Skip Trowel Texture

Today I textured one wall of the living room (in addition to buying a Network Extender off of Craigslist, getting an awesome deal on some new hiking boots at REI, a stop at Home Depot, installing a TP holder and towel bar in the hall bath, selling some wheels on Craigslist for my son-in-law, and babysitting the grandkids.)

We are doing a texture called "skip trowel" which we first had done at the cabin and really like. This can be done by spraying the texture on the wall, waiting for it to start to dry, and then knocking it down. I am doing it by hand, instead. This involves putting globs of texture randomly on the wall and then knocking it down with a mud knife. The idea is to make it look like you just put it up there without a care in the world. It's harder than it looks!



The first challenge is that you need to get the consistency of the mud so it is thin enough that it knocks down smoothly but not so thin that it doesn't have enough body to leave a good amount of texture. Then you have to glob it on randomly so that when you knock it down, it covers most of the wall but not all. You want the "holes" to show. You also need to get the globs fairly consistent so that when you drag your knife across it, there aren't places that you have to push harder or go lighter so that the texture ends up uniform in thickness. You need to knock it down before it stars to dry, but don't work it too much. Wait for it to dry a little and hit it one more time. Don't move your knife too fast or it will "judder" or vibrate and leave little waves... Start with the knife handle high when you make the first passes, lower it for the final ones or you will get lots of knife edge lines. Don't get any debris in you mud or you will get streaks... You get the idea - just make it look like you threw it on there.



To make it harder, all the while you are doing this, you have a little voice in the back of your head saying that you know that your brother, the farmer, is going to inspect it. Farmers like to go on drives after church on Sunday. They look at their neighbors fields and cluck their teeth. Look at those weeds... At least my rows are straighter than that... What kind of an idiot would plant that... He'll never make any money watering the road... Maybe I just think this because I know when I go to his place, I'm always checking out his work. He's probably thinking, "Damn electricians, always think they know everything..." Maybe this doesn't have anything to do with my brother after all. Maybe it's my own inner demons, always searching for approval...

Anyways... the texture is looking good.

PS. Don't ever put old mud back into the bucket. You'll get streaks for sure next time you use it! And those hiking boots... I got a pair of $300 boots for $50!!! And I can return my old ones I don't like. Gotta love REI!