Your Inner Artist and why I'm doing this

Welcome back and thanks for reading.

First a short explanation on why I would want to give my secrets away.
As I spent most of life working with my father and learning to be a custom painter, we more often than not worked for people that really couldn't afford to do much to improve their homes.

For him it was more about seeing the smile on their faces than the money in his pocket, the feeling of pride in their homes and how it actually changed attitudes for the positive. It was pretty amazing to me how the beauty we created in their homes could change the way they felt about their-selves.
I miss him daily and this is my way of continuing to help others improve their homes.

While your here please feel free to visit one of our fine advertisers to see if they can help with your needs and help a starving artist.

OK, its time to talk about tools of the trade and what you need to do this job successfully.
First to spray the texture you have a couple options.
A air compressor that can deliver a constant 30 psi and a hopper gun is one way. I like Laco, Goldblatt and Graco hopper guns but make sure it has a adjustable air pressure valve on the gun. This is important to be able to control the size of the splatter patterns you spray.Make sure they have a touch up hopper which is easier to work with because it will not be as heavy to work with.
For the hundred or so dollars they cost it's a much better option than renting because you have time to practice.

The next option is to have a texture machine that feeds the mud through a hose to a gun and can be the better choice for large jobs. I have personally owned a couple different sized Graco texture machines and was quite happy with their performance. There are a couple other types I know of such as Rototex and Marshalltown Duoflex.

If you are planning on mixing your own colors you will need a heavy duty drill and a mud mixing blade.
You can buy pre-mixed knockdown colors in either 1 or 5 galleon containers.

Knockdown blades can be the squeegee type, or as I prefer a variety of sizes of stainless steel and plastic taping knifes. They all work and it is just a matter of using what you are comfortable with.

Well that covers the tools, next we will talk about colors and start spraying our mud.