Playing in the Mud: Drywall Texture

One of the key features of each of my home remodeling projects is the texture of the walls. I love playing with mud. I do some texturing with paint as well, but I love to transform plain drywall and the original boring sort of orange peel textures of my walls using drywall compound.

If you've never done it before then you might be a little squeamish about covering your walls with this kind of texture. Unlike painting over a decorative paint finish, with most drywall textures once it's dry the job of re-doing it when it doesn't come out right can be daunting.

I learned some of my drywall texture technique from my dad. He made a living doing remodeling and home repair. But I also used a lot of online tutorials plus my own experimentation to create the textures on my walls. I'll show and tell some of experimental and creative texture techniques later on but it's good to start with advice from the pros.

• Drywall Texturing From DIY to the Rescue, this tutorial shows and tells how to use powder texture and a spray gun. I prefer the pre-mixed compound and putting it on with rollers, trowel blades, and other methods but this would probably be faster if you have a lot of wall to cover.
  
  
• Drywall Mud Textures From HGTV, this tutorial describes knockdown, skip trowel, and sponge techniques. I've tried variations of each but reading this I realize I never wear gloves... hmmmm, I can see where they could keep things a little neater.
  
  
• Covering Fake Wood Grain Paneling At HammerZone.com Chris Kannamon shares details of a do-it-yourself project that involved covering paneling with drywall compound, including filling in those seams. I've done this myself although my technique was a little different. I didn't have the problem Chris experienced with the compound not fully hiding the seams. Take note of the Editor's notes and Chris' response at the end.