Painting Grasscloth Tutorial

I painted my grasscloth! And it turned out beautiful! I once lived in a house that had the grasscloth in the hallway painted before we moved in. So now that I am updating the hall I decided to paint my own grasscloth.

Here is the before picture:

The grass cloth had darkened. I didn't know this until I removed the pictures and had lighter grasscloth under them.

If you want to do this just be warned that the grass cloth soaks up the paint but it is well worth it. I love the texture of the grasscloth but wanted to update my hallway.

Step 1: Repair any edges that have loosened. I used Seam Repair from Home Depot.

Step 2: Cut in or paint all the edges around molding and doors just as you would if you were painting a room. It will take 2 coats.

Steps 3: Roll the paper with a roller designed for rough surfaces. This will also require 2 coats and you my have to do little touch ups to make sure all areas are well covered. I recommend doing the touch ups during the day and at night. You will find areas not covered well in one or the other lighting.

In my house, I always do the cut in and my husband does the rolling.

You can see a hugh difference in the color of the grasscloth and the new color. It really brightened up the hall and I can't wait to rehang my pictures.

Here is a closeup after painting:

 



You can see that the texture is still there.

I have not rehung the pictures yet. I plan to redo some of the frames and add more pictures. Here is the after:

The next thing I did to update the hallway is paint the doors (as you can see in this picture) and redo the knobs. I will post about this later.

If you have grasscloth and are unhappy with the color but love the texture, this is a great way to update. My hallway is long and it took 3 1/2 gallons of paint. I used Behr Coastal Beige on the walls in satin and SW Pure White on the trim in semi-gloss.

Right now my hall is carpeted but later this year we are going to replace the carpet in the bedrooms and I plan to lay hardwood in the hall at that time.

Looking forward to showing you my doors and knobs. I had a pleasant surprise that I can't wait to share.