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Royale Play

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You know this is the busiest time of the year for paint companies with chock-a-block calendar? This is when most people give their walls a fresh lease of paint before the festive and wedding season begins. The most popular posts on this blog – on Asian Paints and Surprise your Spouse have been trending for the past two months.

A special effects (textured paint) on a ~ 100 sq. ft wall can cost upwards of INR 5,000. But, you don’t have to spend a fortune if you are proud of your DIY and not too worried about a professional finish. Sponging, combing, brushing, dapple, ragging, weaving, spatula and crinkle are some of the special effects on offer.

The intent of this post is to show that you can do it yourself at home.  For steps on how to do it, this is a great starting point. If you’ve never done a painting job before, I’d suggest you get started with these handy tips.

For all the textured effects, choose a base color and another foreground one that stands out as you can see below.

See, how easy it is?  How touch can stretching a comb over wet paint be especially if it leads to a stunning visual effect?

It is time to talk about the surprise. 2010 drew to a close on a good note and December was been a fabulous month. Before I begin, wish you all a very Happy New Year. And thank you for stopping by, asking for suggestions and all your kind comments.

There was a time, year 2004 to be precise, when I was hooked onto the makeover and event series on TLC. You know The Wedding story, The Baby Story, The Home Makeover story and such…I would watch back to back episodes. Have you seen those home makeover surprise episodes when a spouse goes away for a weekend? And the husband/wife along with the TLC team renovates the yard/room beyond recognition. When the spouse returns, he/she is in for a HUGE surprise. Imagine the adrenaline rush!

The dream came true. It all began in November end as part of “Surprise your spouse” campaign for Asian Paints. It was like a dream come true. In a way, it was a torture for I couldn’t tell my husband or anyone about it for nearly 3 weeks :)

As per the campaign, I could choose a wall to be painted in a color and texture of my choice and Asian Paints Home Solutions would paint it. This had to be done when the husband was away on work. Everything feel in to place in the first week of December as my husband was away on a business trip for 3 days giving us enough window to execute the whole process at ease.  I was as thrilled as my son when he gets a new RC helicopter. Alright, more about Royale Play and the process now…

Color and texture selection:

This is perhaps the most important step in the whole process. A lot has been said and written about color selection for walls – furniture, wall decor, artifacts, lighting, furnishings play a critical role. If you do not intend to change the rest, then it is wise to choose a color that blends well with furniture and furnishings.

We are in the process of re-doing our home in parts. After a bright orange drawing room, for two years, I was game for a more subdued and neutral color, preferably monochromatic. I wanted to bring color to the room through vases, flowers and rugs. This limited my choice of colors and the selection process easier. But you never know how it would look once done. This is where the experts help. The Asian Paints’ team leader vouched that silver-Aluminium dapple gives a royale look.

To be honest, even after selection, I was skeptical for two reasons. One, it is easier to transform a room and surprise everyone by painting a focus wall in the darker shade. Though a standard and fail-safe approach, it is not novel anymore. in our case, the hardest part was to move away from a darker shade and still make an impression. Two, as I said before, one can never be sure what looks good on paper will stand out in reality as well.