Venetian plaster in Carnegie Hill, Manhattan is signature work for Chelsea Limewash Co., in a district of grand townhouses and prewar co-ops. Venetian plaster is a burnished lime plaster, built in thin hand-troweled coats and polished to a marble-like depth and sheen. Because it is lime-based, it stays breathable and mineral, bonding into the wall rather than sitting on it like a film. From a formal dining room to a co-op foyer, our crews trowel and burnish it by hand.
Carnegie Hill is known for its grand townhouses and prewar co-ops inside a historic district on the Upper East Side. The formal, high-ceilinged rooms of these homes are exactly where a burnished plaster reads best, catching chandelier and daylight alike. The neighborhood's refined, high-finish expectations make Venetian plaster a natural fit over ordinary paint.
Venetian plaster is a lime plaster troweled on in thin, successive coats and then burnished to a hard, marble-like sheen. Each coat is tightly compressed with the trowel, which is what gives the surface its stone-like depth and subtle movement. Because it is lime-based it cures mineral and breathable, unlike an acrylic wall coating.
The grand townhouse rooms and co-op foyers of Carnegie Hill are ideal settings for a polished plaster wall. The finish reads like honed marble under chandelier light and softens beautifully under daylight, giving a formal room real presence. We plan the layout and sheen level to suit the scale and lighting of the space.
Prewar co-ops and grand townhouses call for meticulous, considerate work. We prime the wall with a mineral bonding coat, protect the room fully, and build the plaster in careful hand-troweled layers over several visits as each coat cures. The finished wall is left immaculate and sealed as the finish specifies.
We also finish walls in nearby Yorkville. Call Chelsea Limewash Co. at (646) 828-5798 for limewash & mineral paint finishes across Manhattan.