Friday, 05/06/05

Although I really like the look of ragged walls, I must admit that I'm not all that crazy about the process. It's time-consuming, fairly tedious and just kills your wrist.

I got to thinking that there had to be an easier way, and what do you know, I came up with a perfect solution — a rag roller.

Think you'd like to try this variation of the ragging technique? OK, let's give it a try. First, the materials. The rag roller is made of a chamois cloth cut into squares and stapled to a nap roller cover.

Chamois is a natural product that has a number of uses in the home, from decoration to cleaning. Natural chamois are pricey, but imitation chamois is available.

The best and least expensive place to find chamois is with the car cleaning products in your local superstore. While you're there, you can probably pick up most of the rest of the materials you need for this project, including:

• A roller handle

• Two ¼-inch nap roller covers

• Staple gun and staples

• Ruler

• Utility scissors or knife

• Pencil

• Brown grocery bags or craft paper

• Chamois

• Latex satin paint in two colors (one base and one ragging coat)

Start by applying the base coat color to the wall using a regular roller cover. If the walls are already painted in a color that is perfect for the base coat, don't bother to repaint. As long as the paint is not peeling and is free of dirt and grease, it will work out great. After the base coat has dried, mask off the trim and ceiling edges with painter's tape.

While the paint is drying, you can make your rag roller. Using a pencil, divide the chamois into nine 3-inch squares. Cut out the shapes with utility scissors or a utility knife, making the edges irregular for a more random pattern.

Place a roller on a roller frame. Starting on the left edge of the roller, staple a chamois piece onto the roller cover. Be sure that the staple penetrates the roller cover. If the chamois piece seems loose, use another staple to secure it in place. Try to make sure the staples are flush with the roller cover. Otherwise, tiny staple prints may appear on your wall.

Repeat this process until you have a row of three chamois pieces running the length of the roller. Spin the cover by one third and repeat the stapling process, repositioning and rotating the chamois squares to create an irregular pattern. Place these squares off line from the first row, like stacking rows of bricks. Repeat this step for the three remaining chamois squares.

Start rolling a second and differing coat of paint on the wall. If the roller seems to get over-saturated, blot it off on brown grocery bags before applying to the wall. This will help the ''printing'' to be consistent.

If you need to change colors or plan on saving the cover for another project, roll-out the excess paint on lots of brown bags, and then wash it in cool water, being sure to completely squeeze the paint out of the chamois squares.

You can layer as many colors or shades with this process as you like. It's a good idea to test out different combinations on a sample board before you actually start on the walls. The final look is based on the order in which the colors are applied. The shade that you want to show the least should be the base coat and the desired prominent shade should be the top coat.