Golden walls — the fanciest finish for your palazzo (or semi)

Times

16 hours ago

As building materials go, there's none quite so luxurious as marble — conjuring visions of Greco-Roman temples and the stately grandeur of the Taj Mahal. However, there's another technique that exploits the sheen and durability of marble — without the colossal weight. Marmorino Venetian plaster is an ancient technique that combines slaked lime and marble dust (the marmorino of the name) for a polished, breathable, timeless finish.
Perucchetti Studio introduced this type of plaster to the UK in 1970 and since then the company's work has featured everywhere from Chelsea dining institution Daphne's and the Pall Mall home of Berry Bros & Rudd wine merchants to London City Airport and the Royal Academy, as well as residential projects in homes, castles and palaces from Perth in Australia to Mumbai including Ardross Castle in Inverness-shire, Mayfair House and many properties whose owners closely guard their anonymity.
In use since the Greco-Roman and Byzantine periods, the technique that came to be called marmorino found new life in Renaissance Venice, through Venice's trade with the East. It is applied to a surface — except some metals and glass — in thin, multiple layers using a steel trowel or spatula. Each layer is smoothed and burnished, creating a polished, marble-like finish with subtle depth and texture. Despite its Venetian roots, Perucchetti's headquarters are in London.
'In general, the Venetian plaster we apply, using the ancient recipes obtained from the archives in Venice, has not been bettered by modern day ready mixed plasters,' Natascha Boldero, the creative director of Perucchetti tells us. With a background in the study of Byzantine art, Boldero was one of Perucchetti's first clients in the 1970s — and went on to buy the company some years later from the artist Mauro Perucchetti, who founded the company. 'Modern plasters simply do not have the depth and quality of a bespoke mix of plaster. We maintain a traditional application using our very fine materials creating very many different textures.'
Although the materials have changed a little over the centuries — with the introduction of modern pigments, for example, Perucchetti maintains the traditional, painstaking method of applying its finishes to surfaces. 'We have been much copied by others,' explains Boldero, 'but they fail to have the intricate knowledge we have in these historical finishes.' To achieve this the company has 18 plasterers who have all been trained in-house by both Boldero and Perucchetti's master plasterers.
The Renaissance Venetians introduced pigments to marmorino, including the ludicrously expensive, highly valued lapis lazuli, used by painters from Mantegna to Caravaggio. Before this, marmorino was principally made of crushed Istrian stone mixed with lime putty producing a velvety white finish or a natural terracotta hue. 'The master plasterers in Venice experimented with these raw materials and developed the mixes we use today over centuries. They cured their own lime for many years. As the lime ages, linseed oil is mixed and stirred creating the richest texture of very fine Grassello di Calce,' Boldero explains.
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Perucchetti continues the tradition by producing finishes in everything from jet black to gold and shimmering white. 'Our colour range is infinite, and we can add carbon of diamond, mother of pearl or real liquid gold, to name a few precious materials, to create a unique finishes that are sublime,' Boldero explains.
Colours can be either opaque or translucent, depending on the amount of pigment included and the number of layers used. 'Each finish is unique to the client's requirements or our imagination.' All of Perucchetti's work is bespoke, so prices and time scales vary according to the finish used and the size of the job. Classic marmorino starts at £180, with Grassello di Calce starting at £200.
Another benefit of Marmorino Venetian plaster as decorating material is that, in the hands of a skilled artisan, it can mimic any number of other textures for both interiors and exteriors — stone, wood, leather, textiles — while remaining lightweight. 'Hence its extensive use on the palaces of Venice where weight is an issue, as most buildings are built on wooden piles,' says Boldero.
These days, however, rather than palazzi, the finish is more likely to be found lightening the load of private planes and yachts — though, again, clients guard their anonymity. 'We can achieve about 30 different finishes using our own mixes depending on the textures that are required,' Boldero explains. 'But within those finishes we can create very different looks by adding minerals and metallics etc within the plaster.'
Inspiration for new finishes can strike in unusual places. Boldero was even inspired by the eruption of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano in Iceland. 'After going to Iceland and having the opportunity to fly over the volcano I created our Lava Flow collection of volcanic plaster finishes,' she tells us. 'This involved adding some precious minerals such as real liquid gold which created the most extraordinary organic textures with an underlying reflection from the gold.'
Applied correctly, Marmorino Venetian plaster is extremely durable and can last for centuries — although it's best if it doesn't sit in water. 'Think of the external finishes on all the buildings in Venice,' notes Boldero, 'they are marmorino, though some look weathered they have withstood centuries of all weathers, including being flooded.'
Venetian plaster may be an ancient technique, but it's moving in new directions. Where once the finish was prized for its reflective sheen in the soft glow of candlelight, matt finishes are the new frontier that designers are working with — all achieved by the expert flick of a trowel.