Not Paint....

 

Pick a color you love that you want to see on a wall or in an entire room or above/below a chair rail or on a stencil...

Via Golden Touch, work in progress
and instead of using paint use Interno Lime Wash which you can find here. It is a glorious finish that "blooms" with the light, is saturated with pigment and has the look of weathered stucco you find only in Italy except..

Entry Hall by Golden Touch
it comes in EVERY color you can imagine.  Porters Paints of Australia manufactures, without a doubt, the most beautiful speciality finishes I have ever worked with.  Their supplier in the USA is Sydney Harbour Paints (the websites are exactly the same). You can email them to order. I have the "real" painted out fan deck which literaly must have my saliva on it.


Interno Lime Wash is watery and is SO easy to apply. It dries in about 3 seconds and is a bit smelly. It is the lime and the immense amount of pigment that provides all that glorious-ness. A quart will cover an entire room.
Via Porters Paints
Pigment, my dear readers, is what they put in a medium to make color. Pastels (chalk) are made up of tons of pigment with a bit of binder. (I must have a jar of pigments in every color. It is PURE color. You want to drown in it if you are a color freak)

Via Golden Touch
And it is the slight unevenness of the application that also lends itself to the luminosity.

Via Golden Touch ( I will discuss photo tomorrow)
To Apply: First water down some joint compound so it is the consistency of very thick paint. Pour in paint tray and roll on with cheap 9" roller. Throw away roller and plastic tray. Let this dry overnight. Shake lime wash well and pour into a plastic paint tray. Use a dense foam roller with rounded ends. Roll on wash in 3 to 4 foot patches up/down and criss/cross. Do not over lap too much. This first coat will look very patchy and uneven. Let dry and put on a second coat and a third if you like. There is no "perfect" to lime wash so you have no reason to worry.  This entry hall is two coats and I prefer that you can see the uneven application. Dry over night and then stencil if you like (stencil here is via Royal Design Stencil, see this post
via Golden Touch
Trust me on this. You will be glad you spent more then the cost of a quart of paint.  Every time you pass by your soul will fill with delightful saturated color and light

Very Important Tip : DO NOT wash your roller and brushes and tray if you are doing another coat even if you can't do it until the next weekend. Put the roller in a plastic bag (I leave the handle on), put the brushes in a zip lock bag with the handles hanging out, put the paint tray right in a plastic bag too even with paint in it.  Then throw everything in the frig! Even for a week, I swear. It all stays perfect and nothing dries out.

16 comments:

  1. Love this! the color, the pattern. What a fun space. And it has a very nice depth to it. Thanks for the tip.

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  2. thanks for coming by Naomi. You also can try to get the same effect with waterdowned paint, using the same technique but you will need more coats.
    Cat

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  3. Absolutely gorgeous-luminous-lovely - love it!

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  4. Fabulous colour and love the crisp white. Roll on spring

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  5. Hi Cat. This is beautiful and thanks so much for using one of my stencils! :) I have used the Interno Lime Wash here in MY studio as well-and love it! We used a really big brush to cross-hatch it on, but I like the roller idea as well. From your post, I am guessing you didn't use their primer? Here's what we did here: http://designamour.com/2008/08/25/luscious-lime/

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  6. Hahahah, Melanie! WOW, I am so happy you came by again. The comments from "Catherine" on your post are me! You are right, I did not use their primer. It just costs too much and I figured that that the point of this "special" primer was to have a stucco type base. So I just watered downed joint compound just enough to be able to roll it on.
    CAT

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  7. I just finished my kitchen with the Interno Lime Paints and I also fell in love! I didn't even think it was smelly- more of a natural smell.

    I tried both- rolling and brush and decided rolling was OK for the first application, but preferred the brush for the second. I also used a lime primer (another company's) first, but will try the JC route on the next project.

    I think I ordered that color you used as 1 of my samples- what did you use? It looks great!

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  8. Hello Ann: The color is "snow pea" on the fan deck. You are so talented, I love your websites!
    Cat

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  9. I absolutely ADORE that gorgeous bright green colour! The imperfections in the finish really give the wall character and depth. And the stencil is pretty fantastic too!

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  10. Hi Cat, I just love the finish you did with the lime wash. I wish I had seen the color before I had ordered the lime wash. I ordered the Caprioska in the lime wash. Could yoy tell me what color you used for the white? More lime wash or paint? Thanks, Jan

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  11. Jan, thanks for stopping by, such lovely work you do. The color is "sweet pea" in lime wash. The white is paint, rolled on and it was a Devine white. That paint is thick and you know how hard it is to cover a darker color with white. And I find the thicker paint does not seep under the stencil. Of course I used spray adhesive..
    Cat

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  12. What a beautiful colour. Great job too.

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  13. Looks great! I looked into Porter Paints but it's really expensive, like $100 a gallon. I did a little research and was able to find a recipe for lime wash which is slaked lime or lime putty (which I got from COON Restoration) mixed with water and pigment. I haven't used it yet but it should have the same result.

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  14. i think this is very cool, i love the unevenness, it gives it so much character. i do have a question who did the art piece of the girl that is framed on the dresser?

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  15. Hi Ghostkat, thanks for stopping by. That is an AP photo. You can order AP photos from their website and if you see an AP phote that is not on their site, you simple email them a description and what apaper/ magazine you saw it in. This picture is from the color festival that takes place in India every year. She is so beautiful.
    Cat

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  16. Hi Cat, loove this colour, just looked in porter'sand sydney harbour sites but can't find 'snow pea'... any guidance appreciated :) thank you, kelli

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