Garnier also calls limewash “as DIY-friendly as it gets.” It’s traditionally applied to porous and absorbent surfaces, such as drywall, plaster, stucco, cement, brick, and concrete. She praises the “beautiful tonal variations” in a limewash texture, saying, “When the lime begins to dry, it just starts blooming, giving you the highs and the lows of the colors.” (N.B. Our story on Everything You Need to Know About Limewash Paint is one of our most popular of all time.)
People will often limewash an entire room: walls, ceiling, baseboard, trim, crown moldings, and casings. Garnier recommends starting with their water-based mineral primer, which contains marble dust to guarantee proper bonding. The company also makes a matte sealer top coat for doors, baseboards, and high-traffic areas. For a translucent look on wood, a single coat of limewash allows the veins and graining to show through.
Claire Mookerjee, who runs Mookerjee Design Studio in London, is a big supporter of linseed-oil paints. When researching the colorful Swedish timber-framed buildings of the 18th and 19th centuries, she found that preservation was a main driver. “They used pine tar on the outside, in distinctive shades of red, dark green and black, and linseed oil on the inside. Oil-based paints nourish and protect wood, giving it a really long life,” she says. “They’re absorbed into the fibrous top layer of the timbers. If the paint fades over time, you just reapply it.”
Are there any downsides?
Garnier, of Color Atelier, cites two drawbacks: “Vibrant colors aren’t possible due to the nature of lime. The colors read a little muted because we refuse to add the chemicals that would help us reach that saturation.” The other drawback? “Once you limewash a room, you’ll never want to use standard paint again. It’s addictive!”
And while Mookerjee feels that natural ingredients in paints can limit the range of colors, she adds, “This is a highly innovative industry: new colors and processes are emerging all the time. It’s moving from a very polluting industry into something much better.”
Curious to give alternative paints and pigments a try? For further reading, see:
N.B.: Featured image from Color Atelier.
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