The writing is on the walls of Instagram. Natural wall finishes such as clay and lime form a soothing backdrop to interiors. Tranquil yet textured, like living in a Rothko painting, raw walls are more than a fad. They are good for the planet, good for your health — and yes, they look good too, paired with calming styles from Japandi to cottagecore. In minimalist or modern homes that can easily feel stark, raw walls add an air of handcrafted authenticity.
“I can’t even tell you the last time we’ve used wallpaper,” says Louisa Grey, the founder of House of Grey, which specialises in natural, restorative interior design. Traditional wall finishes such as tadelakt, clay plaster and limewash are her go-to choices. Inquiries are up from homeowners who “want to optimise their health” and avoid breathing in chemicals from mass-market products.
Stephen Nash, creative director of All & Nxthing Interiors, is another fan of textured walls. “It’s no longer just choosing paint colours,” he says. “Do you want a flat wall? Do you want a cloudy wall? Having just flat walls will be a thing of the past.”
Nash adds: “We’re in a Pinterest culture now. We get asked about [textured walls] all the time. It adds depth to a house, but it’s not cheap.” To supply and fit clay plaster, tadelakt or micro-cement costs £100 to £170 a square metre, he says. But there are cheaper options. Here are seven ways to dress your walls au naturel, whatever your budget.
Textured paint
By day Rebecca Allen, 24, and Oliver Beckett, 28, work at his family’s interior-design studio in Leeds (beckettsinteriors.com). But by night the young couple are doing up their first home: a two-bedroom terrace near Bradford, West Yorkshire, which they bought for £112,000 in 2019. Their DIY transformation of the run-down house into a fusion of Japanese minimalism and Scandinavian warmth — with four types of textured walls — has won them 12,000 Instagram followers (@jamesstreethouse) and a platform to launch their interiors range (festoonrooms.co.uk). In the kitchen they used a Danish lime product, Kabric from Detale CPH (£47 for three litres; detalecph.com). “It’s almost like a textured paint,” Allen says. You can paint a wall in a day, rolling on the thick paint and then spreading it evenly with a plaster knife or brush.
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Limewash
In their living room Allen and Beckett used two coats of Bauwerk limewash in Stone, blending clouds of thin paint together with a wide brush (£30 for one litre; bauwerkcolour.co.uk). “It’s about playing with it and not being too perfect,” Allen says. Note, though, that application takes three or four times longer than standard paint with a roller, and the result is sensitive to stains and oils.
Its soft, chalky nuance has elevated Bauwerk to almost cult status since Bronwyn Riedel used limestone from her Australian home town of Fremantle to create a completely natural paint 20 years ago. Unlike most low or zero-VOC (volatile organic compound) paints, it is not plastic-based. Grey, who this year collaborated with Bauwerk in a collection of earthy shades, used three of these in her latest project, a high-end home at the Gasholders development in King’s Cross, London.
Lime plaster
When the architect Ben Ridley upgraded his five-bedroom Edwardian terrace in Muswell Hill, north London, to a highly energy-efficient home, he chose bare lime plaster for all the internal walls. “It’s breathable, which is important when you’re working with old buildings, and it’s also airtight. The slightly rough finish is quite forgiving: if you do mark it, you don’t notice it, or you can just slightly sand it down,” says Ridley, who lives with his wife, Susanne, and their daughter, Edyth, two. They used Lime Green Solo (£18 for 25kg; lime-green.co.uk), applied in one coat by a standard plasterer — avoiding costly specialists. Always wear gloves and goggles when applying lime.
Clay plaster
On the remote Lizard peninsula in Cornwall, Adam Weismann and Katy Bryce started making clay plasters in 2002 after building with cob (earth) — including for Prince Charles — as twentysomethings. Scientists found their Clayworks takes 85 per cent less energy to create than gypsum plaster, is compostable, breathable and can absorb odours, noise and humidity. “It’s very now, very earthy, very natural. It makes your house like a plant — it reduces the indoor air pollution,” says Stephen Nash. Pick from 88 colours and four types of rough textures (from about £20 a sq m, excluding installation by Clayworks’ network of installers; clay-works.com). You can use it almost anywhere, including in bathrooms, but not in showers or areas with running water.
Microcement
Made from cement, fine aggregates and polymers with a waterproof sealant, micro-cement is easy to clean and ideal for wet areas and floors. Although a lot of energy is used to make micro-cement — like all cement products — you need only a “super-skinny” layer of about 4mm thick, Nash says. That minimises transport emissions and waste. Once fitted, it is “bulletproof”, making it a long-lasting choice, adds Nash, who used it in his Hackney shower and living room feature wall. Brands include Forcrete and Mortex. Although anyone can do a micro-cement course (ssa-training.co.uk), it is a “very skilled job” to apply, Nash says.
Polished plaster
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With the ancient Moroccan technique of tadelakt, you apply lime plaster in many thin layers, compress it with a trowel, rub in olive oil soap or beeswax and then polish it to shine. Used by Berbers in cisterns, it has water- and mould-resistant properties that make it perfect for wet rooms. Beware, though, that horizontal tadelakt surfaces are prone to stains. “It is completely natural, but they advise that you rewax it every year. It’s different from a porcelain tile that you whack up and leave,” says Louisa Grey, who has used tadelakt in a serene north London bathroom. Lighter shades are more forgiving to patch up, she adds. Expect to pay a specialist from £150 a sq m.
Despite the lengthy process, Beckett and Allen applied polished plaster themselves in their West Yorkshire hallway and, to great effect, on their Ikea wardrobe doors after stripping off the vinyl covering. They used Marmorino, a lime-based Venetian plaster that contains marble dust (£12 for 1kg, polishedplastercompany.co.uk). “It makes it feel a lot more luxurious — it bounces the light off the walls,” says Allen, who did much of the polishing. Top tip? “Practise beforehand. Get plasterboard from a DIY shop and try the technique there. If you think about it too much, you won’t try it.”
Gypsum plaster
Don’t discount just leaving standard gypsum walls bare. Nash says: “On every project I ever work on, we spend weeks, months choosing the colours with the client. And then the plasterer comes and plasters the house. And all the clients walk in and say, ‘Ooh, can we just leave it like this? It looks really nice.’ ”
Plan carefully to have all pipework and wiring in the walls, and fit woodwork before plastering. Then seal the plaster. “You have to do everything backwards,” says Nash, who did this in the bathroom of a grade II listed Georgian townhouse in Hackney. The pink gypsum plaster contrasts beautifully with green timber panelling. “Everyone likes a bit of plaster.”
