Applying a faux finish

When you are dabbing on a glaze over a base colour you can use a rag, cheescloth, or a sponge. The most popular sponge is a natural sea sponge. This is because by rotating it after each dab you can avoid the cat tracks that are the bane of a faux finisher. Also let me ease your mind about glazes; when dabbing on you can use thinned latex paint with no other additives. I start dabbing by keeping my dabs about a foot apart. This will avoid clumping the dabs and allow you to fill in gradually. Also as your sponge runs out of paint the lighter dabs will be spread out. It's the same proccess with rags or other methods of application. Make sure your paint/glaze is thin enough and you will need to mask the trim and corners to prevent the dabbing from getting on surounding surfaces.
Here is Wikipedia's Faux Finishing link.
Or visit us http://www.mercuryminc.net/

Trade secret # 8 Painting a ceiling

I just added some info about this subject on my site http://www.mercuryminc.net/, that's on page three of trade secrets.
Usually you should ask a professional painter with experience painting ceilings to give you a quote. If your ceiling is textured or not they are not easy to paint.
Most should be painted with a flat latex, although kitchens and bathrooms can be finished in eggshell or even semigloss.
There are some good washable flat latex paints on the market also.