If you've been considering ways to improve the interior of your home, you probably haven't thought in terms of marble columns or walls. Or even exotic woods like knotty oak or birdseye maple.

Sound appealing? If you think so but find the cost prohibitive, there's an alternative: Decorative faux finishes. Striking illusions can be created by wood graining, marbling, wallglazing and trompe l'oeil French for "fools the eye." These age-old techniques have been handed down by European craftsmen for centuries.

Other popular wall finishes include sponging with sea sponges; rag rolling with rags; strie (various tools are used to create striated effects) and color washing, to achieve the illusion of plaster and stone block walls.

Decorative wall finishes were popular in this country up to the 1950s when subdivision-style construction became the rage. The growth and popularity of wallpaper further diminished decorative art work. Today, architects, designers and design-conscious consumers are using decorative artwork to create unusual and elaborate architectural features and finishes that otherwise would be cost-prohibitive. Walls and ceilings, columns, fireplace mantles, doors and moldings are some elements that are candidates for these finishes.

Whereas wallpaper remains popular in homes throughout the country, it doesn't afford the homeowner the personal creativity and expression to create custom interior environments that the decorative wall finishes provide. Moreover, wallpapers that attempt to simulate marble and woodgrain can't compare to the realism of hand-painted surface finishes.

While the cost is substantial prices range from $3 to $25 per square foot of surface area when compared to the natural finish, it's a bargain. A real marble or granite column in your home could cost tens of thousands of dollars when you factor in the mining and finish of the natural stone and the structural support required for its installation.

The same marble column constructed of a wood or fabricated core and finished with the marbling technique would be between several hundred and a couple of thousand dollars. That's if you had the work done by an experienced technician.

Due to demand, classes for the do-it-yourselfer along with instructional materials are springing up here and there.

Rodney Rodriguez is a third generation painting contractor and founder of the Architectural Art Center in Berkeley, CA. The center provides a comprehensive decorative arts training program for students and professional painting contractors. According to Rodriguez, his average student has no background in painting or the arts, but after the first day of instruction will begin to develop some of the basics needed to replicate striking effects of nature.

Rodriguez claims that the Center and a host of instructional books and videos are a result of great demand on painting contractors by consumers and do-it-yourselfers looking for instruction.