Lime Wash

I was lulled into a false sense of security by just how easy my first limewash experience was.I applied 4 coats of coloured limewash made by myself to the wall of our recently lime plastered bedroom. It was May but not too hot and each coat dried smoothly and evenly in 24 hours.

The walls looked great 7 years on.

Our kitchen however was totally different. A didn’t like the plaster finish so he put a very thin coat of bio Calle 00 zero over to smooth it out.This plaster is a fine one with lots of marble dust and he likes to work over it once it’s set. This makes for a tricky surface and to add to the problems the room has always had high humidity levels meaning things take ages to dry.

The main issue with limewash drying is that you want colour limewash to dry pretty evenly or there can be some differences in colour as the quickest parts to dry are lighter in shade.The best way to deal with this is to do the job in warm breezy dry weather with all windows and doors open for as long as possible. If you choose a wet day there will be more issues.

Generally it takes 3 or more coats to get to the final result with the last coat being a 50/50 mix of lime putty and water. This is quite a thick coat and previous coats must be weaker or the paint could crack and flake off.

Getting the wall wet but not so wet there are runs is another difficulty and dry rooms will need more wetting with a sprayer or clean brush.Some people mist spray lime wash after painting but this is usually only outside with sun on the walls.

Or if the walls are very dry and suck in water quickly.

I’m now waiting for my walls to dry off some more before mixing up the 50/50 coat and applying. I want to do it when I can be in to leave all the windows open. Fingers crossed.

On the other walls I have applied just one weak colour wash and it seems to be working well.the plaster was a pinky grey and if you want this as a base then a single wash will work as long as you are not looking for a totally finish.

It’s now possible to buy a white eco plaster from our builders merchants so I will try that and see if that will cut down coats. Then you have more choices for colour as a yellow wash will go over white very easily.

Applying limewash in 3 to 5 coats is very time consuming so ideally you want to do 2 rooms together. Unless it’s very dry and warm doing more rooms can make the house temporarily quite damp and you will need to keep windows and doors open for a week as 24 hours minimum is needed between coats.

After reading this you must be asking yourself are there any advantages to using limewash?

1. Although it’s time consuming it’s very cheap and costs just a few £1 for 5 litres
2. It’s not damaging to health or the environment
3. The possibility to mix a huge range of subtle and bright colours to suit your taste
4. It’s easy to apply although very messy people should steer clear as it is not a good idea to cover everything in drops of limewash.Limewash is dangerous if it gets in your eyes!
5. Lasts at least 5 years then you can repaint one coat on top of old one.

Disadvantages are just to do with the time it takes to do it! If you can rope in some help this won’t be a problem!