I'm happy as a monkey with 7 ******! The result of the concrete-look paint on my living room wall is really much more beautiful than I could have dreamed. And that with a 100% ecological paint. It took me a while to make the final decision on the color, but I'm so happy with the color I chose. It took some guts, haha, but we have zero regrets! The living room wall now has a very cool look. I used the concrete look paint from van Beton for this and I would like to take you through our selection process and (of course) its implementation.
Table of Contents
It may not seem all that complicated, but if you know how many paint types there are, you probably understand that the choice is huge. And that I could no longer see the forest for the trees. Not in terms of the brand of concrete-look paint I wanted on the wall, and not in terms of color either. Choosing can sometimes be difficult!
But long live all social media. On Instagram I saw van Beton passing by with the most beautiful pictures of beautifully painted walls. Walls on which concrete-look paint has been applied, without it being a very difficult process to apply. And also in all kinds of different colors. A real paint, and not the concrete ciré that I have applied on the dining table and on my windowsills, for example. That didn't seem very practical to me for a wall in the living room, because you can't just get real concrete ciré off your wall anymore.
And since I change quite a bit at home, in my interior and with the colors I use, I really wanted a concrete-look paint to apply to the wall. A paint that is easy to apply, which gives a cool result and which can also be painted over when I am ready to use it again. And I found it!
Go directly to the vanBeton website for more information
If you are an interior freak like me, then you are undoubtedly familiar with the term Marrakech walls. This treatment of your wall also looks like a concrete-look paint. However, applying this is not nearly as practical as the concrete-look paint I used. With the Marrakech Walls paint you have to work with the spatula when applying the second layer. Not bad in itself, but it does indicate that this paint is very thick. And probably not so nice to paint over. This is not the case with the concrete-look paint that I have applied to the wall in the living room. You simply apply this in two layers in an easy way. I'll tell you how.
Concrete look paint is so called because of the effect you create by working with it. So it has nothing to do with the color. You can get this paint in all kinds of shades and not just in the concrete color gray. A great advantage, but also a challenge at the same time. Because what color are we going to put on the wall? That is the question again.
Fortunately, they have a solution for that at Van Beton. Paint testers! And because I was so in doubt about the color concrete-look paint for the wall, I first requested a number of test jars. With the colors below.
To be able to make a good choice of color, I applied the five different colors of concrete-look paint next to each other on the wall. I also found that exciting. Because suppose it is not so beautiful after all. Can you just cover it with white again without seeing the stripes?
Fortunately, I also use an excellent opaque interior wall paint with which the stripes simply disappear when you want to make it white again. And I know that for sure, because in the end I decided to paint the piece of wall on this side only a little bit with concrete-look paint. And then further around the corner.
Below you can see how I taped the surface with Frog tape. This tape ensures that you have a nice tight separation on your wall and that no concrete-look paint comes through under the tape when painting.
After staring at the different shades for a few days and asking my Insta followers for their opinion, we finally decided to go with the darkest shade. It seemed so cool to me to have the black TV against a dark wall. And guess what? It's cool too . But I also found it exciting.
Because the part of the wall towards the steel door is a transition from the dining room to the living room, I also found it exciting to opt for a black wall. This part is the darkest part of the living room. In the end I decided not to paint the area on this part of the wall too large with the concrete-look paint.
Of course I also want to talk about working with this paint. As a color we finally chose KV03, Lave † That is an (almost) black color that gets a little lighter when it dries.
First of all, it is important to use a primer when applying the concrete look paint. Especially if your walls have just been newly plastered, as is the case with us. The primer ensures that the suction effect of the wall is reduced and that you need less paint because it no longer absorbs as much. At Van Beton they have a Bio primer with which you can prepare your wall excellently. This primer is also 100% ecological and C02 neutral, which is nice.
After the primer had dried, I applied a first coat of paint with a roller the next day. With this I applied a full layer so that no more white shows through. Here and there you will see a start of the roller, or some darker spots because you have applied it a bit thicker in a certain place. No worries, everything will be fine!
After this layer had dried well (12 hours), I applied layer number two. I did this with a large block brush. You can also do it with a smaller brush, but I wanted an irregular pattern and not too small strokes. Just crisscross the wall with your brush. You don't have to paint everything opaque now. Also make sure that you don't always make the pattern in the same way, it's nicer if there is some difference in your brush strokes.
To emphasize the irregular pattern, I then just went over it with the roller in a few places. To add some accents here and there. The funny thing is that this gives you a more stain structure that comes even closer to a concrete look.
Below the result of my painting adventure!
The concrete look paint from van Beton works very well. It is thin, so keep that in mind. If you are not an all-round painter or handyman, make sure you cover everything well. Since I can work fairly precisely myself, I only need an old rug on the floor. I spilled exactly 2 drops, that's not much is it.
What strikes me is the importance of cleaning your materials well. Normally I just leave a roller or brush with a lot of paint on it until the next day. I wrap it in aluminum foil and I can continue the next day. That is not convenient to do with this concrete-look paint. It seems that the aluminum foil dissolves because of the paint and then you get all kinds of pieces of aluminum foil on your roller or brush that you can't get off easily.
So clean your materials well after use for the next day.
Find here the concrete look and lime paint of van Beton
