Faux Painting Business Marketing

Faux Painting business marketing is very tough in a competitive market but a neccessary one if your starting a faux painting business. One major key player in your marketing strategy is that you must have some satisfied customers, meaning you must do good work. Enough so that your customers think you’re the best and would hire you again. Good work will not be enough as a faux painting business marketing plan, however. There are other key elements for your Faux painting business marketing plan that you will need to implement.

Faux Painting Business Marketing Plan 1 – Create a Sample Portfolio

Faux painting is an art and you do need to make a portfolio of finishes that will show what you can do. This tool will be used for clients as well as any Interior Decorators you plan on approaching. In the portfolio you will have finishes on sample boards, like the faux crackle finish techniques, any color washing techniques, Old word Parchment Faux Finishes, any textured finishes. This tool will prove very invaluable to your faux painting business marketing strategies. Dick Blick has some Prat Start 1 Portfolio.

Faux Painting Business Marketing Plan 2 - A Letter explaining your business and finishes and service offered.

This letter will be used to promote your faux painting business to interior decorators, architecture firms and more.

Faux Painting Business Marketing Plan 3- Interior Decorating FirmsYou will need to get that letter to as many Decorating Firms as possible for they can provide you with clients to work with. Generally, interior decorators will expect 15 to 20 percent of your cost to the client. This is a small price to pay in having a decorator to keep you busy working.

Faux Painting Business Marketing Plan 4 – Advertising

Here is where you will need to know what your budget is. There are many avenues of advertising. Advertising can be done in News Papers, websites pertaining to decorative painting, magazines and the list goes on. You may need to do some research here.

Faux Painting Business Marketing Plan 5 – Business cards

Good luck in your faux painting business marketing plan!

Business cards can be made up on a computer if you have one or you can order them from most print shops. This is another very valuable tool. You will need to pass these out regularly to every one that presents an opportunity to do so.

Old Word Parchment Faux Finish

The Old World Parchment Faux Finish is one of the most popular faux painting finishes. This finish is easy to do and has a wonderful old world look to it making it ideal for libraries, offices or anywhere you might want an aged look. The colors in this finish consist of creams, light browns and sunny golden colors for a very warm feel.
This finish requires a base coat and then different colored glaze on top that will be blended together slightly. You will need some latex satin white paint or eggshell and then you will also need two different tones of a creamy light brown, one a little darker than the other. You will also need untinted glaze to mix the creamy light brown with. To apply the finish you’re also going to need some tools such as, a couple of 2 inch nylon brushes, 3/8 inch nap roller sleeve in a 9 inch length, a cheesecloth, and 2 inch painters tape.

You will start by applying the white paint as a base coat after taping off all molding, trim, doors, windows and whatever needs to be taped off. Once the base coat has dried for 24 hours you may begin the glazing part of the finish.

You will need to mix your glaze by combining the two colors with the untinted glaze in two separate containers. The mixture should be one part glaze and one part paint for a nice workable colored glaze.

Now you can apply the glaze for the old world parchment faux finish by using the two brushes. You should work in one small area at a time about three foot by three foot. To apply the glaze you need to make two squiggly lines about six to eight inches apart of each color. You will then take the cheese cloth and pad it around in a somewhat rubbing motion that should vary in direction. If the cheese clothe becomes tacky just rinse it with some warm water and wring it out good. There should be a good variety of light and dark spots. Once you have completed a wall you should now remove the tape before the glaze completely dries then move on to the next wall. As you will see the old world parchment faux finish will take on an aged look and have a wonderful warm feeling to it. For another great aged finish you may want to look at the crackle finish technique.

Crackle Finish Technique

Faux Painted Crackle finishes are extremely versatile and can be used on furniture, moldings, doors, cabinets, picture frames and even walls. Crackle is a faux painting finish produced by using two varnishes having two different drying times which work against each other to produce a crazed, crackled, effect. The first coat of varnish is applied and left to dry then while the surface is still tacky, the second application of varnish is applied producing a crackle look when completely dry.

There are a variety of crackle looks with different color bases (the cracks) and different color top coats crackle (the flaking paint). In addition the width of the cracks can be varied as well as the size of the paint chips through a variety of application techniques.

The Base Coat

The first thing you must do is get a practice board and choose what colors you want to work with. Once the colors have been chosen you will need to purchase the base coat which will be the crack color. The base can be a flat paint, eggshell finish or semi gloss finish. Roll on the base coat and let dry for 4 hours.

Applying Crackle Material – Thin or Wide Cracks

Now you will need to apply the crackle material which can be any product you decides to use but most paint distributors have crackle products. Here is where you must decide which look you desire, a thin crack or wide crack. For thin cracks you will need to apply a thin coat of crackle with a roller and for larger cracks a thicker coat of crackle with a brush. Adding a mixture of both sized cracks can be very natural and have an appealing look. You may add a polyurethane clear protective cot once everything has completely dried for at least 24 hours. Faux painted crackle finishes are very beautiful.

For other types of finishes and techniques check out the following articles below:

Faux Painting Strie Finish Techniques
Faux Painting Popular Finishes
Faux Painting Frottage Techniques
Faux Painting Ragging Techniques
Faux Painting Sponging Techniques
Faux Painting Smooshing Techniques
Faux Painting Color Washing Techniques
Faux Painting Technique Tortoise Shell
Start A Faux Painting Business