver Label users Silver Faux Metal will work but takes longer to dry.  I varied the thickness and width of my rolled lines.

In areas where I rolled the silver nice and thick, I used my trowel to compress the silver and catch the wrinkled edges of the paper. The Sharkskin dried within one hour.

This layer is "Plaster Gumbo" where I batch a bunch of left-over stuff.  For Bark, Sandstone or Plastertex is a great choice because of the small brown aggregate in the plaster. I mixed these two with Fauxstone Pull-Off to give me a plaster that would peel and pop with my trowel. Cover anywhere from 70%-90% in horizontal areas and let dry.

At this point, you may hang the paper. Position the paper where you want to apply a piece and use a blade to trim a straight edge for the ceiling. Then roll a section of wall and the back of the paper with Setcoat Clear and apply the paper to the wall. Roll more Setcoat clear to stick down the edges and move air bubbles. A small squeegee is also useful for pressing the paper down.  Repeat across the surface using varied widths of paper lapping top and bottom edges.

You will get some wrinkles in the paper but that adds to the look.  The Setcoat Clear actually flattened down some of the paper when it was dry. I let this layer dry overnight to bond to the wall.

To get as close to my inspiration bark as possible, I rolled a coat of Caterpillar Metal Glow that I thinned 50% with water to keep it very sheer over the whole surface

The final layer is a mix of Stain & Seal and FX Thinner. It looks like American Walnut, Rich Brown, and a little Antique Mahogany.  Just brush and pad with a damp cloth to tone and pick up the texture.

This project of 125 square feet took me a weekend to complete from making the paper to install to final glazing on site.  Next time I will show you how I made my own chalk paint for the wooden shelf and the found objects I used for storage ideas.

"Faux is made by fools like me, but only God can make a Tree." 

Can't See the Forest for the Trees

It was a long and winding road to get to this simple but pretty finish.

It started with our Entry Way or as we called it "The Hallway to Hell."

Years ago, the walls were golden O'Villa Plaster, the trim rusted, front door bronze, and closet doors black. Then I decided to paint it all Black Setcoat and it stayed that way for over a year because I got stuck on the idea that I needed a bling finish in this space to impress people when they walked in the house.

When we got the new Luna product I thought, "Great, I will put that in the Entry."  You can see part of it behind Jack. I added lots of glitter and made it red. Unfortunately Luna is very light dependent and our entry is the darkest area of our home so the sparkle fell a little flat. Plus the red was the wrong color. So you would think I would create my own samples and come up with a plan at this point right?

But instead of looking at this project as a whole, I wasn't done focusing on the "trees" yet.

Someone sent me a series of crazy emails challenging me on my "expertise" with epoxy. Out of the blue and medication worthy rants. Rather then go the mature route and just ignore it, I thought, "I'll show you what I can do with epoxy!"  And I created this foil, glitter, wax and epoxy finish on the black closet doors for my entry...

Difficult to do? Yes. Cool? Yes. Eye Catching? Yes. My style? Absolutely not.  And there you go. I spent hours and product to prove to someone that I don't really care about that I could do a clever  technique that I will never teach and made something that I hated to put in my house.  Lesson learned.  After everything all I  had were clashing glitter walls, garish doors, and a still ugly entry.

Time to think about the forest-literally.  I bought new plain wood closet doors and painted them black. Then I used a black foam roller to apply a coat of Wundasize. I let this tack up and rolled another coat. The second layer firmed up in about 2 hours.

I applied the Colonial Foil 100% to both the doors. This foil has a pattern and you need to decide if the lines will run vertically or horizontally.

I removed the doors and placed Cutting Edge's Birch Tree Stencil over the foil. This is a reverse stencil. The color you apply will create the background. In this case, I rolled 2 coats of Black Setcoat.

And just like that (OK, it took two years and a lesson in restraint) I finally had the big picture plan for this space and the connecting walls. To get the walls ready, I painted over the Luna with Black Setcoat essentially going back to the starting point.  The back hallway was still black but it has five doors in the small space painted bright white. To make them disappear, I painted the doors and trim Black Setcoat.

Using a fluffy 9inch Slim Jim I rolled the back hallway walls and doors with 2 coats of Charred Olive Lustersuede.  The picture above shows the first coat.  Amazing how the dogs always walk in front of the picture. I did the same technique to the entry way walls.

When the Lustersuede dried I used a bark roller to apply the next layer.

I sawed the Bark Roller smaller so it would fit in between all the narrow hallway walls. I rolled the Bark in the Rich Gold Sharkskin.  This is new gold label base product from Faux Effects.  I use it in several classes but if you haven't trained with it yet, you could also do this finish using a Silver Label Metal Glow like Toasted Cocoanut, Leo Gold, or Mocha Gold.  I off-rolled the Sharkskin on the wall lapping the lines and varying the density.  Use a flat trowel to compress any blops and to move the shapes.

The darker color is the Lustersuede showing underneath.  For the ceiling edges, I used a small stiff chip brush to apply the Sharkskin in a linear manner.  I also used the Rich Gold Sharkskin to paint the wood trim, and the front door.

When the Sharkskin was dry, I glazed the walls and wood with a mix of glaze and equal parts Dark Brown Faux Color and Dark Brown Faux Creme Color.  You need to topcoat the Sharkskin. I rolled a coat of C500 Satin but Aquaguard or Varnish Plus will work as well.

The finished Entry. Next I will do the tile in our Tumbled Marble Finish.

Doors installed with new hardware.

So that's it. Once I started to focus on the BIG PICTURE, an area that had bugged me for years became exactly what I wanted: a space that welcomes people to our home and sets our personal style from the minute you walk through the door. Nothing flashy but eye catching a great background for collected artwork.

I think Ricky Nelson says it best:

""But it's alright now. I learned my lesson well. Ya see, you can't please everyone, so ya got to please yourself."