Tips for Painting Faux Stone Walkways & Concrete Floors
- Before painting the concrete, it should be cleaned completely. If there is any old paint, dirt or grime on it, the paint will not adhere for very long. Scrape any old paint with a wire brush and metal scraper and then clean thoroughly with a pressurized garden house. The area must be completely dry before your faux painting and if you are painting an outside exposed walkway, make sure the weather is not predicting rain for at least the next 48 hours.
Humidity can cause interfere with the drying time so it is a good idea to undertake this task during the cool dry weather. - Stones are not just one color, so to get an idea on the colors you will need for this project, go look at a stone walkway or floor and study the colors and shapes. Pay attention to the mortar in between the stones along with the spacing, color and texture. It will also be helpful if you take some pictures of the area and use them for a reference frequently throughout your painting.
The paint and crafts store sells a stencil for painting the stone pattern, which makes the job of sketching out your pattern much easier. It is realistic looking and is easily moved across the area to be painted in order to stencil in the entire floor or walkway.
Use masking tape along the edges of the area you are faux painting for a clean and neat looking job. Use sponges to apply the paint, but get ones with different textures for applying each color. This will make a different pattern per color, given your faux painting a more realistic appearance. - Start your project with a light base color, which will bleed through your layers of faux painting. A medium gray is usually what works best for stone. Other than the base paint, remember less is best when applying the different layers of the faux technique. You can always go back and do more if needed. Each layer of paint that you apply needs to be transparent enough for the previous layers to show through.
Fixing mistakes are easy with this technique, so do have fun while creating. A damp rag can easily blend in any spots that have too much paint of one color. - For texture that will add to the realistic look of your faux stone, use the concrete sand additive. This will not only look real, but it adds traction to your concrete walkway or floor. Painted concrete can get very slippery when it gets wet and this will guard against falls.
