We’ve been seeing limewash walls everywhere the past couple of months. When I think of limewash, I get transported to an Italian Villa riddled with flowers; a Greek beachside home with the backyard doors open to let the late afternoon light in. With summer upon us, our Gazette Gal team highly recommends researching limewash methods of painting your home, as it has the ability to transform a flat, matte space into an eccentric, texturized oasis. This article will tell you a bit about limewash, where to find it, and how to do it yourself (yep, it's that easy).
Benefits:
Limewash paint offers a chalky, texturized look on any surface in your home. It’s crushed with limestone, water, and naturally colored pigments that effortlessly produce a romantic, high-art aesthetic anywhere it’s painted. The paint is environmentally friendly given its all-natural core ingredients (which also boast non-toxic elements compared to a resin/latex blend that you’d pick up at your local hardware store.) Limestone also possesses a high pH level which allows the paint to be bacteria resistant, therefore becoming hypoallergenic in some cases. I absolutely adore the timeless, romantic aesthetic it emanates, and it turns out achieving this look is not as difficult as one might think. The skill lies in the brush strokes — but everything has a learning curve! We don’t want you to get intimidated and miss out on something this good.
The easiest place to find limewash paint is at Lowes or designated eco-friendly paint retailers online. A gallon of the paint (which is typically the sweet spot for a four-walled bedroom) starts at about $67 and increases if you want to start big with a 5-gallon tub. The paint is a bit more expensive than resin/latex paint, but the outcome of the paint job proves itself to be priceless the moment you step into your new idyllic sanctuary. I’ve listed two common neutrals below that might be worth browsing, ranging from beige to olive green.
This might be a bit more labor intensive, but a good DIY project is a great way to spend your time when you’ve got nothing going on and are in the running for a new, fun task.
What You’ll Need:
The ratio of the ingredients as they’re mixed varies depending on how textured you want your walls to look. The ratio is typically one part pigment and salt, 10 parts hydrated lime powder, and then add water until the texture is milky. I listed a limewash brush set that eases you into the brush stroke technique if you’re a bit unsure of where to start. Don’t forget to trick out your room with drop cloths so the thin paint doesn't drip onto your prized possessions. Believe me, I’ve made this mistake one too many times. Get into your designated hair-dyeing-day t-shirt and let the fun begin!
Luckily, the technique is quite random. The paint itself is quite watery by nature and dries relatively quickly; as the paint dries, you start brushing vertically, diagonally, horizontally, or even randomly. The drying nature of the paint accentuates the randomized shapes of the brush strokes and offers that textured look. The process can definitely be a bit long as it requires a good amount of coats to really get that pigment showing, but depending on your color preference, the lighter you go, the less time it may take (luckily this process is practically odorless.) We urge you to have fun with this project; it is very difficult to get an outcome you won’t absolutely adore. We at Gazette Gal wish you a happy painting day!
