Now with more TEXTURE
By Never teh BrideI hate to admit it, but I’ve always kind of hated textured walls. They drive me a little crazy, partly because my eye wants to see patterns even though there aren’t any actual patterns there. They’re also hard as heck to get really clean. I know this because I have six younger siblings, and I watched them turn my father’s walls into something less than lovely.
On the other hand, adding a little texture to a wall or ceiling is a great way to camouflage voids, dents, dings, and other imperfections if you’re not keen on making actual repairs. Adding texture can be easy and it can be difficult — there’s textured paint, textured wallpaper, stuccos, drywall compounds, and fabrics.

There’s also this. The SS-Seesaw panels from Inhabit are designed to expand in any direction with an automatic pattern repeat. They’re visually interesting and they have an actual pattern? I’d say ’sign me up’ if I wasn’t so fond of a nice smooth wall. I’m also a touch lazy when it comes right down to it, and slapping on a coat of pretty paint is so easy.
Or maybe it’s because I grew up in a house that had walls that could rip the skin right off of a misplaced elbow?

July 2nd, 2008 at 6:35 am
Thanks for the link! We have to re-do our powder room and the walls are in very sad shape. This would give us the interest I’m looking for without the patching and scraping and filling and smoothing. Now if only Mr. Carol agrees…
July 2nd, 2008 at 10:09 am
I’m with you, NtB. I’ve never cared for a textured wall. If I want a pattern, I’d rather create it with color on a wall.
Then again, there was a downstairs hallway in the house I grew up in that was panelled in this really rough, grooved faux wood that kept splintering in a surprisingly realistic way. Touching the wall could result in a nasty faux splinter that needed to be removed painfully from a very real palm.
Hmmm…childhood trauma as aesthetic training. I think there might be a book in that.
July 2nd, 2008 at 2:28 pm
Carol: Glad I could help!
Twistie: Be my co-author — we’ll clean up!
July 2nd, 2008 at 4:35 pm
You’re on, NtB!
(rummages through childhood traumas…finds very few…recalls tales of other peoples’ childhood traumas…hits serious paydirt)
July 2nd, 2008 at 4:36 pm
Oh, would now be a good time to tell you why I will never, ever, under any circumstances even pain of death EVER paint a wall grey?
July 3rd, 2008 at 3:34 am
Can we talk about fake panelling for a minute? I mean, it’s not really texture, but once you paint it, yeah, it’s sort of like having a textured wall, ’cause you’ve got all those little grooves running down the wall and sometimes those places where bits of the panelling has torn off or been installed wrong and it’s hard to get paint into…
….*sigh*
I just got up and now you’ve got me wanting a drink.
July 3rd, 2008 at 10:10 am
Twistie: Spill, please!
Jo: I am right there with you. I grew up in a house that had faux wood paneling left over from the post-war years — it was a Levitt ranch — and I grew to hate it. In fact, I still can’t stand it. Whenever The Beard and I looked at a house with it, I’d reject it because ripping it down would be so dang tedious.*
*Of course now we’re planning to rip siding off the exterior of our home which will be more tedious, but one must set one’s priorities!
December 26th, 2008 at 2:21 pm
gotta love the deer heads…but what about the dust in those panels or whatever they are?