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Imitation stone.

Imitation-stone Paints

There is a wide variety of ready-made stone paints on the market. You can also make up your own, using emulsion or latex paints mixed with sand of different grades of coarseness.

Imitating Stonework

When natural stone is imitated it is usual to divide up the wall into small blocks, commonly rectangular oblongs. Great care and judgment are needed in this work, for while the sizes will, in the case of small rooms, be regulated to some extent by the area, in the main they must conform to the practice of masonry. It will be found that the proportions of the blocks vary to some extent according to the nature of the stone. Another point of great importance is the marking out of the blocks. This is generally done by taking a straight-edge and ruling off the blocks by horizontal and vertical lines traced with flexible pencils dipped in black or white paint to imitate coloured mortar jointing. These lines should never be very thick, but their breadth will be regulated by the nature of the masonry. But the chief matter to observe is, that stones are laid in horizontal courses, usually of uniform breadth, but the vertical joints are always broken. That is to say, the horizontal lines are carried right across, but the vertical ones only the width of the course; a vertical line is never carried through two courses, each vertical line touching the middle of the block above and below. This means that at openings, or angles of walls, half or quarter blocks may be needed to adjust matters. Wedge-shaped blocks will be required for arches. Random masonry is sometimes imitated, which is even more difficult, for in this type the stones are dressed with flat faces, but are of irregular shapes and sizes, though the horizontal courses are preserved as much as possible; but large blocks will often impinge into the course above and small filling-up stones will break into the courses. The irregularity in outline and the different sizes make ordinary ruling impossible, so that a draughtsman’s square must be used to guide the pencil in tracing the black or white lines at different angles to represent the mortar pointing the odd-shaped stones. Random masonry is less well adapted to interior decoration than regular-coursed masonry, though it is very effective for outdoor work, and is also appropriate for the bungalow or cottage type of dwelling.

Success in this imitation of stone lies in attention to detail. Naturalistic treatment should be aimed at, and that will necessitate study of both stone and masonry practice. Above all, the colour should not be too uniform; it is not so even in Bath and Portland stone, and in other kinds the variations are still more striking when examined, but exaggeration must be avoided.