Subtractive Rag Rolling

I love to paint in my house and have been known to change the color and design of my rooms frequently. I've often said that I don't dye my hair, I just paint my walls! Here I will attempt to give directions on how I rag rolled my living room and hall walls.

Directions

Deciding what colors you use may be difficult, but here are some ideas. I chose a deep gold as my base coat with a couple shades darker golden-brown as my top coat which I ragged off (subtractive ragging). I think you will want your lighter color to be your base color and your darker contrasting color to be your top coat. I have also seen examples of a sand color as base with a red top coat to rag off.

1. Apply your base coat of paint and allow to dry completely according to the manufacturer's instructions. You may want to tape off any woodwork.

2. After base coat is completely dry, combine your clear mixing glaze with your top coat (contrast) paint in an ice cream bucket and mix thoroughly. The directions on the bottle recommend half paint and half glaze. You may want to add more glaze for a slower drying time and more transparency, but I did the half and half mix. Pour into paint pan.

3. With a clean roller, roll on the contrasting paint/glaze mixture in a jigsaw pattern with smooth edges, no larger than 2-4 feet in width. Do not roll in squares or rectangles. We want this to look like it flows freely rather than in stiff squares. This contrast coat doesn't have to be a heavy-covering coat but rather a thin layer.

4. Follow behind this with your dampened (well wrung out) rag and remove some of the contrast glaze by gently rolling the rag or pouncing it to reveal some of the base coat color. You may remove as little or as much as desired. Continue opening and re-adjusting your rag to get different patterns on the wall. Leave about a 6" wide area along the edge of the glaze untouched. Apply the next section right up to but not overlapping this 6" area. Then begin rolling off the untouched 6" area first and continue on that piece of wall as before always leaving a "wet area" to join the next piece of the jigsaw.

5. I like to have a bucket of water with about 4 rags ready to remove the top glaze coat. When one rag seems full of paint/glaze, dump it into the clean bucket of water to soak while you use the other clean rags to remove paint/glaze. Rinse rags and continue to remove paint/glaze. I change my water frequently as I go.

6. If you are working alone, make sure that your "jigsaw" pieces are not so big that your glaze dries before you can rag it off. If you lose the wet edge, re-wet with a damp sponge or more clear glaze. Also be sure to stand back and look at your work as you go along. Do not worry about some areas being a little lighter or darker than other areas. This gives texture and character.

7. When ragging off glaze from corners or around woodwork or ceiling, dab or lay your twisted rag gently into the corner and pull straight out. Repeat until the corner is finished.

8. Allow to dry completely according to directions. You will notice when you are ragging off the glaze that it seems much lighter than you thought, but it will dry darker.

Tips

1. It is easiest to work with another person. One to roll on the glaze/paint and one to follow up with ragging off the glaze.

2. Change rags frequently when ragging off the paint. I like to have at least 4 rags ready to go.

3. Try to pick a time to do this project when you know you will be uninterrupted.

4. Be careful NOT to overlap edges when painting glaze/paint, but rather go just up to the next section.

5. It's best to work from the top down in a jigsaw pattern.

6. The best idea is to test paint on a scrap piece of board or sheet rock or in the garage.

7. If the top coat appears to be too dark, you might consider adding some of your base coat to it. (I did this when painting my walls. The brown was too dark, so I mixed 2 parts gold to 1 part brown).

8. After ragging is done, remove any tape immediately so it doesn't dry on to the wall and paint. Pro-mask blue tape is a good choice for taping.

9. Remember, if you don't like the look, you can always paint over it!

My lumber store, Dakota Do It Best, carries Valspar paints which I really like. They also carry the Clear mixing glaze which you can add to any color of paint you want. The Pro-mask Blue tape is available here along with plenty of tools and "how to" tips for many other projects.

I hope you'll find this project fun and worthwhile. I really love the look it gives my room. I like to think of it as a suede leather look. I would love to hear whether or not you try this technique and how you like the results. Feel free to email me with any questions or comments.