Clients are often surprised at the cost of faux finishing. Here's how we explain it to our clients. When you have a room painted, the painter used "production" tools like rollers or a spray rig, and covers a large area quickly (usually an average of 300 square feet per hour). The painter can usually get by with one coat of paint. If he or she is going over a light color with a dark one (white to dark blue, for instance), or a dark color with a light one (i.e. dark blue to white), he or she will probably have to go around the room twice, once to prime, the other to paint. It remains, however, a relatively fast process.

Faux finishing on the other hand is not a production process. Faux finishes sometimes require a "base coat" (coat of paint) before the decorative painting process can begin. Like a painter, the faux finisher can complete this process fairly quickly.

When faux finishing, artisans use small tools like rags, cheesecloth and sponges. They cover only a small area at a time and work to ensure that there are no "dry lines" (overlap marks) or "picture framing" (too dark or too light around ceilings, floors and corners). The decorative painter usually works 45 to 60 square feet per hour. In general, faux finishes are "layered," meaning that the artisan does the decorative painting more than one time around the room.

As you can see, faux finishing requires more time and energy than painting. Therefore the cost is substantially more. A good rule of thumb is that faux finishing a room will cost four to six times more than painting the same room a solid color. Typical prices in Tucson run $4.00-$6.50 a square foot.