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Where Artistry Begins
Clay plaster is a soft, matt, faintly mottled wall finish laid by hand — the look sold in America as roman clay. We do not sell clay. We sell the fine Italian lime plasters that give the same close-toned depth and suit British walls better. Tinted to your colour, shipped tracked, and laid by our own applicators if you would rather not. Most people who ask for this end up with intonachino or stucco suede.
Roman clay is a trade name more than it is a material. In this country the same look — chalky, low sheen, colour moving gently across the wall — is a fine lime plaster, and that is what we supply. Intonachino is a fine lime with a light grain in it, laid in two thin coats and left matt. Stucco suede is smoother, and reads like brushed fabric as the light moves across it. Both are mineral: tinted through rather than coated, set by carbonating in air rather than drying like paint, and breathable, which matters on old solid walls that need to let moisture move. True clay plasters do exist and are lovely. They also stay water-soluble.
Roman clay is an American shelf name. It covers a family of products ranging from genuine clay plasters to thickened paints sold in a tub with a plastic spreader taped to the lid. If that is the phrase you searched, what you almost certainly want is the finish rather than the chemistry: flat, powdery-looking, soft tonal drift, no shine. In Italy that finish is made with lime and has been for a very long time. We would rather tell you that than print a clay label on a lime bag. The practical difference is that lime hardens and will take a wipe and a knock, where unstabilised clay stays soluble and goes back to mud under a wet cloth.
Which of ours you want depends on how much texture you can live with. Intonachino carries a fine grain, so the wall catches raking light and reads a little like stone dust — it is the closest to most roman clay photographs. Stucco suede is finer and softer, with a longer sweep to the mottling, and suits a bedroom where you want the wall to stay quiet. If your reference picture is really just a chalky, colour-washed wall with brush movement in it, lime paint is the right answer and far less work. Send us the image you have been staring at and we will tell you which of the three it is.
It goes over a primed wall in two thin coats with a stainless trowel, the second worked while it is still open so the edge of each pass softens into the last. The skill is mostly in leaving it alone. Clay-look walls are ruined by fussing, which burnishes patches and gives you shiny islands in a matt wall. Corners and the line where wall meets ceiling need a steady hand, because there is no shine to distract the eye from a wander. It is forgiving of a slightly uneven surface in a way a polished finish never is, which makes it a sound choice over old lime walls that will never be truly flat.
A matt mineral wall is not wipe-clean vinyl. It shrugs off a knock better than people expect, and it can be patched, which emulsion cannot — a repair in the same tinted material knits in and fades out over a few weeks. Greasy marks are the awkward ones: fingerprints round a light switch, cooking film drifting out of a kitchen. Rinfresca is the cleaner we use for that. In a hallway with a dog and a pushchair we would still fit it, but we would seal the lower part of the wall and say beforehand that the sheen will be slightly different where we have.
Because the colour is tinted through the plaster and the surface is faintly irregular, the wall hands you two or three shades of the same colour at once, depending on where you stand and where the lamp is. That is the whole reason people want this, and it is why a flat emulsion mixed to the same reference always looks dead beside it. Earth colours — bone, clay pink, olive, warm stone — do the most with it. Deep saturated colours work, but they need more material and a longer look at a sample. We tint by machine from your NCS, RAL or fan deck reference, so a second order matches. /pages/colours sets out what we need.
Not inside a shower and not as a bath splashback — that is tadelakt work. Not on the kitchen wall directly behind a hob, where grease will find the texture and stay in it. Not on a damp wall until the damp itself has been dealt with, because the wall will tell on you within a year. And not if what you really want is a surface you can scrub weekly with a cloth and a bleach spray.
Intonachino 24kg
Fine textured lime — the closest we make to the roman clay look in photographs.£49.00
Stucco Suede 24kg
Smoother and softer, with a long quiet mottle — good for bedrooms and sitting rooms.£59.00
Lime Paint 14lt
Brush-applied slaked lime, if your reference is really a chalky colour-washed wall.£47.00
Primer Normal
Evens out the suction of the wall so the first coat behaves itself.£10.00
Sample Board
Your colour, your material, one board, seen in the actual room before you commit.£8.00Every tub is machine-tinted to your colour before it ships. Not sure of the colour? The colour library holds forty-eight house tints and we match any NCS or RAL reference.
This is the friendliest of our finishes to lay yourself. There is no burnishing to get wrong, and the material is patient — if a patch goes badly you can work back over it. What catches people out is scale and edges: holding the mottle consistent across a big wall, and cutting a clean line at the ceiling. We teach it in Birmingham on the introductory course, /pages/training. If you would rather hand the room over, see /pages/installation or ring 07592 929191.
Learn it, or have it done
Our Academy in Birmingham teaches these finishes at the bench, beginner through advanced. Or our own applicators install across the UK from the same materials.
See the workRoughly, but neither term is precise. Roman clay is an American product name covering everything from real clay to thickened paint in a tub. Clay plaster proper is clay-bound and stays water-soluble. What both usually mean to the eye is a soft matt mineral wall, and in Italy that is made with lime, which is what we supply.
No. We supply Italian lime plasters — intonachino and stucco suede — because they give the same look and live better in a British house. Lime hardens as it carbonates, takes a wipe and can be patched invisibly. Unstabilised clay softens with water, which rules it out of hallways, kitchens and anywhere near a bathroom.
On general bathroom walls a sealed lime finish copes with steam and the odd splash without complaint. In the shower itself, or behind a basin tap, we use tadelakt instead, which is made to live under water. We would rather move you onto the right material than sell you a repair job in a year.
Intonachino is £49 for 24kg and stucco suede is £59, both tinted to your colour. Primer is £10. How far a bag goes depends on the wall and the number of coats, so send us the room sizes and we will work the quantity out with you. Installation is quoted per job.
Order a sample board at £8 in the colour you keep coming back to, live with it on the wall for a week, then order the room. Or ring 07592 929191 and we will come and look at the walls.
Authentic Venetian plaster, machine-tinted to your colour and made for each order. Materials, installation and master-led training, since 2021.
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