Plaster was common for covering walls in the 19th Century, but with the advent of drywall, plaster fell by the wayside, since it was costlier and took longer to apply. However, with many homeowners looking to recreate the look of plaster walls, the art of creating faux Venetian plaster finishes grows in popularity.

You can buy fake Venetian plaster or hire a trained professional to finish your walls with real Venetian plaster. Some decorative painters train in Italy, but many take classes in the United States.

To create that look yourself, you'll find lots of help on the Internet or in a growing number of books. Do your initial experimenting on a test panel and not on your walls. That way, you can make mistakes without having to clean them up and start all over.

Start by using a textured paint with a consistency slightly thinner than joint compound. It's available at most good hardware centers, since it's commonly used to hide wall and ceiling imperfections and cracks.

Holding a trowel like those used to apply cement to the curved surfaces of swimming pools, apply the textured paint. The larger the trowel, the more surface you can cover with each stroke. Distribute the paint fairly evenly. You can go back later to achieve the texture you're looking for. Hold the trowel at about 45 degrees for the first pass, then flatten it out a little to create more texture.

Let that coat dry for about twenty-four hours before moving to the second step, which is applying paint to your textured surface. A satin finish works best.

Let that coat dry for at least an hour before applying the top coat, a water-based glazing liquid, with a medium nap roller. A glazing medium, tinted to your desired color, works better than watered-down paint, because you're going to go back immediately after you've finished and take most of it off again, and you wouldn't be able to do that with watered-down paint. It dries too fast.

Once the glazing liquid has been applied, use a rag towel to begin removing it, using a circular motion. Go over the surface, allowing the glaze to collect in the low spots in your textured paint, until you no longer see any swipe marks. don't press down too hard and ruin your textured surface, and don't worry about mistakes, because you're making them BEFORE you tackle your walls.

Let the surface dry for about a week. It will have the look and feel of plaster, adding class and warmth to your room--at a fraction of the cost of real plaster work.

By: Jeanette Joy Fisher
If you want a professional faux plaster look, check out the faux artists who volunteered their faux and decorative painting talents for the Habitat for Humanity project featured on TLC's Flip That House
Copyright © 2007 Jeanette J. Fisher

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Long before the turn of the century and as early as the ancient Egyptians, the use of plaster in ornate designs was a common decorating solution to plain walls and ceilings.

At the turn of the century, in the United States and abroad, Cast Plaster Ornamentation and Raised Plaster Stenciling were used to add architectural beauty to stately homes and government buildings. You can still see it in homes such as the "Biltmore" mansions, fine hotels and various downtown structures all across America and in Europe and France.

The Vatican is well known for its grand use of cast plaster ornamentation, with elements dating back to its construction still gracing walls, pillars and ceilings.

Cast Plaster Ornamentals faded from their once "stylish" popularity around the 1920's and have rarely been seen since in the common decorating market. That is, until now.

With Raised Plaster stenciling now being featured in magazines articles, home decorating shows on television and at numerous home decorating fairs across the nation, cast plaster is quickly following suit.

Do to this re-invention of 3-D decorating; even Wallpaper manufacturers have begun to bring back the old "Embossed" wallpaper to get in on the decorating band wagon.

What is "Cast Plaster"? That's simple: Cast plaster is simply pouring common Plaster of Paris mixed with water in to a mold that has been sprayed with any release agent (such as cooking spray or mold release) and allowed to harden.

Once the piece is hard, you simply turn the mold over, pop out the plaster piece and it has taken on the shape and design of the mold exactly.

The application to walls and ceilings is simple.

Standard "joint compound" is available in every home and hardware store across the nation. Simply spread a thin layer of joint compound (about ¼" thick) over the back of the cast plaster piece, hold it to the ceiling or wall for 30 seconds to 1 minute (depending on how large the piece is) and it becomes permanent. This is the precise way the Victorian's applied their wonderful ceiling and wall designs, except that they applied actual plaster to the piece as its adhesive.

Heavier pieces are applied the same way but with small pilot holes drilled and finishing nails gently tapped in to place to hold the piece firm as the joint compound dries.

Masters of plaster design such as Ken Wilde of create dramatic effects using cast plaster designs on ceilings and walls of the very wealthy. You can see his designs featured in many magazine articles that discuss his craft and the reintroduction of cast plaster decorating.

Many of Ken's Ceiling and wall designs cost his clients literally thousands of dollars; but you don't need to hire a master to create this beauty in your home and it doesn't have to cost you an arm, a leg and your first born!

Plaster of Paris is very inexpensive. From just one 25 lb. bag (about the cost of a simple lunch at "McDonalds"), you can yield as many as 50 small pieces which is more than enough to create a 5 foot medallion around your light fixture or a stunning repeated border of molded plaster.

Any mold can be used to create designs. Molds made for candy, candles, soaps or more detailed architectural molds can be combined in various ways to achieve a myriad of possibilities.

David Prussen and Eddie McMillan (both featured on our website), have recently discovered the art of plaster décor and have begun adding exquisite designs to their ceilings using only a few simple molds. These are people just like you and I, with absolutely no previous skill or knowledge of plaster. Yet with their first try, they've created such ornate designs using molds that you'll be amazed at the professional and beautiful look of their finished projects.

This past fall, I joined them by adding a 5 x 3 foot, very ornate, cast plaster frame around my dining room chandelier. It took me a few hours to cast the plaster pieces and only 1 hour to put the design in to place. The look is expensive, professional and yet it's my first attempt as well.

You too can achieve these looks with little effort, little expense and no experience what so ever.

Copyright © Victoria Larsen 2006

By: Victoria Larsen
Victoria Larsen is a professional wall stencil designer and interior specialist. Her products and ideas have been featured in Better Homes and Gardens, Women's Day, Craft Trends, Creating Keepsakes, Rubber Stampin Retailer and Memory Maker magazines and The Wall Street Journal. Visit Victoria on line at http://www.victorialarsen.com.

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