Ralph Lauren River Rock Paint Notes
The Fix Chicks have received lots of mail about Ralph Lauren River Rock paint. In fact, that’s the ONLY Ralph Lauren paint we get email about, even though we feature a room done using their Suede textured paint. See the original article and additional comments here.
We’d like to thank Eric, who wrote in about a River Rock paint application solution that he and his wife, Erin, came up with.
Dear Fix Chicks:
My wife and I found your website after we destroyed our kitchen walls with Ralph Lauren River Rock, we had roller marks all over. Feeling confident with your hints I went over the walls again, still with no luck of having a finish we could both live with. So as a last resort we purchased a Wagner Power Painter and went over the walls yet again touching up the walls we were unhappy with. A third coat turned out great. The living room was next, we were kind of shy about doing the living room, but having invested in 3 gallons of Sandstone we hated not to use it. After the Power Painters’ second coat our living room looks great.
How we did it is we took workable sections and sprayed from left to right trying to coat the wall evenly without streaking and blending the next section. Try to maintain the same distance as you go. It still looked kind of streaky so the second coat we went from top to bottom, bottom to top to blend in the streaks. The first coat was dry by the time I was ready to start the second coat. Both coats took about 3 hours, but the prep time of masking off the room took about 2 hours. Take your time masking off the room and drop cloth the entire room; the paint and sand fleck will be everywhere. For safety wear a painting mask with plenty of ventilation. The living room was a breeze compared to the kitchen and worth the purchase of the paint.
Thanks for sharing Eric! Your shiny, happy Fix Chicks mug is on the way!
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Статья вроде старая уже, но я только сегодня ее прочитал. Занимательно, что тут скажешь.
Well, I wished I would have checked here first as well. Just finished my second coat of Frosted Hawthorne RR paint and it still looks blotchy. I could live with blotchy if it was a little more consistent. I have used the suede paint with NO problems whatsoever… I am not sure what my problem with RR is. I am going to try a third coat using a four inch brush. Wish me luck!
{Читаю {ваш|этот|} блог, и понимаю, что {ничего|нифига} не понимаю. Все так запутано.
А комментарии тут действительно интересные. Буду следить за комментариями и далее
I have a found a way that works great. Roll the 18″ sections from top to bottom. Be sure your roller is well loaded with paint. Once you get done with your first column, run the roller from top to bottom (or bottom to top) on the new section. Don’t redip the roller for this, use very light pressure. It worked great for me. Work across the wall. Be sure when you run your roller at the end, that you overlap where you did it before. Good luck.
Hello,
I have recently used River Rock paint in Pyrite. I rolled on two coats of this product using RL’s instructions, with the resulting roller marks. I took a hint from Eric’s posting about spraying this product.I am an experienced painter who has used a number of RL canned finishes. Ralph Lauren will never tell you to spray their products. I have sprayed the Regent Metallics paints, although time-consuming, and they have turned out beautifully. Spraying River Rock with my HVLP sprayer was not easy, as the product clogs the gun easily. After some experimenting, I settled on about 35-40% dilution with water and some Floetrol. Once the sprayer works, do not stop!! Good luck!
I did the river rock in two coats over white walls.
I cannot recommend the flotrol enough. IT WORKS. Use at least half the bottle per gallon. The paint stays wetter, longer. NO PAINT LINES!!!
First, tape around everything.
Use a paint pad to apply. Pretend you are spreading frosting on a cake you made. LOAD your paint pad, and then start from top to bottom, working quickly, spreading your “frosting” over the wall in a figure eight pattern, some of them sideways, some of them fanned out. Think of this paint as liquid spackle for your walls
You will have to reload the brush frequently.
Don’t worry about getting the corners perfectly, that’s why God made paint brushes.
Work ONE WALL AT A TIME. I mean, if you are going to paint a wall, don’t stop until it’s done. I had to on one of my walls with no adverse affects because of the technique I used. But you “get your rhythm” going, and get a feel for the paint.
Wait for it to dry just a few hours. That second coat will have to go on thicker than the first coat.
Make sure your light is good. VIOLA. Thanks for everyone who made it possible to do my walls. i don’t regret it one bit.
So there is no way to fix the roller marks except to repaint the entire wall! There are only a few spot the rest of the walls are perfect and I am afraid if we repaint the entire wall then we might have more roller marks! We only painted 3 walls of the room and used every drop of 2 gallons should we try a thrid?
I applied Coastal Sand River Rock and it turned out great. After the first coat I had roller marks everywhere and the flecks would be greater on one roll than another highlighting the roller patterns. I wasn’t sure if the second done per the instructions would handle this or just lay down a new coat looking like the first. I checked the web and saw the comments about problems with how it looked. I ran across some that said to do the cross-hatching brush strokes instead, like on the suede method.
I did this and I am really happy with how it turned out. It has a suede pattern to it with the base color highlighted by the flecks in a random subdued pattern. It’s probably not the intended look but I think it’s as good if not better.
Couple of things I learned doing this. Forget the instructions and special rollers. You may even be able to get the look I got in one coat, there were some areas I brushed on the first coat due to do the small space and they looked fine and did not need a second coat. If you do two coats the first can be put on with a regular roller and brush. How it looks doesn’t really matter as the second coat cover it up or blend in with the first.
When it goes on it looks like a solid color as it dries then the flecks start showing up. This makes it hard to see how the pattern will be when you are rolling and why I think the short x-hatching works better than the rolling.
I didn’t have to worry about a wet edge. Just do the random x’hatching over the previously painted part. The brushing gets to be pretty tedious and tiring after a while. I think partly to the thickness of the paint with the particles in it.
I previously painted my living room and dining room in a river rock shade called stormy peak. This shade has been discontinued. Seven years later I am getting ready to move and have to repaint the high traffic areas. I am now using a similar shade called Chalk. My original paint job looks perfect. There aren’t any lines or streaks including the areas where I cut close to the ceiling. I remember when I first started painting I used a “regular” roller and was having so much trouble I went back to Home Depot and purchased the recommended roller for this paint. At that time it was a dark gray roller. It wasn’t soft or super absorbent. It seemed to be some sort of plastic and very porous. It alleviated my problems of applying an even coat of paint. I knew this time I had to buy the recommended roller to avoid a repeat of earlier troubles. To my surprise, Ralph no longer makes the dark gray rollers but have a new roller that is much like a conventional paint roller. I notice from a post by Brett in March he mentioned he noticed the roller had changed as well. The new roller does not work. I am searching to find the original roller. It did not seem to hold the sand and cause the uneven distribution. I am thinking of touching up spots with a similar shade instead of repainting the entire walls. If you can get this paint on evenly, it looks wonderful and I get so many compliments on it. I’m in search of a roller! Any suggestions on where to find the original?
If you like painting with the Ralph Lauren paint, you better hurry to get some. Home Depot is replacing its Ralph Lauren line of interior paint with an all-new Martha Stewart interior and exterior paint in March 2010.
Great Post!
Thanks for all your pointers. We are painting our powder room and have already put 2 coats on it with rollar marks as the end result. Short of my husband sanding all 4 walls and starting fresh we are looking for pointers. Off to Home Depot for another gallon and hopefully it will work the 3rd time. So it appears that using a x-hatching pattern is best, should we try the flotrol?
Liked the River Rock paint display color of coastal sand, bought it, painted the wall using their recommended technique, let it dry, did the second coat as they recommended, let it dry, don’t like it, can see the roller marks,looks like a road map, consulted Home Depot, bought more paint, did it again, still don’t like it, went back to home depot, bought more paint, did it again, still very unhappy with it. Used 4 gallons on 3 walls, total cost about $200 and it looks worse than the wallpaper hat was removed. Don’t buy river rock by Ralph Lauren.
We did the regent metallic on the 4th wall and it looks great, 2 coats and done.
Well, I too wish I had read this site first. Two coats of Chalk on the walls and roller marks everywhere.
I’m wondering whether to just cover it all with a suede paint. Does anyone know if that would work?
Fantastic Site! I was wondering if I could quote a portion of your pages and use a handful of points for a term paper. Please let me know through email whether its ok or not. Thanks