How to Paint Over Faux Finish: Sunroom Renovation

Do you love a good before and after? Wait until you see my sunroom makeover where I’m sharing how to paint over faux finish walls.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again.

It’s amazing what a can of paint can do to a room!

After giving you guys the new home tour, you were amazed at all of the faux finishes here at the house.

And to be honest, I’m pretty amazed too!

The craftsmanship and artistry are really incredible.

I feel a little bad painting over some of it, but the finishes are a little outdated and are weighing the rooms down.

While I’m waiting for some professional help to repair the badly damaged walls in my dining room, I decided to paint over the faux finish in the sunroom.

And let me tell you, it was no easy task!

There are a lot of windows and there was no surface that was untouched by a faux finish.

Painting over faux finish is a little more involved than just painting over a color you don’t like on the wall.

Wait until you see how good the sunroom looks now after painting it!

We can actually see the gardens now!

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How to Paint Over Faux Finish Walls – Before the Sunroom Renovation

From the french doors to the interior of the sunroom, there was a heavy faux finish of ivy, flowers, with lots of greens and yellows.

There is a whole lot of detail and hard work that went into this room.

It’s really unbelievable that someone hand-painted it all.

But it’s so dark.

The green clashes with the gray in the adjacent library.

The colors in the sunroom don’t coordinate with the beautiful travertine tile.

And it drove me nuts that your eye stops at the windows instead of seeing those gorgeous gardens outside.

I’m planning to start my cut flower garden seeds in here pretty soon, so I decided to give it a makeover beforehand.

And what a difference a few cans of paint make!

I can’t wait for you to see how good it looks now.

Can You Paint Over a Faux Finish?

YES!

But surface preparation is the key to success.

Sanding, cleaning and priming are essential to covering up a faux finish.

And it can be a bit laborious, but well worth the extra elbow grease.

How Do You Remove Faux Paint from Walls?

Removing faux finish paint from walls is similar to any other surface.

It’s all about the preparation.

Invest your time preparing the walls and the faux paint will disappear.

• Sand it well.
• Clean all of the dust and dirt off really well.
• Prime the surface.
• Then paint!

Supplies Needed to Paint Over a Faux Finish

If you need to paint over a faux finish or textured walls, you’ll need the following supplies.

• Sandpaper (I used 100 grit because the faux finish has some texture)
• Primer
• Paintbrush
• Shop Towels
• Paint for Trim and Walls (I used pearl finish on trim and matte on the walls)
• Paint tray
• Drop Cloth
• Small brush (if needed)
• Paint roller
• Paint roller cover
• Painter’s tape
• Mask
• White Caulk
• Caulk Gun

Directions on How to Paint Over a Faux Finish

Here’s how I painted over the faux finish in the sunroom.

• Lay a drop cloth on the floor and cover any furniture you need to protect. Tape off the room.
• Lightly sand down textured design, unless you don’t mind seeing it through the paint.

• Prep the walls and room by wiping everything down to remove the dust and dirt. Clean the walls.
• Apply a good coat of primer to the trim, walls and window panes.
• If necessary, sand down any texture you don’t want to see.
• Apply second coat of primer if the faux finish needs it. I did a second coat over the heavy art in the sunroom.
• Then paint the trim, walls and window panes with paint that has a primer base in it to insure good coverage.

From start to finish, painting the sunroom took me a week to prepare and paint.

But I really love the result.

So the amount of time spent was totally worth it.

Sanding and Cleaning

After sanding the designs down with a 100 grit sandpaper, I felt each design to see if it felt smooth.

Any areas that were not smooth, I sanded again.

Once all of the designs were sanded, I wiped down all of the walls and trim with a shop towel and vacuumed up any residual dust before painting.

Preparing to Prime and Paint

I finished taping off the room and did some test areas of primer to see how good the coverage would be.

Before priming the whole room, I decided to do two coats of primer on the darker, heavier designs to insure good coverage.

I did not remove the outlet or switch plates because we will replace them.

Since they were all covered in faux finish, I decided to hit them with primer and paint until we change them out.

Priming and Painting

The faux finish was really heavy in some areas and lighter in others.

Some of it was textured and there were a lot of window panes to cut around.

While masking paint can save some time, because I needed to cover a lot of green near the glass it wasn’t worth using it on this project.

Because I would have had to have been careful either way.

I also noticed a film on the windows that was coming off in some places, so I decided using a razor to get extra paint off wasn’t a good idea either.

So for my sunroom, I used a small brush to cut around each window pane.

It was very tedious but insured I covered the green.

And let me tell you, there was a lot.

Every surface in the sunroom had a faux finish on it so I had to ensure it was all covered.

After priming and painting, the walls had better coverage than the trim.

And when I paint over faux finish the next time around (because in this house there will be another time), I would do two coats of primer on any trim work before using trim paint.

The darker green faux finish still bled through one coat of primer and 2 coats of trim paint.

So I needed to hit the trim again with a third coat in here!

After Removing the Faux Finish

Can you even believe this is the same room???

It’s so bright in here now.

The gorgeous travertine floors really pop.

You can see the gardens from inside the room now.

And my houseplants look so much better in here, right?

I may or may not keep it this bright white long-term.

But for now, it looks So. Much. Better.

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