✦
Where Artistry Begins
Venetian plaster texture runs from mirror-smooth to rough as cut stone, and the names get used loosely. This is our working glossary of Venetian plaster finishes: what each one looks like, how it feels under the hand, how much it shines, where it belongs in a building and which tub it comes out of. Every decorative plaster finish here is one we sell, install and teach. If you are choosing between two or three, the fastest way to settle it is a sample box of six boards in your colour, held up in the room in the light it will live in.
A word on names first. In Italy the whole family of trowelled lime is stucco, and stucco plaster is used just as loosely in the UK for anything applied with a trowel. Venetian plaster, polished plaster and marble plaster usually mean the fine, burnished end of that family. Every plaster finish below is lime and marble in some grade; the differences are grain, how it is worked and how it is protected.
The classic Venetian polished plaster. Very fine lime and marble dust laid in thin coats and burnished with steel until it shines like polished stone. Looks like marble with cloudy movement; feels cool, dense and glass-smooth; sheen from a soft satin to a hard gloss depending on how much pressure goes into the last coat. Belongs on feature walls, hallways, hotel lobbies and anywhere it will be seen in raking light. Product: Veneziano 24kg, £59.
A slightly coarser lime than Veneziano, with a larger marble grain. Looks like honed limestone with soft trowel marks; feels smooth but with a faint mineral tooth; sheen is low to mid, and it can be burnished up or left matt. The most forgiving polished finish and the one most people mean by “Venetian plaster”. Belongs almost anywhere, including bathrooms once sealed. We set the two side by side in Marmorino vs polished plaster. Products: Calcite and Dolomiti Stucco, both 24kg.
Not a trowel finish at all. Slaked lime in brushable form, applied in loose cross-hatched strokes so the colour clouds and settles. Looks soft, chalky and slightly uneven; feels like a matt painted wall with a faint powder; sheen is dead flat. Belongs on bedroom walls, ceilings, whole rooms where a mottled calm is wanted, and on old brick or lime render outside. Product: Lime Paint 14 litre, £47.
A fine lime render with a small sand grain, trowelled flat or floated for a gentle, even texture. Looks like a smooth Mediterranean wall; feels like fine sandpaper; sheen is matt. Belongs where you want lime without shine: stairwells, restaurants, exteriors and as a base under other finishes. Product: Intonachino 24kg, £49.
Lime with a coarse aggregate, worked to leave the pitted, striated surface of travertine stone. Looks like a slab of cut travertine, with open pores and horizontal drift; feels rough and stony; sheen is matt, sometimes waxed to a low glow. Belongs on large walls, fireplaces, columns and commercial reception areas. Product: Travertino 24kg, £49.
A fine lime finish worked to a soft, velvety surface with gentle movement rather than sharp veining. Looks like brushed suede or worn leather; feels smooth and warm; sheen is a low satin. Belongs in bedrooms, lounges and restaurants where polished plaster would feel too hard. Product: Stucco Suede 24kg, £59, and a metallic version for a soft shimmer.
A lime-based stucco trowelled to imitate cast concrete, with soft shuttering marks and cloudy grey drift. Looks industrial and calm; feels smooth to slightly textured; sheen is matt or a faint satin under sealer. Belongs in kitchens, offices, loft apartments and bathrooms. Product: Beton Stucco 16kg, £52.
Polished plaster with a metallic pigment run through the lime, so the burnish catches light like brushed metal. Looks like silk with a metal thread in it; feels exactly like polished plaster; sheen is high and shifts as you walk past. Belongs on bar backs, feature walls and ceilings under directional light. Product: Veneziano Metallico 20kg, £77.
A step further than Metallico: a finish loaded with metal powders and burnished or lacquered so it reads as sheet bronze, pewter, gold or steel. Looks like patinated metal; feels hard and cold; sheen from brushed to mirror. Belongs on small, high-impact surfaces such as bar fronts, reception desks, columns and lift lobbies. This is one of our five signature finishes and is normally installed by us rather than sold by the tub; see the installation page.
A sculpted finish built up in layers and carved, coloured and washed to read as stone, cliff or weathered masonry. Looks like real rock; feels like real rock; sheen is nil. Belongs in spas, hotel pools, restaurants, garden rooms and themed interiors. Taught on the Advanced course and installed to order.
Moroccan lime, compressed with a stone and sealed with olive soap so the surface itself becomes water-resistant. Looks like soft, softly-rippled polished stone; feels dense and slightly waxy; sheen is a low, deep gloss. Belongs in showers, wet rooms, basins and hammams, as we explain in Tadelakt in bathrooms. Product: Tadelakt 16kg, £134, with the matching soaps.
A seamless lime finish strong enough for floors, trowelled in coats and finished with a floor wax in matt, satin or gloss. Looks like a continuous stone or terrazzo-without-chips surface; feels smooth and warm underfoot; sheen depends on the wax chosen. Belongs on floors, stairs, worktops and continuous floor-to-wall surfaces in bathrooms. Product: Pastellone 16kg, £58.
Three questions settle most decisions. How much will the wall be touched? Polished finishes take handling and wipe clean; limewash and Travertino would rather be looked at. How much light does the room get, and from where? Shine and plaster wall texture both come alive in raking light and go flat under a central pendant. And is there water? Tadelakt, sealed Marmorino, Beton and Pastellone are the wet-room finishes; the rest are not.
Almost every finish above is applied with the same stainless trowel and the same three-coat logic of base, build and finish. The difference is grain, pressure and the last five minutes. That is what the three-day Beginner course teaches on the bench, and it is why the finishes make more sense once you have felt them go on.
A lime and marble dust plaster applied in thin trowelled coats and worked to a particular plaster texture, from burnished gloss to rough stone, then protected with wax or sealer. The finish is the whole effect: grain, colour, sheen and protection together. A Marmorino texture, for instance, can be finished matt, waxed or burnished.
Once the last coat has firmed up and been burnished, it is protected. In dry rooms that means a thin coat of natural beeswax, applied with a cloth and buffed hard, which deepens the colour and makes the wall wipeable. In bathrooms and kitchens a sealer goes on instead, or under the wax, and Tadelakt is finished with its own olive soap.
Mostly the word. Stucco is the Italian term for the whole family of lime plasters, from coarse render to burnished gloss; Venetian plaster is the finest, most polished member of it. In Britain stucco also means an exterior lime or cement render, which is a different product for a different job.
Polished plaster and Marmorino, waxed or sealed, are the hardest wearing on walls and wipe clean in corridors, restaurants and hotel lobbies. Pastellone is made for floors. Limewash and Travertino are the least resistant to handling and belong where they are looked at rather than brushed past; see our notes on restaurant walls that last.
Yes. A single hand-made sample board is £8, and the sample box gives six boards in your colour for £35 so you can compare textures side by side.
Where to go next: order the sample box to see six of these finishes in your own colour, browse the full range in the shop, or talk to the installation team if you would like the finish chosen and applied for you.
Where urushi comes from, how traditional Chinese and Japanese lacquer is made and decorated with gold, how Europe imitated it with japann...
Feature WallsWhat makes a lacquered wall different from gloss paint, why preparation and flatness matter so much, and the colours, rooms and care that...
GildingHow to tell real gold leaf from gold paint, the difference between water and oil gilded frames, how to clean a gilded mirror safely and w...
GildingVerre églomisé is gold or silver leaf applied to the back of glass. We look at the name and its link to the framer Jean-Baptiste Glomy, h...
Buying GuideHow to choose between gold, silver, copper and imitation metal leaf, covering gold leaf karats and colour, white gold, tarnish and sealin...
GildingWater gilding lays leaf on gesso and bole and can be burnished to a mirror shine, while oil gilding uses oil size and suits walls, mouldi...
Authentic Venetian plaster, machine-tinted to your colour and made for each order. Materials, installation and master-led training, nationwide and international, since 2021.
One list, run by the people who make the material. No noise, and nothing we would not want to read ourselves.
We email as the house has something worth saying, never daily. Unsubscribe from any email, or reply STOP to any text. We never pass your details to anyone.