I don’t know what materials were originally used to create the texture on the outside of the Bill Lankford cottages. Possibly spackling compound. In the past I’ve used watered-down wood filler for a stucco effect (Rosedale, Artist’s Cottage) and since I’m more experienced with that than spackle, I decided to do something similar to add texture to the cottage walls.

My wood filler was almost empty, so I bought a new one. Previously I had been using Elmer’s brand and this is Dap “plastic wood” (Home Depot didn’t have Elmer’s). The consistency is different, almost like thick tahini sauce.

I mixed it up with the rest of the Elmer’s (the yellower, crumblier stuff).

After adding water and stirring, they mixed together fine. It was a little thin — maybe I should have added more of the Dap stuff — but I just wanted some texture, not stucco necessarily, so I thought thin would be okay.

Before I started painting it on I put tape over the windows, leaving a bit around the edges to account for the trim, which I thought would be easier to glue onto flat wood than textured.

I forgot to take a picture at this point in the process, but I spread this stuff on the walls with a sponge brush, swirling and dabbing to create texture. When some of it had dried a bit I went back and dabbed some more. Then I let it dry a few hours, peeled off the masking tape, and started the first coat of paint.

Here it is completely painted. I was using a sample jar of Behr “Sandstone Cove.”

The masking tape didn’t work out quite how I’d hoped. I think this happened on the Rosedale, too — the lines left by the edges of the tape are much too obvious, especially since I wasn’t precise about how much trim area got masked off.

I did another round with the wood filler, being super careful not to get it on the windows. I also touched up some other areas that hadn’t come out as textured as I wanted.

Much better! And because this is a thin layer and not as bumpy as the stucco, I don’t think gluing trim over it will be a problem.

Here’s the Thatched Cottage with all its walls done.

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