Get your sea sponge damp and dip the sponge into the mixture. Then dab the sponge onto the wall in a cloud-like shape.
Sponge Painting Basics and Ideas for Styling Your Walls
Brittney is a wife, a mom of four young children, a writer and editor (B.S. degree in English/Technical Writing), and a lover of interior design. She thrives on finding inexpensive ways to DIY her own home into a stylish yet family-friendly space.
Learn more about Homedit’s Editorial Process
| Updated on Feb 20, 2022
Reviewed by Brianne Bagge
Brianne Bagge Home Improvement Editor
Brianne is someone who takes, not the road less travelled, but a road that is completely her own. And a writer and editor are among her several titles.
Learn more about Homedit’s Editorial Process
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Sponge Paint Brush
How to Sponge Paint a Wall
What is sponge wall
gaming-room-sponge-wall-painting
Sometimes a little paint is all you need to transform a space. And sponge painting is a fast and easy way to freshen up your space.
This patchy coating provides a high aesthetic appeal and provides a very unique pattern compared to other coating techniques. Check out these sponge painting ideas to add texture to your home.
What is Sponge Painting?
If you’re looking for an interesting texture for any wall in your home, sponge painting is the way to go.
It’s an application technique used for texturing, depth, and complexity.
A sponge, some paint, and a few colors can dramatically transform a room.
Sponge Painting Color Combinations
Some of the best color combinations for a sponged finish are different tones of the same color.
You can make other great color combinations with colors from the same family and shade to nicely complement each other.
It’s best to avoid combining unrelated colors like red and green. It gives off a dated and gaudy result.
How to Sponge Paint a Wall
Before you dive into painting your walls, you’ll need to prepare them. While the sponged effect works well at hiding minor blemishes and irregularities, it won’t hide any significant wall damage.
Like you would for any painting project, prepare your walls by making necessary repairs, washing them, and taping the areas you aren’t painting.
And it’s a good idea to test your sponging technique on a piece of cardboard or paper before taking it to your walls.
Step-by-Step Process to Sponge Paint Your Wall
- Apply the base coat if you’re using one.
- Mix the glaze.
- Wet your sponge.
- Then dip it into the glaze and dab the first color to the wall with even pressure.
- After the first color, dab your second color while the paint is wet for an even blend.
- Make sure to dab the corners and edges of the wall.
- Once all the colors are on, use the sponge OFF technique for adjustments.
What Kind of Paint to Use for Sponge Painting
You’ll want to use paint that doesn’t dry too fast so you can properly blend the colors as you add them.
In this case, latex paint isn’t recommended because of its quick-drying properties.
On the other hand, acrylic paint works best for sponge painting your walls because it dries slowly and allows for proper blending.
Another type of paint to consider is alkyd. Alkyd paint had a similar consistency to oil paint, and because of this, you’ll probably have to add paint thinner. Be advised that you should wear a mask and gloves when handling paint thinner to avoid coming into contact or inhaling fumes.
Sponge Paint Brush
There are several sponges and sponge paint brushes to choose from for painting.
You can find these at any of your local home improvement stores or supermarkets.
It’s recommended to use a sea sponge for painting the desired texture.
Sea sponges are natural sponges with irregular sized pores but consistent in texture.
You can also use other sponge paint brushes like circular brushes or foam paint brushes. But these might not give you the effect you’re looking for.
You can also use a sponge paint roller.
Sponge rollers are convenient and can create a different texture than a sea sponge.
You can save time with a sponge paint roller and it works for any size project.
Sponge Painting Techniques
There are two primary techniques for sponging your paint on the wall.
The first is sponging ON the wall. And with this technique, you simply dab your paint on the wall, not too thick and too thin.
The second is sponging OFF the wall. And here, you’re using a clean, wet sponge to pull wet paint off the wall.
These techniques provide different textures but are excellent finishes.
Sponge painting – the easiest wall painting technique to make boring rooms look more dramatic!
Are you tired of staring at your dull, grey walls? Are you not a big fan of wallpapers? There is a quick and simple way to add drama to your internal walls. I tried sponge painting couple of years ago and I was hooked. For me, it is by far one of the best wall painting techniques. And I new straight away I had to paint another wall with a sponge.
Fast forward two years and I finally had the chance to showcase my inner creativity by sponge painting a wall in my son’s bedroom. Hooray!
But first things first. This is not a step by step guide.
Sponge painting is very intuitive. It is very easy to achieve good results. But it is also very easy to get carried away (like I did) and spend countless hours on going back to the point where you liked it. So in this blog post I will not be holding your hand every step of the way (not literally obviously, I wouldn’t be able to do that anyway). Instead I will tell you about all the things I did wrong. And hopefully that will save you from making the same mistakes I did.
The colours
There are no set rules on what and how many colours you should use when sponge painting a wall. Few shades of the same colour or analogous colours will probably work best. But if you’re a fan of colour, why not try using complementary colours instead? One thing you have to remember though is that some of that colours bill blend together. Unless you wait for the colours to dry completely before adding another colour, it is unavoidable. And blending the colours together is also kid of a point of all this sponge painting. So take that into account when deciding on a more colourful palette or you might end up with a poo on the wall… (And believe me, by “more dramatic look”, I did not mean that)
Tip! Don’t buy full size paint tins! You won’t need much so paint sample pots are more than enough. Try Valspar paint as they can literally mix any colour you ask for and their sample pots are really generous.
Sponge painting – how to start
Whichever colour palette you choose – start from the darkest colour in your group. It is much easier to keep control of the colour when adding lighter shades on top. How do I know that? Because I didn’t and it cost me few more hours fixing it. So take my advice, because – well, it’s a good advice! Obviously for your first colour you don’t have to use a sponge. In fact you should use a roller or a brush at this point as it will take less time. When that’s done – you have your base colour (which, remember, should be the darkest one). Now you can start the actual sponge painting.
Or better still – make a drawing (on the paper, not on the wall) of what you want to achieve. This will help you enormously. When sponge painting a wall you will go through many stages. There is a pretty good chance you will like most of them (because they all look good on a small scale, whole wall – not so much). So remembering what your vision was at the start will help you decide when to carry on and when to stop with he paint. And as a proof – here are few stages from when I was painting my son’s wall. I liked them all at the time and was considering changing the course. I’m glad I didn’t. (Apologies for the quality of the photos but some of them were taken very late at night – yep, if you don’t have a plan, you will end up with a brush in your hand well past your bedtime)
