I remember the first time I saw a deliberately unfinished wall. I was at a friend's house when I was 16 and asked her if her parents were in the middle of decorating. She said "I know it looks like it, but it's actually meant to look like this," and we both had a bit of a giggle before running upstairs and listening to our yellow sports walkman or whatever!! Fast forward err (
too many) years, and it's a look that I've not only become accustomed to, but love (when done right)! In this
Gothenburg apartment a rough plaster wall in the hallway and sitting room adds so much texture to an otherwise neutral scheme - it helps that the space itself is absolutely beautiful too!
Photography courtesy of Alvhem Isn't it such a lovely space? It's actually for sale too - got to love that!
What did you think of the hall and living room wall? Could you imagine doing something like this in your home?
In case you're curious, I dug around a little today and found three different styles of 'textured' walls and simple ways to achieve the look.
1. Raw Plaster Wall James Gardener and I captured the bedroom above in artist
Maria Øverbye's relaxed
Oslo home for my book
The Scandinavian Home. Maria was planning to give the wall a fresh new lick of paint but fell in love with the patina created by the raw wall, dotted with fillers and decided to leave it exactly as it was!
Here is another beautiful example in
Karina's Berlin home. The 'distressed' look works because everything else has been kept fresh, while a vintage table helps to balance the look.
Laura and Nora love using the texture of a raw plaster wall in their
country retreat to add depth to the pared-back space. It looks particularly great on a half-painted wall and with industrial-style furniture, don't you think?
2. Hand-troweled plaster work This beautiful wall has been created by plaster work gurus Tara Mangini and Percy Bright of
Jersery Ice Cream Co. The layer of pigmented plaster has been hand-troweled using gypsum (you can also use Lime, Vemeitan or Tadelakt) and the finished surface is smooth rather than textured. You can tap into your inner artist and create your own look - or make the most of Tara and Percy's new service and get these guys to do it for you!
3. Subtle concrete In our dining room and window nook we added
roll-a-tex sand texture to the paint (Fjäder by Jotun). The more you add, the more textured the look. It was actually a total faff to put it on the wall with a paint brush (wrong tool perhaps?!) - but it was worth it in the end!
You might remember the
Norwegian bedroom of Steffen Olsen from a few weeks back (FYI it went on to win 'Norway's best bedroom'!). Steffen used
Lady Minerals from Jotun to achieve this dramatic aesthetic on the wall.
If you have any tips, please do share them in the comment section below, I'm sure there are a million ways to create the industrial-style plaster / concrete wall!
Have a lovely day!
Niki
