Subtle Yet Effective

September 16, 2025

With a rich history, plaster finishes are making a big—and welcome— comeback.

Words
Matt Smithmier

herwin-Williams may offer more than 1,700 different colors, but sometimes paint just won’t cut it.

Once only connected with opulent Italian villas or ancient Roman palaces, a historic wall treatment is shedding that old-world association and making a striking appearance in modern homes, including plenty right here in Kansas City.

Venetian plaster—along with its close cousin Roman clay—is a surface finish that brings depth, subtle movement, and a little elegance to walls, ceilings, fireplaces, and more. Both are hand-applied finishes that almost shift with the light, offering an earthy texture quickly growing in popularity.

Ayn Riggs owns Italian Plasterworks and specializes in Venetian plaster. She says she isn’t surprised by the surging popularity of these finishes.

“People like the whole idea of having something natural, something elegant, something sustainable in their house,” she notes. “I think it hits a lot of buttons without people really knowing it.”

One of those buttons, she says, is the subtle texture of the thin veneer finish to which our bodies instinctively respond.

“Our brains aren’t meant to look at something with no texture,” she adds. “Having to look at something without texture is actually a subtle kind of stress on your sense of well-being.”

Plaster artist Justin Thornton completes 20 to 30 plaster projects each year, from accent walls to entire homes. He’s also not surprised at the increasing popularity in recent years.

Our brains aren’t meant to look at something with no texture. Having to look at something without texture is actually a subtle kind of stress on your sense of well-being.
—Ayn Riggs

“Clients consider this to be a unique feature for their home,” he says. “It’s dramatically more elegant and moody than just painted walls.”

While the trend has ebbed and flowed over the decades, social media has been a significant driver in recent years, especially since the pandemic, adds Devon Himes, owner of Devon Himes Studio.

“Once the faux painting craze died down, I felt like plaster started to come back,” he notes. “And now it’s just everywhere. Social media has totally changed all of that.”

Himes has been working with plaster since the late 1990s, completing both residential and commercial projects, including entire wings at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. Moving away from the Tuscan reds, browns, and yellows, the latest trend, he says, is subtle whites and off-whites that add a certain understated elegance to any room. He’s currently finishing a project on the Country Club Plaza that features off-white walls that match the trim.

“It’s something that kind of draws you in, which is pretty cool,” he notes. “The fact that it’s all natural—it just has a luster and beauty to it that you really can’t get anywhere else.”

The popular plaster finishes are similar with subtle differences: Usually smooth and soft to the touch, Roman clay is made with gypsum and often has a stone-like appearance, delivering a more rustic and textured look. Comparatively, Venetian plaster is made from lime and is smooth and polished, with a luxurious, velvety, marble-like sheen. A third popular finish is marmorino, a lime plaster made from crushed marble and lime putty. The marble chip serves as an aggregate that adds a slight texture and movement to the finished product, along with providing a matte finish (in contrast to the glossy sheen of Venetian plaster).

The earliest lime plasters date back to 7500 B.C., and today’s products follow the same process of heating the limestone (a process known as lime slaking) to produce the lime putty used in the finishes. Limestone can also transform into marble when its calcite crystals lock together under high temperatures.

“These are hand-troweled lime finishes, and they’re the hardest ones to learn,” Riggs says. “But they’re the most beautiful because, at the end of the day, they are a veneer of marble. They reflect and refract light in a more luminous way. Nothing can mimic that at all.”

The simple organic ingredients also allow the lime finishes to add “environmentally friendly” to their list of attributes: Because true lime plasters are alkaline with a high pH value, they are natural fungicides and contribute to cleaner air in the home.

No matter what the specific appeal may be, there’s no denying the growing trend. More homeowners are embracing the tactile elegance of plaster finishes—not only to evoke a little luxury and authenticity but to add a layer of warmth to their home that another coat of paint will simply never achieve.

@italianplasterworks

@justinthorntonpainting

@devonhimesstudio