You have decided to hire a wall artisan. Where do you start?

Faux finishing is a profession and an art.

School
The faux finish artisan should have a certificate of completion from a faux finish school.
(I’ve completed a course in faux finishes and business in Louisville KY, Martin Alan Hirsch’s school.)

Inspect job site
Estimating a faux finish job is extremely difficult without seeing the room.

Portfolio
The artisan should have a full portfolio of samples for you to peruse and choose from.

Bids
After meeting with the artisan and choosing your faux finish, the next step is to get an estimate from the artisan.

Return with estimate
The faux finisher should return within a few days with a professional bid package.

Insurance
The faux finisher should provide you with a copy of his or her general liability insurance.
When you have made the decision to hire the faux finisher and signed the contract, you should expect the artisan to return within a reasonable amount of time with a sample for you to approve.
The first sample board is free, $25.00 for each extra sample board needed (considering that it is my third trip back) & I credit that amount in the price of the job.
The client then signs the back of one of the sample boards and we discuss a start date.
There is a 50% deposit and balance due after the job is completed.
Cost
Artisans use small tools like rags, cheesecloth, sponges, a badger brush (which costs $100.00), trowels, & quality products that averages somewhere in the price range of $73.00 a gallon. I work with Faux Effects a manufacturer of fine faux finish & decorative materials. The days of “sponge painting” exclusively are gone.
Walls are prepped, primed, base coated then the faux finish could be in many layers, stenciled over, wet sanded in between layers then usually clear coated in a dull, satin or gloss finish.
As you can see, faux finishing requires more time and energy than painting. Therefore the cost is substantially more. A good rule of thumb is that faux finishing a room will cost four to six times more than hiring a professional painting contractor to paint the same room a solid color.
http://members.greenvilledirect.info/Wall_Nouveau-I/