Polished plaster with depth you can see.

What it actually is

Venetian plaster is a lime-based finish applied in a series of very thin coats, each one worked with a trowel before the next goes on. The depth comes from those layers — light passes into the surface and moves across it as you move around the room. It’s why a Venetian wall looks different at four in the afternoon than it did at ten in the morning, and it’s why paint can’t fake it.

The last stage is burnishing: working the surface until it takes on a sheen. How far that goes is up to you — a soft matt through to a deep polish.

Applied

By hand, in thin coats

Finish

Matt through to high polish

Colour

Pigmented through the plaster

Best for

Feature walls and full rooms

Where it works best

• A single feature wall — a fireplace surround, a hallway, the wall behind a bed
• Full rooms, where you want the whole space to carry the same depth
• Restaurants, offices and retail, where a surface has to look considered
• Curved and awkward surfaces, where a hand-applied finish comes into its own

Colour goes in, not on

Pigment goes into the plaster rather than onto it. That opens up tones you can’t get from a tin, and it means the colour carries the same depth as the finish. Multiple tones can be layered into one wall so the colour shifts across it — one recent job was a three-tone grey done exactly that way.

Certified applicator

Venetian plaster isn’t a finish you pick up on the job. I’m formally certified in it, and it’s the work I most enjoy — worth knowing, because a badly applied Venetian wall is obvious and expensive to put right. There’s more about how I work if you want the background.

Venetian plaster or microcement?

People often ask for one and mean the other. Venetian plaster is the decorative finish — depth, movement and sheen, usually on walls. Microcement is the practical one — seamless, hard-wearing, and it goes on floors and wet areas as well as walls. If you’re not sure which suits the room, ask and I’ll tell you straight.

What it goes over

Venetian plaster follows whatever is underneath it, so the base has to be right. If the walls need bringing back to flat first, I can sort that in the same visit rather than you booking another trade in ahead of me — tell me the state of them when you get in touch and I’ll price it in.

How much

Depends on surface area, how many coats the finish needs, and how much preparation the existing wall wants. I come out, measure up properly, and send a written price within one to two days. Free, no obligation — see the gallery for recent work, or the FAQ for the questions I get asked most.