How to fake it

Faking it… in a good way. It’s easy to do if you want a wall that looks like stone, but isn’t stone. Or a floor that looks like timber, but isn’t timber. Or a pot that looks like it’s made of rough masonry, or a room that feels like it’s on the beach.

Thanks to hyper-realistic imagery and printing techniques, you can have wallpapers that look like just about anything from bamboo, to fabric, even the sweater your nan knitted you years ago.

And the magic of illusion extends to the floor where vinyl flooring looks like tiles or timber, or tiles look like timber or stone. The possibilities are seemingly endless.

Or you can fake it with paint – use Resene metallic to turn a plastic ornament into a vision of shimmering gold, or use Resene Non-Skid Deck & Path or Resene Sandtex Mediterranean effect to turn a plastic plant pot into something that looks like masonry. 

Published: 31 Aug 2015

Do you have a home full of wonderful Resene paint and colour? Send us some snaps by emailing [email protected].

Fancy a day at the beach without leaving home? These very cool murals will transport you, available from Resene.

The handcrafted, hand-made look is very on-trend… even if that means you turn your walls into a knitted sweater. From the Eijffinger Ibiza range of wallpaper from Resene.

The weathered timber look can be tricky to achieve, unless you fake it with wallpaper. From the Exposed Collection range of wallpaper from Resene.

This satin buttoned wall looks so real, you’d have to actually touch it to realise it’s wallpaper, from the Diamonds are Forever collection at Resene. 

The paint on the left may look like it’s made of plaster or masonry but it’s actually finished in Resene Non-Skid Deck & Path in Resene Piha Sand.

This is part of a desert sunset inspired setting. 

Another tricky effect to achieve if you’re doing it for real is the planked concrete look, where rough-sawn planks are used to box up a poured concrete wall, then carefully removed. Sounds like too much of a hassle? Just use this wallpaper from the Essentially Yours collection instead. 

Get the tropical look with bamboo walls complements of the Eijffinger Ibiza range of wallpaper from Resene. 

An easy upcycle for anything old and worn is to give it a coat of metallic paint from one of the many colours in the Resene Metallic and Special Effects range. This one is Resene Exponent. 

French made Gerflor is a textile-backed vinyl from Carpet Court with designs that can mimic timber, like this rustic looking Texline Essence Fisherman’s Ocean design.

This is Gerflor again, looking like pale oak.

The design is Texline Essence Noma Blond from Carpet Court.

the look

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