Amanda Sims, AD Clever
We admit to being a little bit obsessed with terrazzo. First, there's the comeback story: A material once used for the floors of public high schools gets a second wind as a trendy interior design option (see: Mandy Moore's terrazzo-laden California home).
Then there's the look, at once playful and elegant, a soup of disparate colours that somehow all work together in the same polished surface. Which brings us to the unfortunate fact of the matter, which is that terrazzo—a material made by carefully setting colourful chips of marble, quartz, granite, or even glass in a cast surface like concrete—is pretty shockingly expensive. Not the kind of thing you'd just choose to work willy-nilly into your new apartment. And unless you're renovating and can do something smart like try faux-terrazzo Formica countertops, your next best bet is to paint it.
Before you run the other way screaming, please note that this is one of those DIYs that requires zero to negative painting skills. All you need is a bit of time, a few different colour paints, and a few brush sizes.
Master DIY-er Annie Sloan, the inventor of the much-loved material known as Chalk Paint, gave us the low-down on how to paint a terrazzo wall (or floor, or table top—pretty much any surface) using paint. The great thing about using chalk paint for this DIY is that it'll stick pretty much any surface without prepping, so you could DIY a terrazzo stool or floor or wall without sanding or priming first!
Stuff to Get Before You Begin
White paint to mimic the concrete background
Five to seven paint colours, to mimic the inset chunks (here Annie used Duck Egg Blue, Antoinette, Paris Grey, Paloma, Coco, Louis Blue, and Burgundy)
Clear chalk paint wax, if using chalk paint
3-4 small paintbrushes in different sizes
How to Paint a Terrazzo Surface
1. Make the background. Apply two coats of white paint to the surface you're turning into terrazzo. If you're using chalk paint, take Annie's advice and thin it a little with water to give the background a smooth surface.
2. Using one of the colours, paint a smattering of blobs across the surface. Select a brush size, any brush size, and use it to paint random splotches across the surface in one of the colours. Don't think too hard about this—the point is for the marks to be imperfect, the way chunks of marble are in terrazzo, so any sort of awkward splotch from the paintbrush will do.
3. Switch to the next colour, and repeat. Select a different brush size and a different paint colour, and use this combo to paint irregular splotches all over the surface. These marks should not touch your first marks, and their spacing should be irregular. Just dab the brush in any spot where you see a lot of white.
4. Repeat with every colour or until you run out of white space. "The marks will be thicker and more raised in places, this is good!,’’says Annie. Once you're happy with the ratio of dots to white space, leave the surface to dry overnight.
5. Seal, if using chalk paint. If you used chalk paint, you'll want to seal it by applying two coats of Clear Chalk Paint Wax with a brush or lint-free cloth (this will sufficiently protect the pattern you created). Leave that to dry overnight, and buff with a clean cloth in the morning if you want it to have a light sheen. Or don't, if you prefer a matte finish.
And in case you'd rather see it done as a video, Annie to the rescue:
