Tissue paper 101: A Tutorial

 

I love, love, love, love the tissue paper faux finish I just did in my master bedroom ceiling. I learned how to do tissue paper 9 years ago and I still love how it looks. There are very few faux finishes I can say that about.

I mentioned in an earlier post that I was over.my.Ty.Pennington.paper. It was too dark. Too heavy. Too masculine for my master bedroom ceiling.

 

I was not paid to write this post or use these products. This blog is my own opinion and I only recommend products I use and love! This post contains Amazon affiliate links and Faux Effects Store affiliate links of which I make a small commission at no charge to you. Thanks for your purchases. 

 

So I went about the business of tissue papering over it. One of the nice things about a tissue paper faux finish is that it covers a multitude of sins on your walls. So, if you have bad sheetrock, or bad wallpaper… it can cover both. Just oil prime over those walls first.

Let’s begin.

How to Paint a Tissue Paper Faux Finish

First, you need ALOT of tissue paper. I suggest Hobby Lobby. They have 100 packs available. In stacks of 3-6 sheets at a time, rip off the squares edges of the paper. This way you won’t see squares all over your walls!

 

It will take awhile. Get your kids, your hubby, your friends to help.

 

Your pile of rippings should look like this.

 

I like to keep one pile of tissue paper with only 3 of the 4 edges torn off. These are the pieces I use to edge my room around the baseboards and the crown molding. They will have one edge that is unripped.

After ripping edges (that is the worst part in my opinion)…. you need to individually ball up every piece of tissue paper.

 

Then un-ball each piece and put them in their piles.

 

Ok, so I ALWAYS use an eggshell or satin sheen paint to roll my tissue on with. If you try it with flat paint you will email me crying. I know some people use wallpaper paste to hang up tissue paper, but in my opinion… wallpaper paste is heavy, messy and can crackle paint. Plus it’s colorless. Stick to satin paint. You will thank me later when painting your tissue paper faux finish.

I prefer to do all my edges first, then fill in the center of the wall….like a puzzle. But you can do it any way you want.

Roll a section of paint bigger than your piece of tissue paper onto the wall. Now loosely press a piece of the paper immediately onto the wet paint. You can smooth the wrinkles down with your hands. You don’t want to get rid of the wrinkles, you just want to get out all of the air bubbles.

Immediately roll back over the tissue with your roller. Each piece will take no longer than 1-3 minutes to put up.

Then move on to the next piece. Always overlap the edges of your paper. If you miss a spot on the wall, you will be able to go back and “piece” some tissue in.

If you get an air bubble that’s unsightly…. scrape that piece off before it sets up and try again. This finish is sooooo forgiving. If you have a spot that is too flat, lay another piece of tissue right over it to add more crinkles. You’ll never be able to tell.

I did have my son make a video of me putting up one piece of tissue. If you are really visual, this should help you alot.

But, if the sight of 7 kids in a video with an open paint tray makes you nervous, please don’t watch.

And, if you wonder if my hair is always this big…. yes it is. I have just learned to go with it.

Roll the tape.

The secret to tissue paper looking great in 2010 is using metallic paint.

I use eggshell or satin paint to hang my tissue up with, but…… after it dries, I always paint metallic paint on it. I don’t hang the tissue up with metallic just to save money because metallic paints are so expensive.

 

Normally I always try to get my eggshell/satin paint to be very close or darker than my metallic paint color. Ignore that I didn’t do this on my own ceiling. I had alot of the satin, golden paint that I was trying to get rid of.

For my ceiling’s base color over the dried tissue paper, I mixed Modern Master’s Pharoah Gold and Modern Master’s Antique Bronze. Roll it on and let it dry. This is my sweet, sweet neighbor girl Mary who loves to help me! You go, girl!

 

Then the next day (ok…. I lie…. 2 weeks later)… I mixed Modern Master’s English Brown with Faux Effects Aqua Creme and rubbed it on with a cheap car washing sponge from WalMart. The sponge helps to get the glaze to hang up in the crinkles, which is what accentuates the tissue texture. You MUST glaze it. I like to use Aqua Creme because it has an incredible open time and it is the best “glaze” for keeping your metallic paint looking “metallic-y”.

 

You may need to use a utility knife to cut the tape off with.

 

And that’s it! I do hope you will try tissue paper. I feel like my pictures just don’t do it any justice at all! 

Or…. I just need to invite you all over to see it in person!

Here are a few pictures of other tissue paper faux finish color combinations:

 

Sign Up for My Weekly Emails!