How to Paint Faux Marble, Techniques and Tutorial

I have searched high and low on the internet, trying all different wordings and keywords to find a DIY marble paint tutorial specifically for our fireplace. Because fireplaces get HOT! And I don’t want paint or finish on top of paint (aka latex paint) to melt or turn yellow and gross if it gets hot.

I wasn’t able to find it, ya’ll. I wasn’t able to find the DIY tutorial that fit my project. CRAZY right?! So, here’s my experience and outcome. I don’t wanna give anything away, but it turned out stunning.

All I could find were tutorials for faux marble painted countertops, which were beautiful, but it’s a little different when your canvas is a vertical wall, not a horizontal surface…

With how wide the world web is, I couldn’t believe I wasn’t able to find a tutorial on this. SO, here I am… Your Faux Marble Paint on wall that’s around a fireplace pioneer. A new FRONTIER my friends… I like to think I’m making a difference. Small step for this woman, smaller step for mankind.

Hopefully I used the right keywords for others to find this new frontier… :/

Anywho… Here are the products I’ve used on this here project.

• Shur Line Handi Painter + Paint Trays + Rust-O-Leum Gloss Spray or Can (I used the can, see final step below for why)

• Wide Paint Brush (This pack works just fine...) + Paint Cup

• Onyx PPG Paint (Matte)
• White paint (I used leftover paint from our house build, so wherever you might be able to find white paint! I’m sure you could even get it from the craft store, it takes a tiny amount and you water it down)
• Drop Cloth or floor covering
• Painters Tape
• Sponges and Clothes to wet.
• A Feather…

As you collect all these items, watch this video about a dozen times like I did, and just imagine a feather as the medium instead of a small paintbrush when making the veins.

Then take a pic of the before, tape off, sand down, and drop a cloth then head to step one.

Step One: hand brush your base color with the widest brush you have, in a diagonal motion, keeping the same direction the whole time.

Pictures worth a thousand words… and strokes. You’ll have new forearm muscles you didn’t even know existed by the time you’re done. 😉 Let dry and move on.

Step Two: mix one part white paint with about three parts water. It will be milky looking. Dip your feather and play.

Try to stay in the same direction as the strokes you did earlier, and make it look kind of like squiggly lightening. See video above for how to make it fade.

These next two photos show my first layer of white sponge technique too. The white is VERY prominent against the black so just remind yourself you can always go back and blacken it again. It will give it more depth in the end anyhow! I made a lot of mistakes and just covered it up with black and moved on.

One day we will have a sophisticated rug and game table here… one day when lil babies are done riding their tricycles in our basement. 😉 Cuties. <3

Step Three: Take a step back, play with erasing lines, and adding them.

You’re getting the hang of things now! Look at this beauty.

Make sure you fade the white away significantly. As you can see in the earlier images the white is a lot more prominent and it just didn’t look in depth like marble tends to look. So go deep!

Step Four: Gloss Application.

I kind of had to just throw myself into doing this cause I was psyching myself out thinking I’d make a mistake. That’s the thing with DIY, man, ya gotta jump in feet first a lot of the time.

The Rustoleum gloss I chose was at home depot (also on Amazon here), and it’s for exterior applications (on BBQ grills and all that) so I’m assuming it can get hot when our fireplace is on. Cross your fingers this Christmas! I’ll keep you updated. (UPDATE 2023: No melting, no yellowing, it’s stayed on beautifully and I’ve gotten so many people who have commented that it looks SO real!)

So I used a paint tray to have the same width as my Handi Painter and I could also scrape off excess gloss before applying it to the wall in layers.

A good tip I found online from a furniture DIY blog was to stop brushing if it’s getting to feel “sticky” against the wall. Put the gloss on thick but not too thick that it oozes and drips. And just dance along the wall in big strokes to spread it out.

The glare from the lights just made it so SHINY!! YAY! I was so nervous, being a new pioneer in this realm, and it turned out awesome!