Making a Faux Copper Feature Wall

This is what I started with - a horrible, maroon coloured feature wall that isn't my colour at all. (Excuse the ladder, I forgot to start taking photos from the beginning)

After preparing the wall by washing it and filling any dings and holes in the plaster, I put two coats of Dulux "Sea Creature" satin finish over the wall.

Next, I rolled a glaze over it in a lighter green/blue "Spartacus". I then whacked it with the suede side of an old sheep skin car seat I had lying around ready to toss out. I liked this look, and my husband thought I was done, but I was only half way there.

I made a 1:2 glaze of Dulux Copper Effect paint and painted the wall with a narrow roller in random strokes. The light really picked up the copper tones, but it looked raw.

Next, I lightly sprayed the Copper patina from a spray bottle in random sprays and thought I was done. The next day, the patina was working, turning the copper into a chalky blue but it looked horrible: there were runs down the wall every where.

So I got a wet cloth and rubbed off all the patina, which lifted some copper off and softened the effect. It also had the added bonus of leaving the copper with some depth, as it took quite a bit off, leaving random amounts of copper finish behind.

Now what. After several false starts and much wiping off, I made a 1:2 glaze again with the copper, and coated the entire wall evenly. Much better! But the edges looked motheaten and unfinished, and it was difficult to get a hard edge.

So my last step was to paint a teal border around the entire wall to "frame" the copper effect. I used a paint edger to get the straight lines and it took me about 15 minutes. Much better! This is what it looks like in the day time.

This is the wall at night time. The copper has a depth that warms the room. I love my new feature wall! (That diagonal line is a lighting effect from the uncovered light bulb)

This is the opposite wall: we are building cupboards against this wall so it is framed by the cupboards. For this wall, I followed the same process, but left the patina because it didn't run so badly, and didn't put the last coat of copper glaze over it. I like the different looks and can't be happier.