Doubling the walls of the olive garden

We just bought another house and our goal was to duplicate the look of the walls found in the popular Olive Garden Italian restaurant. We had searched the internet and checked with the local builder’s supplies, all to no avail in an effort to locate pre-fab wall panels similar to the ones in the restaurant. Finally, we decided it was time to do the walls ourselves.

After considerable research, we discovered that we could duplicate the look using a form of faux paint. Now we think we have discovered the secret to imitate these beautiful walls, although the procedure is relatively simple. The steps we use are the following:

• Prime the wall or surface with a good quality primer.
• Trowel over joint compound to achieve desired texture
• Prime the wall again to protect the texture you just created.
• Paint the wall twice with the base coat you have decided on
• Apply “Aqua Bond” or “Aqua Cream” glazes tinted with “Aqua Color” and apply with a ¾-inch nap roller to cover the rough surfaces of your new wall texture. A good option would be Earth Brown tinted with Brown Aqua Color in a ratio of 3 to 1
• Immediately clean the icing. The polish will stick to all the cracks and crevices.

When applying and removing polish, it certainly helps to have a few extra hands to help you, as this polish will tend to dry quite quickly. Be sure to use a good quality polish, as the cheaper versions just don’t give the desired results.

I prefer the “Aqua Cream” frosting. It’s a great option to duplicate the Olive Garden look. The polish goes on very easily and can be rubbed on the edges without any problems while returning to the wall area with virtually no added lines. It’s a very durable polish that doesn’t really need additional top coats. You have to remember that if your base coat is not entirely acrylic, the glaze will soak into the walls pretty quickly.

An interesting note about the walls of Oliver Garden is that only the top third of the walls are glazed. It begins with the darkest glaze at the top and gradually fades to no glaze at the bottom of the wall. With heavily textured walls, the illusion of greater depth resulting from shadows is created. This is a deliberate attempt to simplify the maintenance of the wall, as it is much easier to touch up the wall when necessary.

It’s not hard to duplicate this visually appealing effect at Olive Garden if you follow these simple instructions and use the best quality products available. That is the secret of success.

Copyright @2010 Joseph Parish

www.survival-training.info

For the parish of José