LIME PAINT INSTRUCTIONS

SAFETY FIRST: ALWAYS WEAR LATEX GLOVES AND GOGGLES WHEN WORKING WITH VASARI LIME WASH. USE A DUST MASK OR RESPIRATOR WHEN WORKING WITH DRY GOODS.

Lime Wash is specifically designed for coating Vasari  Marmorino or Stucco. We don't recommend it over anything else. It cannot be applied over our Veneziano. Lime wash is a very historic and traditional product. It can be used as a subtle color wash, it can completely change the existing color of the wall or it can rejuvenate exterior Vasari plaster fixing possible weathering or checking. Lime wash can give soft translucent color variation to plaster, or it can be applied to where the original color of the plaster is radically changed. Although it does not seal like an oil-based sealer, acrylic, or wax, it does add a layer of protection. Lime wash can be polished to a soft rich shine or can be left as a flat, natural finish. It can be used like a glaze, leaving pockets of color in rougher patches of the underlying plaster, or can also be used as a medium for murals. Visit the Lime Wash gallery for samples and ideas.

Lime Wash is traditionally applied with a big brush, but can also be ragged on. Do not use a roller. It will look like you've painted squares. The biggest trick to lime washing is to keep the wall wet so that the lime wash remains workable. If you let the wall dry too much, you can have a harder time getting rid of the brush strokes.

Lime wash is almost like a super thin coat of Veneziano applied with a brush. You can get color variation and mottling by compressing or burnishing if you want.

TOOLS NEEDED

-Spray bottle or sprayer machine (like an airless sprayer), preferably a large one that's easy to spray. Good hand water sprayers are easily found at garden supply stores.
-At least one 6" wide brushes. You can use natural or synthetic bristled brushes, but make sure you get a decent quality brush so the bristles don't pull out.
-Masking materials
-Rags

THE APPLICATION

When lime washing, you're applying very thin layers of product. Some if not most areas will reveal the base coat of plaster that you're covering. 2 or more coats of the same color can completely cover the previous color.  If you put two layers of different colors over each other, red and blue for example, will get translucent variation of those colors with a hint of purple. Lime wash has lots of possibilities. It's very important that you play with it on a sample board before doing the wall. You can always keep reapplying lime wash until you get what you're looking for.

The two most important things to keep in mind when lime washing are:

1. As long as the wall is wet, you can work it.

2. Keep feathering out brush strokes as it dries

 Spray water over a section of arms reach on your dried last coat of Marmorino or Stucco. The wall will immediately absorb the first few sprays of water. Spray enough on the wall to make it wet rather than just damp. You'll notice that the wall absorbs the water unevenly.

With your brush,apply a thin or medium layer of lime wash in horizontal and vertical direction. It doesn't have to look good at this point, just spread some over the whole area. You can do this unevenly or uniformly depending on the style you're trying to create. Don't aooly it thick as paint. Pretend it's a thin stain.

 When the lime wash that you applied starts to get absorbed by the wall, when it's between being very wet and damp, feather out any brush marks that the brush made. You can do this gently or a little harder. You will get areas that you can no longer feather out because the area has dried too much. When this happens, spray the wall with water to make the lime wash workable again. You can even scrub out those areas with your brush, as if it were an eraser. You can play endlessly with your spray bottle and brush. You can create endless effects by continuously rewetting the wall and brushing it out. You can even add other colors of lime wash, feathering them into the first color. While wet, you can even move the wash around with a rag or sponge, much like faux finish glazing. This will leave lime wash only in rougher areas of the plaster. You can unmask when still damp unless you want to add other elements to the wall.

As it dries, we recommend going over the recently applied area with a damp sponge or soft rag. This shouldn't remove much lime wash from the plaster. Sponging everything will compact and burnish the wash and give it some more color variation.  Make really sure that the sponge is cleaned welll every few sections. Otherwise, the sponge will accumulate lime and start leaving streaky deposits on the wall. For even more variation, you can burnish the wash as it dries with a trowel, like you would our plasters.

After it dries, you can softly sand sponge the lime wash. This will give more color and variation. If you rub harder, the base color of the plaster will come through.

A great thing about lime wash is that you can fix it change it endelessly. This goes for interiors and exteriors alike. However, just like our plasters, you can seal it. If you seal it, you'll have a much harder time changing the color later. As with plasters, you can't use waxes on exteriors. Use penetrating stone or natural tile sealers that won't change the color or sheen.

As always, test lime wash on a sample board or discreet wall. Lime wash, like plaster, is easy to apply. You just need a few minutes to get the feel for it. Remember the trick to lime wash is keeping the wall wet enough that you can work and move the product then compressing it a little into the plaster as it dries.