Hi there,

I'm pretty new to this forum, but I'll take a stab at your question.

What kind of a texture do you want on your walls? Spanish style, plaster-look, little bumps, knock-down?

I have manually skip-troweled some of the walls in my home, and created a plaster-like finish on the others. I use topper joint compound: it's cheap and easy to work with. The only tools you need are two trowels, one long (I use 12") and one short (I like the four inch wide ones) and finally a rectangular plastic tray with a metal edge for the joint compound. You load a small amount of the joint compound on the knife and smear it on the wall.

It takes a bit of practice to get the effect you like, but what's nice about the stuff is you can actually practice on the wall if you like, just scrape it back off while it's still wet if you don't like it. A wet sponge will take off any left behind.

If you want a "knock down" or bumpy texture you can buy spray cans of the stuff which have directions on how to do it.

I don't know how you would use a paint to make texture. Paint's expensive, too.

Good luck on your project. And good for you, taking it on yourselves.

Renee