RPG Basement - Painting

Now that the rocks are carved and the wall has some texture, it's time to get some color on the wall and rocks. 

Painting the walls

To get the maximum amount of texture possible I mixed in some sand finish with the paint.

"Some" is relative here, as I added half of the 30oz packet, which led to the bucket slightly overflowing, but luckily we used a large strip of cardboard as a drop cloth. 

As far as color choice we picked a slightly warm off white, to not cool the room too much. 

When it came to the paint application I wanted to have as much of a masonry look and feel as possible, so I decided on one of these stain pads, to mimic a masonry trowel.

 

Due to the paint being rather thick now, I had to use the paint stir stick to deposit the paint onto my paddle. Use an upward motion to apply the paint, or you will like me, make a gigantic mess! In the end, I added some thicker sections of paint here and there to add even more character to the walls. 

   

Painting the Rocks 

Whilst painting the walls was a nice free-spirited exercise in getting as much paint on the wall, in the most rustic fashion, painting the rocks was more of a tedious endeavor. 

Step 1) Pick 4 colors ranging from light to dark 

Step 2) Paint grout in a medium shade

Step 3) Paint a dark outline on edges and rim of rocks

Step 4) Use the lighter shade to fill and blend the middle of the rocks

Step 5) Use the lightest shade to add accents to the rock face

Step 6) Let dry overnight

Step 7) Realize that the grout color is too similar to others and looks washed out

Step 8) Mix some acrylic paint into your existing shade to achieve offset for grout

Step 9) Painstakingly repaint grout

Step 10) Let dry 

 

We wanted to stay in the grey family for our rock colors. The above picture shows the "initial" grout color on the top left and rock colors. All are paint sample sizes of regular wall paint in an eggshell finish. Along the way, I probably used each of the brushes once, but the sponge brushes turned out to be the most useful in the end. 

For the grout, I used one of the flat brushes and made sure to really get in there and up around the edges of each rock. 

The darkest of the colors made its way onto each edge and inner rim of the rocks, to add some illusion of depth. 

From there I added the lighter grey liberally to the main surface of the rock and blended as much as possible, whilst maintaining a gradient from the outside to the center of each rock. Some of the rocks needed a second layer of darker grey to better achieve the desired grey gradient. 

I added some highlights here and there with the lightest of shades to add some additional dimension along the way. 

As mentioned in the steps, I didn't much care for the dried version, as the grout just made everything look flat. 

I ended up mixing some brown acrylic I had laying around from a previous project ("Deer Lord" painting I may just share with you guys later on) with the lightest of colors and repainted the grout to add more depth and frankly some warmth to the whole thing. 

To add just a bit more of grit to the whole esthetic, I mixed a couple of drops of grey paint into water and ran it over the grout. 

Extra Credit

For those who have not noticed yet, I had to leave my mark on the basement, so I added a hidden mickey in one of the rock spots.