Faux Finishes

We will help you with the best faux finishes. Do you have a wall in your bedroom that would look great in leather? We can make it happen. Why replace your pre-cast columns with marble ones if we can make them look like marble? We can create surfaces that look like something that they aren’t, and even like something you could ever specifically identify in nature.

Are you in a hurry to make things look just the way you want? How about a patina finish in that new copper roof? It will look old but have been installed yesterday. Patina is not a faux finish, because it is the real thing done by chemical reaction. But we can give other materials the look of an old copper roof too, with paint.

We CANNOT make an old face look younger. Believe us, we have tried using every combination of chemicals and techniques. We have decided to age gracefully and concentrate our youthful energy on the construction business.

We are a Construction Company that also provides professionals of every construction trades to perform handyman work. We serve Los Angeles, West Hollywood, Beverly Hills and many other adjacent cities and we do what we know best for an hourly rate.

What the term actually covers

Faux finishing is a broad category that gets used loosely, and the techniques behind it are genuinely different from one another.

• Venetian plaster and polished plaster, which are troweled mineral finishes with real depth rather than a painted effect

• Glazing and colorwashing, which build translucent layers over a base coat

• Wood graining and marbling, which reproduce a material by hand

• Metallic and pearlescent finishes, which change with the angle of the light

• Distressing and patina, which age a surface deliberately

• Concrete and stone effects, including on surfaces that are neither

They share one thing: the result depends almost entirely on the hand doing it, which is why samples matter more here than in any other finish trade.

Always do a sample, on site

A finish that looked right in a showroom frequently does not in the room it is going into. Light is the reason, and it is not a small difference.

1. Prepare a sample board large enough to judge, not a swatch

2. Put it in the actual room

3. Look at it in morning light, in the afternoon, and under the lamps you will actually use

4. Look at it from the doorway, which is how people will see it, rather than up close

Southern California light is hard and directional, and a finish with texture reads far stronger here in the afternoon than the same finish does in a north-facing room elsewhere.

The substrate decides the outcome

Decorative finishes hide nothing. They amplify.

• Every imperfection in the wall shows more, not less, particularly under a metallic or a polished finish

• The base coat has to be right, because the effect is built on it

• A surface that has been previously painted in the wrong sheen frequently needs to be recoated before anything decorative starts

• Repairs in the wall have to be finished to the same level as the rest, or they will read through

Which is why preparation is most of this work, and why wall repair comes first: patching holes in drywall and plaster.

Where it holds up and where it does not

Interior, away from constant moisture, decorative finishes last a long time. In a bathroom without ventilation, or on an exterior wall in full sun, they do not, and the honest answer there is a different product.

Exterior decorative work in this climate is a maintenance commitment rather than a one-time job, and it is worth deciding that with open eyes.

Start with a free 15-minute call

Tell us the room, roughly the square footage, the look you are after, what the walls are now, and which direction the windows face. In fifteen minutes we can usually tell you which technique fits and what preparation the walls will need first.

Call (323) 707-4979 to book the free 15-minute consultation.

The Ultimate Pro, Inc. CA License 831700, Class B General Building. Serving Los Angeles, Riverside, Orange and San Bernardino counties since 1996.

Every house in Southern California gets some version of this. What changes is how far it has gone before anyone looks. Book a free 15-minute call or call (323) 707-4979 and we will tell you whether you are looking at a repair or a rebuild.

See how the work actually goes together. X Plan Nation is our construction channel on YouTube — the same licensed crew as The Ultimate Pro, filmed on real job sites, with the reasoning behind the decisions you just read about.

The Ultimate Pro, Inc. · California contractor license 831700 · Class B general building · 18481 Grand Avenue, Lake Elsinore, CA 92530 · Serving Los Angeles County, Orange County, Riverside County, San Bernardino County and the Inland Empire since 1996.