PaintPRO Archives |
Warm greenish grays burnished Venetian plaster (Kolcaustico) on wals and ceiling. Visible in the corner around the mail slot is a decorativ border, which echoes the furniture's brass rivits. Painter, Catherine Refern McMenimen owner of Redfern Design made a plaster slurry by adding extra pigment and water to the plaster to create pain-like medium. Starting with a template she created a three-dimensional feel on these extremely smooth walls. |
Venetian Plaster,
Sepp Leaf Kolcaustico
Venetian and other lime-based plasters are an up-sell to traditional painting applications. Such finishes add significant value to the customer's projects and the contractor's workmanship. They also help to distinguish your services from the competition.
by Bruce Hackett
to see how well readers responded to the January-February 2002 issue that featured an insightful article on Venetian plaster finishes. Advertisers reported that readers wanted more information and instruction on these luxurious finishes, clearly indicating that today’s painting and decorating trade is changing. Furthermore, it indicates that today’s consumers — i.e., your prospective customers — view the painting and decorating trade differently, more decoratively and with greater appreciation for the value such finishes add to their investments and standards of living.
Venetian and other lime-based plasters are an up-sell to traditional painting applications. Such finishes add significant value to the customer’s projects and the contractor’s workmanship. They also help to distinguish your services from the competition. Plaster finishes require training and time practicing on the walls at home, but decorative finishes like Venetian plaster are truly a complement to the general painting services your company may currently provide. Putting the tools and products in trained hands can undoubtedly create increased profits that support your business developments with other decorative applications as well.
Lipstick red Venetian plaster (Kolcaustico) ceiling, finished with neutral Liberon Wax. It is in the dining room of a tudor-style house build in 1918 in Denver's Capitol HIll's Morgan's Hispanic district. The finish was applied by Catherine Redfern MeMenimum owner of Reffern Design. Catherine has been using Kolcaustico since 1996. She took a class in New York offered by Sepp Leaf Products. This helped her fine tune this craft and explore some of the recommended techniques using liqued and powder pibments, mica powders and waxes. |
The walls and painted bamboo and poppies are done entirely in Venetian Plaster (Kolcaustico). Finishes were applied by the Buon Fresco Fine Decorative Painting Company, Alexandria, Virginia. In their 5+ years in business, painters Andre Kouznetsov and Victoria Bingham have gained an excellent reputation for their work. Aside from thei rwork, Buon Fresco also offers instruction in much of what they do. |
PaintPRO, a magazine well regarded for its colorful photography and focus on notable workmanship, wants to again show you beautiful examples of Venetian plasters and recognize the contractors behind these excellent works. First, we want to point out that these unique finishes are so beautiful that they likely are cause for you to stop turning these pages and read what they’re all about. Second, we want to inform our PaintPRO readers that we’re currently designing some powerful new ways to make your work shine — not just for fellow tradesmen but also for the entire world to see. 
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