Ye Olde Rustic Plastering

[JohnB]

I'm lime plastering the stone walls in the room I'm working on, to give the effect of years of limewashing, so they're very lumpy and bumpy, as you can see here. Today I'm plastering the plasterboard partition wall with the gypsum stuff. Plastering isn't one of my greatest skills, and this is the biggest job I've done! It's not straightforward as there are exposed beams, and a lot of it is in a confined space. I was intending to try to make it boring and flat, but looking at the first coat before smoothing it, I thought it looked great with a rough finish, and much more in keeping with the other walls. As I was in two minds, I've smoothed it off as best I can, although in places it's still a bit rough, as I mixed too much plaster and worked too slowly! The bit I've got very smooth looks boring!

I don't want to make it look too much like incompetent plastering, but a deliberate effort to produce a "rustic" finish. What do other people do with their boring flat walls?

 

[MatthewC]

I don't want to make it look too much like incompetent plastering, but a deliberate effort to produce a "rustic" finish. What do other people do with their boring flat walls?

In my own experience, if you are not very good at something, then getting a deliberate "rustic" finish is actually even more difficult than doing a "proper job". Possibly a bit like the people who paint the scenery boards in a theatre - it looks simple but is actually a very real skill IMO.

On my lime plastered walls, it was only when we applied the limewash that they really got a "proper" look and feel - I can't describe it but any imperfections clearly add to the effect so they are anything but boring.

On boring flat multi finish walls I have always added photos, paintings, posters or certificates to add interest!

 

[JohnB]

In my own experience, if you are not very good at something, then getting a deliberate "rustic" finish is actually even more difficult than doing a "proper job".

That's why I was worried! Of course I may be very good at producing a rustic finish, and a deliberate so called "proper job" may be beyond me .

 

[Penners]

I've never quite worked out why we tend to think that, in days of yore, plasterers were all incompetent, and incapable of producing a nice flat finish. I suspect that, just as today, there were good ones and bad ones. So lumpy plaster is not a prerequisite of an "authentic" period property.

And, although you may regard your smooth, flat walls as boring, others may simply like their nice finish.

However, this is all academic really. Once your walls are painted, the room is furnished and you've got some pictures hung, nobody will notice whether the walls are lumpy or flat - unless you draw attention to them. They'll just enjoy the room as a whole. So I should relax and just do whatever you (a) like and (b) are capable of.

 

[JoceAndChris]

Sounds like you're having fun John. I think it's great that you're having a go, and like Mr P think that you liking it is what counts.

In a room that was intended to have mouldings like cornice, dado, etc the walls would need to be as flat as possible. The Chatsworth and Strawberry Hill plasterer who did my ceiling this year has got it as smooth as can be with lime plaster. He said the exterior of the building requires a special technique called " lining out" which creates a geometric precision that went with Palladian styles of architecture.

But downstairs in the passageway for servants, the old lime plaster is very wobbly and irregular, and I like how the different finishes denote the different status of parts of the house.

 

[JohnB]

I roughly smoothed (!) the second coat with the float, then lovingly caressed the entire wall with my fingers and the ball of my hand to smooth the hard edges and lumps and bumps. I worked over bits of it as it was drying, then went over it with a wet sponge. The end result is gently uneven, and I think will fit better with the lime plastered walls than a boring dead smooth finish. I think it's just what I wanted, but will have to see when it's completely dry and painted.

I'm back to lime plastering now .

 

[Lime]

I've never quite worked out why we tend to think that, in days of yore, plasterers were all incompetent, and incapable of producing a nice flat finish. I suspect that, just as today, there were good ones and bad ones. So lumpy plaster is not a prerequisite of an "authentic" period property.

And, although you may regard your smooth, flat walls as boring, others may simply like their nice finish.

I completely agree.
Lumpy, uneven walls are often the work of unskilled or inexperienced workers who for whatever reason think old houses do not deserve better.

A flat finish is not boring, it shows skill and painstaking care particularly if it is juxtaposed to oak beams and other quirky structures and ornament.

However, this is all academic really. Once your walls are painted, the room is furnished and you've got some pictures hung, nobody will notice whether the walls are lumpy or flat - unless you draw attention to them. They'll just enjoy the room as a whole. So I should relax and just do whatever you (a) like and (b) are capable of.

The immediate difference between flat and lumpy maybe not apparent in the first instance.
However as time passes each imperfection becomes more and more obvious as dust and dirt settles.
Lumpy walls often end up looking dirty and rather sad and a distraction for the eye from the innate beauty of wood and historic time-produced oddities.

 

[Alex F]

I always get the plasterers to plaster the wall flat and straight and leave the lime plaster natural alfter washing with some diluted acid. Although they are flat they certainly don't look boring as the lime texture is so interesting and natural looking. Flat natural limed walls combined with timber finished like skirting, architraves, dado rails etc look great.

here's a house i did a couple of years ago with some staight walls and some curved but not lumpy. The picked out stones maybe a be twee for some. (pictures terrible quality sadly).

 

[Penners]

The picked out stones maybe a be twee for some.

Chacun à son goût.

Alex - bad news. Someone's nicked your fireplace.

 

[Alex F]

:lol: - ah yes but for a stove she will suffice nicely and beside here is a fire place the otherside ... ,

 

[elm]

'Multi Finish' it said on the bag - and that was exactly what we achieved ......

 

[Feltwell]

Chacun à son goût.

Strictly in the interests of the preservation of the pedantic customs that have been so well established on this forum:-

The Great God of Wikipedia (who as we know is infallible) thinks that should be "à chacun son goût".

(I only know that because I had to Google it to find out what it meant )

 

[JohnB]

I prefer my lumpy plaster to those picked out stones!

 

[Penners]

Chacun à son goût.

Strictly in the interests of the preservation of the pedantic customs that have been so well established on this forum:-

The Great God of Wikipedia (who as we know is infallible) thinks that should be "à chacun son goût".

(I only know that because I had to Google it to find out what it meant )

Well, Mr F, the difference between the two is equivalent to the difference in English between "Each to his own taste" and "To each his own taste". In other words, either is correct.

I can't abide pedantry!

Ahem...

 

[Feltwell]

Oooh, much internet debate on that one Penners old chap.

Interestingly, English speakers use this expression considerably more than the French, though it has been slightly twisted into "chacun à son goût" (literally, "each one to his taste") or "chacun a son goût" ("each one has his taste"). The correct French expression, however, is (à) chacun son goût.

From http://french.about.com/od/vocabulary/a/a-chacun-son-gout.htm and many similar examples elsewhere.

There is always the point though, that if an expression is used incorrectly for long enough at what point does it become a correct part of the language. It does seem rather odd that certain "French" phrases - that the French themsleves have never used, such as cul-de-sac - have entered the English language.

 

[Penners]

Oooh, much internet debate on that one Penners old chap.

Interestingly, English speakers use this expression considerably more than the French, though it has been slightly twisted into "chacun à son goût" (literally, "each one to his taste") or "chacun a son goût" ("each one has his taste"). The correct French expression, however, is (à) chacun son goût.

From http://french.about.com/od/vocabulary/a/a-chacun-son-gout.htm and many similar examples elsewhere.

There is always the point though, that if an expression is used incorrectly for long enough at what point does it become a correct part of the language. It does seem rather odd that certain "French" phrases - that the French themsleves have never used, such as cul-de-sac - have entered the English language.

My point was purely a grammatical one. There are several ways of saying the same thing in French (as, of course, in English), so provided the rules of French grammar are observed, all of them are correct.

Unless, of course, one is quoting someone's particular words - which, to the best of my knowledge, we're not.

There are certainly many ostensibly French phrases used in English, which the French themselves do not use. And, as a recent American president so sagely observed, the French have no word for entrepreneur. :roll:

 

[LadyArowana]

There are certainly many ostensibly French phrases used in English, which the French themselves do not use. And, as a recent American president so sagely observed, the French have no word for entrepreneur. :roll:

He was going to say "cheese eating surrender monkey" but changed it after someone pointed out that technically that could be translated.

 

[FamilyWiggs]

Singe reddition manger du fromage - according to my French dictionary book. It is an odd volume; it has no spine. :wink:

I always find it incredible that we are so laissez faire about the encroachment of French words into our language. 8)

 

[JohnB]

Anyway, getting back on topic, this is why I like wonky walls .

 

[Moneypit]

Off topic again. I spent some time discussing the topic of the Viz comic with a French colleague expecting him to appreciate "Finbarr Saunders and his double entendres". Apparently though, the phrase means nothing apart from a literal "listen again". Not quite the same sniggeringly sexual connotations that we British seem to enjoy so much.

Cue double entendre topic change!