Apply Textured Plaster to Give Your Home Some Old World Charm
You can probably pick up just about everything that you will need for the job at your local retailer of construction materials; but, you will probably get your best prices at Home Depot or Lowe’s, if you have one near you.
I recommend considering premixed plaster. It costs a little more money; but if you mix your own, you will need a bucket to mix and hold the plaster, safety glasses, a face mask and attachment that goes on the end of your drill to mix the plaster. Since plaster is a very fine powder; when it is being mixed, it flies all over the place. The last thing you want is to breath it in, or get it into your eyes.
If you are plastering over a hard and smooth surface such as plywood, you will need screening stapled to the wall. We always use a small, fine chicken wire. It is easiest for us to work with. For interior walls, you will need “blue board.” It is like sheet rock, but it has a water-proof barrier and is blue.
Home Depot and Lowe’s has a great selection of trowels and other hand utensils that will be needed. Try different one’s out for the “feel.” You will be using them for a long period; it is best that you get the tools that are the most comfortable for your hands and forearms.
The first coat that you will be putting on is called a skim-coat. It is a trowel thin coat of plaster, “buttered” on, and helps the next, more decorative coat to adhere.
The finish coat is put on with three strokes:
1. With your arm swinging one way with trowel in hand, butter the plaster on.
2. With your arm swinging back the other way, press it in.
3. Bring arm back erasing the trowel lines.
My husband is a perfectionist is everything that he does, and before he would let me help him on a plaster job, he had me practice with sheetrock mud (joint compound). We had just added on a room to our house and had the sheet rock up, but had not yet finished the room. On most of our jobs, I taped, mudded and sanded the seams in the sheet rock, but my husband did the finishing work. For our new room, he went down to the hardware store and purchased a large bucket of sheet rock mud for $9.00. He promised me that he wouldn’t look until I finished, and I got busy showing him my artistic flair.
I have always loved stucco applied with large swirls going back and forth. I finished the seams as I always did; but instead of making my “mud” smooth, like my husband was expecting, I did swirls. Because I was using “mud” on regular sheet rock no other steps were needed. When I finished my swirls, I turned the fan on to help the walls dry. I closed the door and waited.
Next morning the walls were dry and I was able to set up for painting. My first coat was primer, which was necessary because sheet rock mud is so porous. The primer also allowed me to need only one coat of paint. I painted one coat of “Navajo White Satin Touch” gave just the look that I intended. I prefer satin touch over semi-gloss in paint because it has a softer look. I was able to “plaster” the whole room for under $35.00.
My husband was really surprised when he saw what I had done with the room, but the important thing, he really liked it. I have since learned to do smooth walls, but we also show pictures of this room to many of our clients, and it’s amazing the number of them that choose this. It’s easy and gives the same look.
Plaster is strong and durable, where sheet rock mud is not. If you are going to be doing a room that is going to have heavy traffic, I would recommend you use plaster.
One last point; if you are going to be having a pattern in your plaster it is best that just one person do the job. My daughter-in-law came over to help me do swirls in a room in one of our rentals, and try as we might, we could not get our gauges the same. It’s best that it be a one person job.
Use a portable stereo and music that you like. It will make the job enjoyable.
