Aquastone or homemade mixture?

[MishiWinks]

I am about to start on a project that will convert a formal living room into a massage/treatment room. I am wanting to get a rough finish and apply a glaze over. The finish I am looking for seems to be able to be achieved using Aquastone. I did a raised stencil allover pattern and just used joint compound and painted them. I was all set to order Aquastone but it seems like you need all of the other products too... IE AquaBond™ or AquaSeal, and then the glazes.
Are these necessary? This is my first all over trowel finish and I like the idea that the product will aid in the technique but I am not scared to mix my own recipe of jc and sand, etc if it will do the same thing and save me from having to buy all of the extra products. What do you guys recommend?

[Pat]

Many products will work the same. Is it a knocked down plaster look? I would love to see a pic of the sample. We have been in a bind and used Joint compound before. Not as durable but it was great in a pinch. We typically use Profaux for our plasters and have had much luck with Armout faux as well.

[kris]

Armorfaux is a great alternative Pat and is really reasonably priced ,seals itself and tints great which eliminates a couple steps compared to JC . You can roll it on and knock it down with the trowel but usually works bets with 2 coats for a knockdown look . This one saves money on product and time .
It does not have the grittiness that aquastone does though I imagine you could add silica or sand . Aquastone will seal itself . You do want to use over a good acrylic paint I always use setcoat when I am using aquastone or I seal the walls . Behr also makes a good paint that primes and seals I have not used it yet but am told by alot of FF friends that it is comparable to setcoat/aquabond
For me the closest that I have found in a regular store to aquastone consistency wise is Valspar smooth texture paint . Behr makes one too but I prefer Valspar from Lowes
It is cheap , gives a good look but where you save money on your texture you will spend time and money in sealing- I do 2 coats because it is pretty porous . .Cost wise you would come in cheaper than aquastone but time is money so you have to weigh it out .
there are many other products out there similar i love proceed s textures they tint great , seal themselves , are in the same price range as Modern masters , and Faux Effects .
Hope this helps
Hope that helps

[kris]

just saw my last 2 sentences ...lol

[Jodi]

Too bad they don't make Divino anymore.

[morningstar]

Um - excuse me - um - (timidly raising my hand).........

May I intrude here with a thought? Mishi - you said the room you are working on is a formal living room that is being converted into a massage room. Does that mean that someday - down the road, even way down the road - that room will need to go to being a formal living room? If you use AquaStone or any sand product - those walls will never ever be able to be smooth or "soft to the touch" again without ripping out the sheetrock. You can create some super terrific textures without having the grit in it. A long time ago, we had sand texture on walls and it never ever would go away.

Quietly - now backing out of the conversation......

Brenda
MorningStar Studio

[KathyFakesIt]

You could float out the wall with JC to return it to a smooth surface down teh road - or better yet - just paint it out - sure it will have texture, but that might be nice.

THere are many alternatives to Aquastone.

Proceed (Golden) Rough Irregular (mix it with a little Rough Regular if you want less roughness)

Texturline Quartzo

Profaux ProSandstone or Quarrystone

Adicolor (if you can get it) Stone Effects

Joint compound, playsand (buy it clean from the store), White glue and a little powdered Lite Compound

All of those products can go over any primed wall and possibly straight over a waterbased painted wall.

[MishiWinks]

The colors and texture should be fine for a formal living room since the home has a kinda old world feel to it already. So I am pretty comfortable with it being permanent but its a great point a lot of people don't consider.

I an wanting the rich earthy colors of the first picture with the texture of the second two. The third picture I saw in another post by Rebecca (surfaces) and she said she used Aquastone, which is what raised my question.

[Linda Marsteller]

I threw all my leftover FE products together, astone, sandstone, paint, and a half bucket of builders sand so I could do a finish on a triple groin vault.
Good point about having to float it later.

BTW I never had any issues by NOT using setcoat. Used Behr or whatever acrylic I had on hand

[strongv]

Just about ANY alteration to the physical texture is going to have to be floated out to get rid of it.... its the nature of the beast....

but if you do a nice job and keep in fairly moderate in profile you should enhance, not ruin the room's chances for restoration to a formal living room. Perhaps one idea of formal is not anothers. Most living rooms around here would have to be floated smooth just to do a strie anyway, so don't let that stop you.

[MishiWinks]

Yeah that is not a concern of mine. I just need to figure out, being my first time, what is the best product to use to give me this finish. I am wanting to start this week but have to get the product first.

Any suggestions on the easiest, most cost effective way and color suggestions to achieve a look like the first pic would be greatly appreciated

[KathyFakesIt]

The first pic looks like glaze and plaster over anagalypta wallpaper.

Is that really what you want? i thought it was the second one with the pompeii word on it.

Rebecca is a very talented instructor. I'm not a bit surprised she inspired you!

[BAForese]

To me, I'd double load the trowel with aquastone and plastertex; 100% coverage with skip trowel, organic movement with the trowel, etc. Do the raised stencil with aquastone then overglaze and manipulate the glaze with wet terry. jmo

[MishiWinks]

Yes, I want the look of the 3rd one but the color of the first. I am contemplating doing a raised stencil toward the bottom of the walls sporadically to make it look like its knocked off. If I can find the right stencil look.
I just wasn't sure if I should order Aquastone or go to Lowes and make my own mixture and I wasn't sure if I should tint the plaster mixture and then do a glaze over it or just glaze after and if so what colors to achieve that color family as in picture 1.
This is my first one, so I feel like a fish out of water, lol.

[Dream]

hi

picture one is sooo great. I love that style. i saw it in another thread and am now in love.

What i would do to get the colors is:

*Do what ever texture you do.

*Base paint w/ nice quality satin sheen paint. Pick out the light tannish color that you see peeking through
(do samples)

*then glaze with diiferent earth colors. Hopefully someone will chime in to say what colors to use.

since this is your first project I highly recomend doing a wall at home or buying a whole sheet of drywall and doing this finish from start to end. You will find all kinks and not be in the clients home when you do.

Best of luck

btw if you dont want to spend alot of money on a product just use the JC mix in the other thread. It will work great as long as you seal it with a primer then paint it with good paint.

[Dream]

pss

mostly all the sample pictures have a knock down texture. Some just left alot of space open and knocked down random spots.

to get the color to be consistent do one 100% texture layer then randomly roll on plaster with mini sea sponge roller and knock down


looks like in the pic they used a sandy type plaster.

Ive used homemade plasters that we just added play sand too. very fine play sand.

good luck

[MishiWinks]

Ok Bernie...I took your advice! I have Aquastone and PlasterTex and started working on a sample board today to get used to the texture. It is extremely thick, thicker than I expected...is this normal?

Any more tips before I jump off the bridge, lol?

[kawear]

Just thin it with some water and you can get a nice creamy consistancy. I like to layer the Aquastone and Plastertex. You get a really nice look this way.

[strongv]

Frankly, if you're on a budget, create your texture with Joint compound, prime and paint it then glaze it with one or two glazes.

You won't save any time, but you'll get exactly that look without spending as much on product.

[strongv]

[sonol'artista]

ahhhh, Pat, well said-when working for a client- Time is money and when working for yourself money is money....great summation.


Theresa