Venetian Plaster - has anyone done it?

[lyzziesmom]

Hi all! I am moving into a new house in a few weeks (my first house, yay! :banana: ) and I really want to do the kitchen in Venetial plaster. It looks like it's pretty easy and a very forgiving technique. There is actually not a lot of wall space in the new kitchen, since it's pretty open and much of the wall is covered by the cabinets.

Has anyone used Venetian plaster? How easy is it? Is it messy? Any advice?

Thanks!!

[lyzziesmom]

Anyone??

[JandJ]

Probably not much help here . . . I haven't done it yet, but our 52 year old house is plastered in every room. We are re-doing our kitchen and I'm considering doing the plaster to match the rest of the house but I'm not sure yet. I love the look, the texture and the dimension to it. I hate to paint it! When we moved in every room was painted some ghastly color in heavy gloss and had to be re-painted. I love to paint and DH doesn't so I took it on. Like I said, I love to paint and thought it would be "fun" until I started painting this stuff. Minimum 2 coats with a heavy roller followed by several touch ups with a brush. And since I was covering dark gloss paint that meant 2 coats of primer, 2 coats of color, then touch ups. I still see tiny spots I missed here and there and it drives me nuts :furious:

If you only have a small area you should be fine, check into classes at your local DIY store, they should be able to give you advice. There are kits that tell you how to do it and they sell instructional DVDs. Good Luck!!

[BunsenH]

I have used Venetian Plaster (from Home Depot) in a kitchen and 2 bathrooms. It is time consuming to apply, but easy and results in a textured, very durable finish. You can be creative by using a primer tinted a bit darker than the finish coat of plaster. The technique hides a lot of wall imperfections nad gives that "Tuscan" look that is in vogue.

Give it a try!

[Dcanoli]

I'd like to bump this thread up to the top because I'm getting ready to try this too in our kitchen....it looks "time consuming but easy, " but I'm nervous!

[katielou]

Hi there,
My husband and I did it in our childrens bathroom several years ago. I absolutly love it. It was VERY time consuming. The key is to get the layers as thin as possible and then you burnish the walls with certain tool. The first layer my husband and I could both do but as the process went on you really do need to let only one person do it. His technique was much better than mine and you could definately tell a difference. He had to go back and rework my area so it would all match. Good luck. I dont know if we would tackle a big area by ourselves but we loved the outcome.

Beth