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Where Artistry Begins
Mica and pearl in lime plaster, trowelled and burnished so one wall catches the light. For Glasgow living rooms, bars, restaurants and hotels, laid by our own team.
Zavoré installs liquid metal in Glasgow, the shimmering metallic wall that reads as brushed bronze, pewter or gold. It is an Italian lime plaster or pearl glaze carrying mica and mineral pigment, trowelled on and burnished. It is not metallic paint, and it is not cast metal. We are based in Birmingham and our own applicators travel to Glasgow to lay it. Order a sample board and look at it in the room you have in mind, morning and evening.
Glasgow is a long way from Birmingham, so a wall here is planned as a block of days. A metallic wall goes on in one go, by one pair of hands.
The shimmer comes from flat mica flakes in the lime. When the trowel passes, they lie down in the direction of the stroke, so the wall looks bright from one side of the room and deep from the other. That only works where light moves across the surface. Flat, even light kills the effect and leaves you with a shiny colour.
Glasgow's winter days are short and the evenings come early, so lamplight does a lot of the work. A metallic wall beside a window, washed by an uplighter or lit by table lamps will change through the evening in a way a painted wall never does. Put it where people come at it side on. One surface is almost always enough. A whole room of metallic plaster stops being a finish and becomes noise, because the second wall cancels the first. Keep everything else matt.
Metallics are unforgiving about the wall behind them. Every hollow reads as a dark patch and every proud edge as a bright one. In an older tenement we survey the wall carefully, and it may need skimming flat and priming first. On newer board in Finnieston or Glasgow Harbour, with the joints reinforced and the right primer, the walls are usually easier.
Our liquid metal finishes earn their place in a handful of spots.
Be wary of long hallway walls and stairwells, where shoulders, bags and the hoover land and the sheen shows every mark. Skip it behind a hob, where heat and grease sit on the surface. And remember that a metallic wall cannot be patched invisibly. A scuff can often be waxed back, but a real gouge means relaying the wall corner to corner.
Two different things get sold under this name. One is cold cast metal, real bronze or brass powder in a resin binder, sprayed on and then patinated. That is a separate trade and we do not supply it. The other, which is on most of the walls you have admired and which we lay, is mineral plaster loaded with mica and pearl. It reads as brushed metal in movement and light rather than as cast metal under the hand. If a designer has specified genuine cast metal, tell us early and we will say so.
There are two ways to get the metal onto the wall. Veneziano Metallico is our polished Venetian with the shimmer through the body, and stucco suede metallico is the softer, cloudier version. Alternatively a plain tinted base can take a pearl or metallic wax over the top, which gives more control over how much shows. The colour underneath matters. A gold over a warm ground reads like old brass, and the same gold over grey goes cold and pewter.
We start from photographs and a survey of the wall for flatness, substrate, cracks, damp, movement, how the room is used, access and protection. A metallic finish needs two thin coats over a primed base, worked tight and burnished, then finished with wax or sealer. Colour is agreed on a sample board and the plaster is tinted before it leaves Birmingham, from the colours listed on each product. Details are on our metallic finishes installation page.
Designers and architects working on Glasgow hospitality interiors can plan fit outs with us ahead of opening.
If you have laid polished plaster before, a metallic is the same trowel work with less forgiveness, because the flakes record every stroke you make. If you have not, this is the wrong finish to learn on. Start on a matt plaster and practise on a board. We sell the plaster, pearl, metallic wax and primer from our shop with tracked delivery to Glasgow, and firms can ask about a trade account. Tell us about the wall and we will say honestly which way round it should go.
Metal needs quiet company. concrete effect plaster in Glasgow and clay plaster in Glasgow make calm partner walls, and polished plaster in Glasgow and marmorino in Glasgow share the same Venetian family. For old walls there is limewash in Glasgow, and for bathrooms tadelakt in Glasgow or microcement in Glasgow. The full range is under decorative specialists in Glasgow, and Venetian plastering in Glasgow covers the classic lime finishes.
No. Metallic paint is pigment in a film, rolled on, and the shimmer sits in that thin skin. Metallic plaster is mineral, trowelled in coats, and the mica lies through the material itself, so it has depth rather than glitter.
Cold cast metal, real bronze or brass powder in a resin binder, is a separate trade and we do not supply it. What we lay reads as brushed metal in light and movement. If genuine cast metal has been specified, tell us early.
On walls away from direct spray, yes, sealed properly, and a wall behind a basin or a freestanding bath is a common ask. Inside a shower enclosure we would steer you to tadelakt.
Usually a chimney breast or an alcove, where light comes across the surface from a window or a lamp. One wall is almost always enough. Send photographs and we will say which walls we would and would not do.
Call 07592 929191 (Monday to Saturday, 9am to 6pm) or email sales@zavore.co.uk with photos of the wall, rough measurements and the postcode. Order a sample board in the colour you are considering before you commit a wall.
Order a sample board tinted to your colour, or send photos and rough measurements of the walls in Glasgow 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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