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Where Artistry Begins
Limewash is slaked lime thinned with water and brushed onto a wall. It is not paint. There is no plastic film — the lime soaks in, carbonates back to stone, and leaves a soft, cloudy, matt surface that moves with the light. Most tins sold as limewash paint are emulsion made to look the part. Ours is real lime, tinted to your colour in Birmingham and sent out tracked.
Limewash is lime putty or hydrated lime let down with water until it brushes like thin milk. It carries very little pigment, so the colour is always soft and never flat: you see the brush, the overlap and the wall underneath. It goes on in two or three thin coats, each one almost invisible wet and pale as it dries, and it keeps hardening for weeks as carbon dioxide turns the lime back into limestone. It is vapour open, which is why it belongs on solid brick, lime plaster, stone and old cob rather than on a sealed modern surface. It is also mildly caustic while wet, so gloves and goggles are not optional.
Search limewash paint and most results are an emulsion with a chalky finish and a lime sounding name. It brushes easily, covers in one coat and behaves like paint because it is paint. Real limewash behaves differently. It is thinner, it looks patchy and alarming while wet, it dries pale and it takes a fortnight before the colour settles. In exchange you get a surface that breathes, that ages instead of peeling, and that has a depth no acrylic gets near. If you genuinely want a tin to open and brush, our lime paint is the one to buy — it is real slaked lime, and it goes on with a brush like the tin you were looking for.
Lime needs something mineral and absorbent to bond to. Bare lime plaster, old lime render, solid brick, stone, breeze block and unsealed clay plaster all take it well. Fresh gypsum skim will take it if it has not been sealed, though it drinks unevenly and wants a mist coat of thinned limewash first. What it will not do is sit on a vinyl silk emulsion, an oil painted surface, a sealed skim or anything with a film on it. The lime has nothing to grip and it dusts off. If a wall has been painted in the last twenty years, assume it needs stripping back or a mineral primer before you start.
Limewash is brushed, not rolled. A wide block brush with long bristle lets you lay it on in loose, crossing strokes, and it is those strokes that make the finish. Damp the wall first so the lime does not flash off, then work thin — far thinner than feels right. The first coat will look like dirty water and you will doubt it. Let it dry, look at it the next day, then put a second and usually a third coat on. Each one deepens the colour and evens the cloud. Keep a wet edge across a whole wall, because a join left to dry mid wall will show for good.
Lime holds only pigments that can survive its alkalinity, so the palette runs to earths, ochres, umbers and soft greys rather than anything bright. That is the look: chalky, slightly uneven, alive across a wall. We machine tint to your colour and send a reference with the order, but be ready for limewash to dry lighter than it looks wet, and to keep shifting for a few weeks as it carbonates. Judge it on a dry board in daylight, never on a wet wall. Two walls in the same room will read differently depending on the light they get, and most people end up liking that more than they expected.
Limewash is soft. It will mark if you rub it, and a wet cloth taken to a scuff usually makes a paler patch rather than a clean one. It is not a wall to lean a bike against. The upside is that it repairs by being painted again: a thin coat over the damaged area blends in where emulsion would leave a rectangle. It never flakes, because there is no film to lift, and it slowly weathers instead. Outside on brick or render it is excellent and self renewing, and it wants redoing every few years rather than being stripped. Inside, most rooms want nothing more than the occasional touch in.
Limewash is the wrong answer in a kitchen splashback, a shower, or any wall that gets handled daily — it marks and it is not washable. Skip it over vinyl silk, gloss or a sealed skim unless you are prepared to strip back first. And if you want a perfectly even, uniform colour with no movement in it, do not buy lime. Buy emulsion and be happy.
Lime Paint 14lt
Real slaked lime limewash, tinted to your colour and brushed on in thin coats.£47.00
Primer Normal
Mineral primer for chalky or previously painted walls that will not take lime alone.£10.00
Intonachino 24kg
Fine textured lime plaster when you want limewash movement with more body to it.£49.00
Sample Board
A hand brushed board in your colour, so you judge it dry and in daylight.£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.
Limewash is the one finish on this site we will happily tell you to do yourself. It is brushed, it is forgiving, and a patchy first coat is fixed by a second. Buy a board, try it, and you will know within an hour. Where we would take it on is height, exteriors, or a whole house where keeping a wet edge across long walls matters. Call 07592 929191 and we will say honestly which of the two you have.
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 workNot usually. Most tins sold as limewash paint are emulsion with a chalky finish and no lime in them worth the name. Real limewash is slaked lime and water, it soaks into the wall instead of sitting on it, and it carbonates back to stone. Ours is the real thing, brushed on and tinted to your colour.
Not directly. Lime needs an absorbent mineral surface to bond with, and a vinyl or acrylic emulsion gives it a film to sit on top of, so it dusts off. Either strip back to bare plaster or brick, or put a mineral primer down first. If you are unsure what is on the wall, wet a patch and see whether it drinks or beads.
Two as a minimum, three most of the time. Each coat is thin, much thinner than paint, and the colour builds slowly. A single coat will look streaky and weak, which puts a lot of people off before they have finished. Let each one dry fully before the next, and judge the colour only when the last is dry.
No, and nothing sold as washable limewash is really lime. It is a soft mineral surface and it will mark. The trade off is that it repairs invisibly: brush a thin coat over the area and it blends, where emulsion would leave a patch. For a bathroom or a splashback, ask us about tadelakt or microcement instead.
Limewash is cheap to try and hard to judge from a screen. Order a sample board in your colour, stand it against your floor in daylight, and see whether the movement is what you want. Or call 07592 929191.
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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