Sometimes the dining room can often feel small and cramped, especially if you have a large dinner party.  Unless your home is built in a way that allows you to knock down a wall or two to open up the space, you have to come up with creative ways to make your dining room feel larger than it appears.  With a little paint, and the help of your Preval Sprayer System, you can easily give your quaint dining room into an open entertaining space.

An easy way to open up a tight space is to use a pattern with two different colors.  The combination of two colors in a checked pattern can compliment your furniture and create a nice open feeling in your dining room.  Here’s what you’ll need:

·         Latex satin paint
·         Pencil
·         Long straight edge
·         Level
·         Tape measure
·         Masking tape
·         1 quart acrylic crackle glaze
·         Acrylic or latex paint for staining glass
·         Preval Sprayer System
·         Long piece of wood
·         Latex glaze coat

Step 1: Plan a color scheme and make sure that the design will fit into your space.  Paint the walls with your Preval sprayer in your base color, using a paint that has a slight sheen, such as latex satin.  Choose your base color that is lighter than your chosen contrasting color for stripes or checks.

Step 2: Once the base coat is dry, use a pencil to draw out the vertical stripes using your level.  After you draw out the lines, cover them with masking tape.

Step 3: Mix a glaze, using acrylic crackle glaze with about a tablespoon of acrylic or latex paint in the color of your choice.  You can put this right into the Preval reservoir.  Add the paint color a tiny bit at a time, ensuring the transparency of the glaze.

Step 4: Apply the glaze with your Preval Sprayer System.  Make sure to apply a thin layer to the masked off stripes.  Make sure to work quickly so you don’t overlap wet areas.

Step 5:  While the glaze is still wet, remove the masking tape.  Peel the tape slowly, back on itself, making sure it does not pull the base paint away from the wall.

Step 6: When the vertical lines have dried, mark and mask off the horizontal stripes.  Save yourself time from measuring each strip, by marking a long wooden board with spaces the right distances apart.  Then work along the wall with the marked piece of wood and use the marks as guidelines for marking the position of the horizontal stripes.

Step 7:  Most ceilings and walls do not meet perfectly.  Be sure to check with a level before you mark the horizontals.  If the ceiling is not quite straight, make small adjustments of about ½” at a time on each horizontal stripe. 

Step 8: Mask off the horizontal, making sure there is always a 90 degree angle where the lines meet.  Apply glaze to the horizontal areas, using your Preval sprayer.  When finished, carefully remove the masking tape.

Step 9:  For durability, give the walls a final single coat of latex glaze, either in satin or matte finish.       

   
The next time you look around your dining room and you start to feel like the walls are closing in on you, just throw some paint on them instead of knocking them down!  Do you know of some other ways that Preval can help you open up cramped spaces in your home?  All you have to do is send in your pictures or video that show what you made and how you made it with Preval, and you could win a trip for two to Las Vegas!  Look for details on Preval’s Home Page, under the NEWS section.

-Jen