Beautiful lime plasters

Once you’ve seen an authentic lime washed wall, you’ll remember it. Touch a smooth lime plaster wall and you’ll remember it. There is something about its sleek, creamy feel…  If you’ve traveled in Italy or France or Mexico, chances are that you’ve seen these mottled, weathered, lime plaster walls.
They seem as hard as stone and that is because they are.

Lime based plasters and paints are mixed with natural pigments only. The pigments must be suitable to mix with the lime or they will not remain stable and fade over time.



Lime plaster has been used for thousands of years. The entire process is long and involved. Limestone is “cooked” until the chunks disintegrate and become a powder known as calcium oxide. This lime powder is then mixed with water and left to slowly age or “slake”. It is this slaked lime, in a putty form, that is mixed with varying amounts of marble dust and sand. The pigments are added at this time. In this day and age, other ingredients are often added to the lime plaster mix.

Generally, several layers are applied to the walls. As the lime dries, the water is absorbed into the wall and the carbon dioxide “slakes” the lime, rendering the material back to limestone. And it is as hard as stone.

Applying lime plasters directly to a latex or alkyd (otherwise known as oil based) painted wall will not work; lime plasters and paints need to have a special base that allows the lime to adhere to it.
Lime washes are created by mixing the lime putty with water to a milky consistency and applying the wash with a brush.  It has a faded, almost pastel look, that appears authentically weathered.  Lime based paints are generally used to let the walls “breathe” rather than locking in humidity. They are excellent for bathrooms and kitchens as they are a deterrent to mold. The original "green" finish.

Doors with blue lime wash Photo by Yann Monel

Photo by Ricardo Labougle

 Lime wash on exterior Photo by Carlos Domenech

 Photo by Carlos Domenech

 Photo by Eric Piasecki

        Photo by Carlos Domenech

Lime wash walls Photo by Simon McBride

The Studio in Photos

For those of you who have asked to see what the Great Lakes Decorative Arts Studio looks like, here it is!

The Studio is located in the former Lake Erie Screw Factory in Lakewood, Ohio. It is a 2  minute drive from I90. The wonderful old factory houses over 50 various sized artisan studios. We hold an Open House twice a year, which is when most of these photos were taken. The studio is divided into two areas, the classroom and the work room. I keep the work room private; it is filled with products, works in progress, tools, ladders and anything else you can think of!

When I moved in...

After a little lime plaster and rust

Welcome to the Open House!

Coming into the classroom area

Here is the wall of finishes... in several pics

Finishes...

Wall of finishes- two

Wall of finishes- three

Wall of finishes- four

The other long wall

In an upcoming post, I'll tell you a bit about that gorgeous Art Deco screen that you see in the first photo.