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Where Artistry Begins
The soft roman clay look, made in fine Italian lime plaster that suits British walls. Laid by our own team from our Birmingham base.
Clay plaster in Birmingham usually means the soft, matt, faintly mottled wall that is sold as roman clay. Zavoré is based in Birmingham, and we are straight about it. We do not sell clay. We supply the fine Italian lime plasters that give the same look and suit British walls better, and our own applicators lay them starting from our Birmingham base. A sample board in the colour you keep coming back to is the place to start.
If you have typed roman clay into a search box, this page tells you what to ask for instead.
The Birmingham homes that ask for this look are often the quiet ones. Bournville’s cottages and gardens, the Victorian and Edwardian semis of Harborne and Kings Heath, and the older houses of Moseley and Sutton Coldfield have walls that were never flat, with chimney breasts, alcoves and bay windows that flat emulsion makes look lifeless.
Lime plaster is mineral, tinted through rather than coated, and it carbonates in air instead of drying like paint. It stays breathable, which matters on solid walls. True clay plasters exist and are lovely, but they stay water soluble and soften under a wet cloth, which rules them out of hallways and anywhere near a bathroom.
Damp is the thing to deal with first. A damp wall will tell on you within a year, so we check at the survey and say plainly if the cause needs fixing before any plaster goes on.
Bedrooms and quiet sitting rooms are the heart of it, with chimney breasts, alcoves, and hallways and landings in period houses close behind. It also rescues old cottage walls that will never be flat, and rooms where flat emulsion has always looked lifeless. Our page on clay plaster finishes shows the products.
Two of our plasters give the look. Intonachino is a fine lime with a light grain, the closest to most roman clay photographs. Stucco suede is smoother and softer, with a long quiet mottle that suits a bedroom. If your reference picture is really just a chalky, colour washed wall with brush movement, lime paint is the answer and far less work.
Keep it out of showers, and off the kitchen wall behind a hob where grease finds the texture. It is not for anyone who wants to scrub the wall weekly with bleach spray.
Send us the image you have been staring at and we will tell you which of the three materials it is. A survey follows, looking at the substrate, flatness, cracks, damp, movement and access, and small questions can often be settled from photos.
The wall is primed to even out suction, then two thin coats go on with a stainless trowel, the second worked while it is still open so each pass softens into the last. The skill is mostly in leaving it alone, because fussing burnishes patches and leaves shiny islands in a matt wall.
Colour is tinted before it leaves Birmingham and agreed on a sample board first. With our base here, Birmingham work does not need the planned block of days away that a distant job does. The steps are on our clay plaster installation page.
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 sell intonachino, stucco suede, lime paint and primer with tracked UK delivery from the shop. Decorators can ask about a trade account, and Venetian plaster courses run in Birmingham on the training page.
Not sure clay plaster is the right look? Limewash in Birmingham is the brushed, chalkier cousin, and marmorino in Birmingham has a grain you can feel. For a mirror finish see polished plaster in Birmingham.
For wet areas there is tadelakt in Birmingham and microcement in Birmingham. For something harder try concrete effect plaster in Birmingham or liquid metal in Birmingham. All of it is at decorative specialists in Birmingham, and the classic finish is Venetian plastering in Birmingham.
Roughly, but neither term is precise. Roman clay is an American product name covering everything from real clay to thickened paint. What most people want is a soft matt mineral wall, and in Italy that is made with lime.
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, takes a wipe and can be patched.
Very often. Quiet rooms with period features are where the soft mottle works well. We check the wall for damp and flatness at the survey, then agree colour on a sample board.
On general bathroom walls a sealed lime finish copes with steam and the odd splash. In the shower itself, or behind a basin tap, we use tadelakt instead.
Send us your reference picture and your postcode on 07592 929191 (Monday to Saturday, 9am to 6pm) or at sales@zavore.co.uk. Order a sample board and live with the colour on the wall for a week before you order the room.
Order a sample board tinted to your colour, or send photos and rough measurements of the walls in Birmingham and we will come back to you with the right finish and a clear quote.
For a quote, email photos and measurements of your walls to sales@zavore.co.uk or call 07592 929191, Monday to Saturday, 9am to 6pm.
See every area we cover.
We also supply the trade by post, wherever you are. The shop ships tracked across the UK, and the Academy teaches the finishes in Birmingham.
Providing luxury finishes for the most prestigious addresses in the world
Venetian plaster, limewash, microcement, tadelakt, metallics, sculptural plaster and gold leaf, supplied and installed by our own team, with Venetian plaster taught at our Birmingham studio.
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