apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I have a question for any of you who have done decorative painting on your walls (animals in the nursery, circles in the living room ...)Do you just use regular room paint for the decorative painting or do you use acrylic or something? Please advise. I'm helping my friend paint her nursery this weekend and she thinks I know what I'm doing. I don't.

Regular paint is fine. Decorative painting refers to the way the paint is applied, not the paint itself.

That said, however, many decorative painters are going after elaborate effects such as antiquing, patinas, fooling the eye. To this end they utilize an exhaustive list of tricks and products. Glaze being predominant. Glaze is a clear, slower drying paint medium that you mix with paint or tint, apply over a dried layer of regular paint (acrylic/latex eggshell or satin best) in either one or many layers to get a translucent, multi-layer effect. You can use different colors for basecoat and glaze coat. Many many resources online. Search for decorative paint techniques.

But what you seem to need is a good, bright paint to paint shapes on a wall, right? I would recommend a good quality 100% acrylic paint if not artist's acrylics. You want one pass of the brush to be sufficient for color saturation. Most of the mass market wall paints do not contain enough pigment to saturate in one coat.

Most important: Have fun!

Does anyone know when the AT color vault will be up and running?

I am considering painting my bedroom either BM's "Rhubarb" or "Berry wine" and my kitchen either "Orange sky" or "Tangelo".

Have any of you used any of these colors?

What is everyone's opnion on this new lamp form IKEA? I just saw it for the 1st time....

I, for one, love the concept and price. But it needs some space; I also am not crazy about seeing the cord along the length of the pole.

But it's great that IKea is tackling iconic designs. One by one, taking over the world.

I like it too, but I agree with Olga, the cord is disappointing.

Caitlin -- "Regular" latex paint and craft-store acrylic paints are basically the same thing. The major differences are:

(a) Latex comes in flat, eggshell, semi-gloss, and gloss. Craft acrylics come only in flat, with a very few high-gloss exceptions.

(b) Latex can be mixed to your exact specifications. (If you want to do it yourself, there are universal tinters you can buy.) Craft acrylics come in a large but limited color range.

(c) For a project that uses at least a pint of a given color, latex is usually far less expensive. If your needs happen to match a quart of mismixed latex -- which many paint stores will steeply discount -- the price difference is huge.

I use craft store acrylics for dollhouse projects, but I wouldn't use them for the major colors on a wall-sized project. Highlights and details, sure. (And they're compatible with latex, as long as you're happy with the gloss levels.)

I have a Poang problem. We bought a used Poang that came with an orange suede-like cushion. The cushion is in two pieces, one loops over the headrest. The other covers most of the back and the seat and is supposed to velcro on just under the headrest. The problem is that every time you sit down it pulls off the velcro making an annoying sound. Anyone else have this problem and if so, what to do?

i freaking love their lighting (+ the accessories wonderland that is IKEA).
a full ball would be fine w/ me, or the bowl shape in silver grey paper could be kind of sassy or spoofy

Does anyone know any websites for furniture that are in the Crate and barrel, room and board price point and clean look. (modern but not stark) As far as sites I dont know any others than those and ikea, west elm, door store....

Particulary, I am looking for a 36" - 48" round table (probably dark wood but am open to others) that has an extension to make it oval...

thank you