Venetian Plaster, Birmingham
The high-sheen finish most people mean when they say Venetian plaster. Lime, burnished hard, until the wall reflects light like stone.
Polished plaster is fine lime putty with a very fine marble aggregate, laid in thin coats and burnished with a steel trowel until the surface closes and takes a sheen. Done well it reads as polished stone rather than a coating, and the depth changes as the light moves across it through the day. That movement is the whole reason it costs what it does; a photograph cannot show it and paint cannot fake it.
Our Grassello comes from Zavoré — aged lime putty rather than a synthetic base, which is what lets it take a burnish at all.
It suits walls that are seen: hallways, stairwells, chimney breasts, media walls, reception desks and bar fronts. It is closed and wipeable, so it survives being touched. What it does not suit is a wall that has not been prepared properly. At high sheen every substrate imperfection, every join and every trowel mark is visible from across the room, which is why the preparation is most of the job and why quotations for it vary so wildly.
Substrate checked and made good, primed, then two to three coats laid thin and burnished as each one sets. Waxed or sealed at the end depending on where it is and what it has to survive. Between coats the wall has to dry, so a polished wall is a few days rather than a few hours, and rushing it is what causes the failures you see in other people's work.
Our own projects, photographed on site. Not every photograph on this page is this finish — the gallery is grouped by project and says which is which.
Our studio is in Birmingham. These are the cities we are asked for this in most often, and each has its own page.
A photograph and a rough size is enough to begin. You will have next steps within one working day, and a sample panel made in your finish before anything is agreed.
Send us a photograph of the wall and a rough size. We will tell you what it needs and roughly what it costs.
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