Tag

Painting

Browsing

Asian Paints recently opened their Signature Store in Mumbai. NDTV Hot property featured the colorful store as part of the show’s last segment. The design of the store, patterns, texture, and an impressive product line-up left me awestruck. Though my experience with Asian Paints Home Solutions (for painting) has not been great in the past, I logged on to the site to see what they have to offer this time. I must say, it looks neat. The entire site is worth browsing. Yea, add it to your list of time-wasters :) Going by what they claim, it does sound like kids will finally have the freedom to get creative on the walls (or do they call scribbling?). The colourwash effect under special effects, in particular, looks cool.

Terra Cotta planters are common along the road side in most cities across India. They come in various shapes, sizes, and forms including animals and gods.

I bought a pair of planters for Rs. 80 a few months ago, filled them with potting soil, and planted ivy (money) plants. A few weeks ago, itching to do something, I turned one of the planters into a decorative vase.

What you’ll need:

1. Brush

2. Acrylic Paint – black and white

3. Palette or a cup.

4.  Fevicol

5. Water

6. Varnish

After yesterday’s stimulating pictures of zebra print, let’s get down to do some dirty work today. Once I realized, it wasn’t going to be easy to get zebra stripes-printed cushion covers in Bangalore, I set down to painting one of my recycled cushion covers inspired by this throw pillow.

Things you’ll need:

  1. Pencil/chalk
  2. Brush
  3. A small cup/palette if you have one
  4. Plain Cushion cover in any color, preferably old
  5. Water
  6. Some old clothes if this is your first painting project

A few tips before we start the project:

  1. It’s better to use recycled cushion cover for this project because you wouldn’t want to paint odd looking stripes on a Rs.300 cushion piece and fret over it, would you ? I used one of the recycled covers from this project.
  2. A plain cover of any color will be ideal for this project so that you will have a good background to draw the stripes on. Use contrasting colors for the stripe that gels with your decor. For instance, if your cover is white or ivory then use the natural black or orange or yellow.
  3. Fabric paint can be washed with water. Ensure to read the instructions on the bottle and clean the brush using water after use. In order to preserve the colors for future use, close the cap tightly before putting it away.
  4. If the paint is very dilute, then the results will be blotchy. More often than not, you will see patches on the back of the cover as excess paint from the top layer gets absorbed beneath. Get the correct ratio of paint+water by experimenting on a waste piece of cloth. As a precautionary measure, place a cutting board or something hard inside the cover. This will protect its rear side.