Glaze or polyurethane on an interior wall?

Laina · 10-27-2011, 11:57 PM

I am wanting to do a little bit of an accent on a wall in my living room. I was wanting to stripe it every 12-15 inches and use the same color but add a glaze alternating the stripe. The Sherwin Williams people said to use a water based polyurethane glossy finish but I am leary of using a varnish substance on my wall. They said it would stand out better than a glaze. I don't want the surface of the wall to be raised any with a varnish. If I would use a glaze how would I mix this and which products are recommended? Any suggestions? Thanks

m1951mm · 10-28-2011, 02:53 AM

No matter what product you use you will get a slight raised area on your stripes, you are adding a thin coat, it cant help but raise the stripes a little bit. I have done many tone on tone wall treatments. The sheen level between a flat paint and any other sheen such as eggshell, satin or semi gloss will create a visible stripe. IMHO I would not use the water poly, in my own experience it is harder to work with for the purpose you are wanting to do. It might not level out as well as you hope and may show brush marks with just one coat. Water poly dries pretty quick and if you go back over a previously painted area you could get drag marks. Most glazes have a sheen to them. You could use an untinted glaze as a top coat to shine up the stripes. Since glazes dry slower, they would be easier to work with. My preference is still to use the paints in different sheen levels.

What is the base coat you are using?? sheen level you are painting the whole wall to begin with??

This is an instance that I would recommend using the frog masking tape. I normally measure down from the ceiling about 3" and put a little PENCIL tick mark, another one midway down the wall using a level and one near the baseboard again using the level and run the tape just to the outside of the tick marks ceiling to base. The pencil marks will be covered with paint (not with just a clear glaze). I also use one of those small 3" paint rollers (very thin napped rollers) rather than a brush. I seem to get better coverage with the roller than with a brush (this assumes your stripes are atleast 2" to 3" wide or more, spanning stripe and tape only). If you are doing one wall you will want a stripe at each outside corner of the wall so it will stand out from the connecting wall. Then measure the distance between those two stripes and divide evenly for your stripes. I would also recommend that you pull the tape before the paint completely dries. Totally dry paint can form a skin with the masking tape and when you go to pull the tape it will bring some of the stripe with it, hence pulling tape before the paint dries fully. Just be carefull not to get wet paint from the tape on the walls, lol. This is a fun treatment. LOVE tone on tone!!!!!!

Good Luck