Natural Stone Effect With Textured Plaster Feel - Does Anyone Know What this is Called?

Looks like polished plastering to me

 

Wallpaper.;

What's with the gun?

 

I think it's called Venetian plaster, some of it can be highly polished and some is textured.

I saw some on a plastering course I was on and I was amazed at how good it looks.

 

(If it's been over 40-odd days since you sold the gun stock on eBay, the guy has no come-back - I understand)

I suspect the cove - or blone - who did the stone effect was someone who specialises in that kind of stuff, possibly 'marbling' effects and restoring old coving.

That wall effect is very simple to achieve in theory, but needs someone with the right artistic skills in practice.

As you already know, it chust involves masking out the grout lines and skimming over with a suitable plaster finish, and very possibly it is chust finishing plater wot's used. The skim is given the required finish - I don't know what finish that wall has - is it an even texture such as achieved by dabbing the almost-set plaster with a coarse sponge or scouring pad for instance, or is it a scoured/dragged finish to suggest a carved stone finish, or what?

But what then makes it work is the painted finish - and I suspect it is painted, at least the dark shaded bits. I can't think of any other way to get that colouring and shading.

Have you seen a good quality painted 'marble' finish? You cannot tell it from the real thing from a foot away.

Y'know what, Brandon? You and t'other 'alf can do this .

Get a stiff board of some sort and practice the technique first.

If you don't want the whole plaster finish to have to be painted to get the base colour - ie if you want to restrict the painted part to chust the 'highlights' - then you need a suitably-coloured plaster to start with.

You can get different colour plasters - even chalk-white - to start with, and add small amounts of coloured matt emulsion to get the shade you need (use strongish colours so that you don't have to add so much to get the shade you want - ie: if you added light 'magnolia' emulsion to get a light beige finish, you'd have to add a huge amount of that paint to get the colour, and that would possibly weaken the plaster mix; I'm sure a dollop of matt emulsion won't affect it at all...)

Another option is to use cement-based grout. I had to use a 'limestone' finish grout many moons ago, and I think it might be close to what you are looking for.


So - base wall colour. Mask out mortar lines. Skim over a 2-3mm skim and level it out fairly well - but don't dawdle on this stage too much. Remove masking tape at this stage, I think. Use scouring pad/sponge/brush to get the finish you require after the skim has begun to set - you'll probably have a 30 minute window to get it done.

So, for a large area, get it all quickly textured to what you want - both of you going 'ammer and tongs. Then go over it again fine-tuning the texture.

With the masking tape removed, the edges of your blocks will be softened slightly so will look more natural against the masking tape. In any case, there's no way you will remove the masking tape after the skim has started to set!

Finally - and most importantly - post the results on here.

(Start with a feature wall in a small loo...)

(Or else Yell for things like 'marbling', 'cornice repair', 'period restore' etc - good chance one of these will say "I know a cove who'll do this...")

 

I think Mike has it - Venetian Plaster type thingy.

Do you have one arm and one leg to spare?

 

Its polished plaster its not as hard as is looks just time consuming and plaster is not that cheap i had to do a load for a customer who want a marble look loads of it on u tube

Polished plaster is a term for the finish of some plasters and for the description of new and updated forms of traditional Italian plaster finishes. The term covers a whole range of decorative plaster finishes - from the very highly polished Venetian plaster andMarmorino to the rugged look of textured polished plasters. Polished plaster itself tends to consist of slaked lime, marble dust, and/or marble chips (which give each plaster its distinctive look).

Polished plaster is mainly used internally, on walls and ceilings, to give a finish that looks like polished marble, travertine, or limestone.

 

No paint effect needed can finsh with different waxes after could even do it in a shower looks amazing going to do a wall at home when i get round to it

 

Looks like faux travertine tile paint effect.
Something like it here. http://interiordesign.lovetoknow.com/Faux_Painting_Stone_Wall