Faux Finishing

• Faux, or fake, finishing uses a combination of traditional stains to achieve nearly any look desired for concrete. According to all-things-concrete.com, you can use faux finishes on surfaces that do not take well to acid staining, such as concrete slabs with no free calcium carbonate, or surfaces riddled with imperfections. You'll usually use a combination of polymer and acrylic stains, but you can also apply acid stains.
  
  Common techniques for faux finishing include sponging, blending and misting. Sponging, the simplest of these methods, involves dabbing or blobbing stains onto concrete with rags or sponges, creating whatever patterns you desire. Blending achieves a marbled look, which requires the use of 2 or 3 differently colored stains. After applying the first stain with a spray pump, apply the second in the same manner while the first coast is still wet. This allows the colors to mix. You'll use misting to create a quartzlike pattern. Like blending, misting involves applying different coats of stains with a spray pump. In blending, however, you'll allow previous coats to dry before applying new ones.
  
  

Powdered Stains

• Another creative strategy for staining concrete is the use of powdered stains, also known as dry-shake colors. These powders contain pigments mixed together with tiny grains of silica. The silica, in addition to helping the pigment stick, increase the density of the concrete, making its surface less porous. Spread the powder over the top of freshly poured concrete, then work it in with trowels and bull floats---long beams of wood used to flatten concrete. The powdered stain will colorize the concrete down to 1/8 inch deep.
  
  

Let Nature Do the Work

• Every autumn, fallen leaves have the potential to stain concrete for you. According to AskTheBuilder.com, leaves contain natural, water-based stains that seep into concrete over time. However, unless you tediously arrange the leaves, you may find the "designs" they create abstract and potentially hideous. While stain solvent has no effect on these natural stains, ultraviolet rays from the sun will eventually remove them.