Painting a room in a Mexican style makes a striking design statement. Mexican interior decor is often bold and colorful, reflecting the spirit of the Mexican people, who are proud of their vibrant heritage and culture. Wall finishes are textured with rough adobe and stucco, intensely colored, and covered with bright and rustic patterns. Does this Spark an idea?
Instructions
1. Prepare the room by securing plastic tarp over the floor to catch any spills while you work. Tape the tarp down or weight it at the corners and middle. Remove any light switch and outlet covers and set them aside until the room dries. Open blinds and tie up cords; remove curtains to give yourself clear access to every wall.
2. Consider adding texture to your walls before you paint. Much of Mexican architecture uses stucco for interior and exterior walls. To create a rustic stucco look, smear drywall putty on your walls with a trowel. Leave the trowel marks visible rather than smoothing them down. Let the putty dry completely before applying paint.
3. Tape off the joints between walls and ceilings, along floor baseboards, around window and doorframes and over light switches and outlets. Use wide painter's tape to prevent "accidental paint" on the wall/ceiling connections.
4. Plan a "tile rim": Pencil in a three-inch high strip of space along one or more walls at about waist height. Leave this strip unpainted when you apply your wall color.
5. Use rollers or brushes to paint the walls with a vibrant warm base color: choose from deep reds, golden yellows or light earth browns. Let the first coat dry, then apply a second coat to deepen the colors. If the results are too bold for you, try glazing the walls to mute the colors, or try the dustier variations of these colors, like terra cotta or maize.
6. Accent the room by painting the window frames and door frames and any other fixtures either bright blue or green.
7. Go back to the "tile rim." Paint the strip the same color as your accent color for the room. When it dries, pencil in a colorful Mexican tile design and paint in the details. Or find wall stickers in the style of Mexican tiles to apply over the base strip and add an eye-catching accent to your walls.
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