Stunning Decorative Design Results for Wall Surfaces Using Top Coats
Top Coats add a unique design style to your interior feature wall area that can lift the quality of thespace into a new level. It also makes sense because it protects the underlying plaster against dirt and leaves a washable surface where stains can be removed with a simple soap and water solution.
The best part about Top Coats is the cost-effectiveness to achieve the desired design through various decorative effects. Here on the right is one example of Stone Effects, which are very popular, along with more designs below.
Stone Effect Design Styles with Top Coat Applications
Start with a full coat of colour Acrylic Venetian plaster and apply as smooth as possible. after it dries 1½ coats cross hatched colour of your choice. You must burnish when firm but not fully dry. At this point you can stencil motifs randomly or create a frieze in relief. The whole area is then stonewashed with yellow oxide and sienna pigment. Highlight the stenciling by sanding off the top of the relief. Seal the area with Zero Gloss varnish.
If doing an overlap design mask and fill, just repeat the process once dry to do the design, when dry sealing the whole surface with umber colored wax and burnish. Using the same process, in this case, a plastering trowel was used to create the shell-like form. The washes used are umber- blue – and sienna.
Metallic Top Coat Effects
Apply a full coat of Black Venetian plaster as smoothly as possible; a second coat of the same material in a cross-hatch pattern coat, usually 1½ coats. Using an iridescent wall wax apply 2 colours cross hatched and you’re done. No extra protection required. Darker tones show off metal effects better. Finish with wall wax or stonewash for patina and satin wax for protection.
The above texture was created using spatulas and silk curtain as a stencil. The undercoat plaster is black coated with bronze and gold wall wax. The patina is applied using Burnt Umber Stonewash Pigment dilutes in water. After remove excess pigment and rub on a coat of clear satin wall wax.
Texturline Wall Wax System
Texturline Wall Waxes are hybrid coatings using acrylic polymer technology to waterproof plasters. The principal purpose is to create a barrier against dirt and will allow stains to be removed with soap and water.
After correct surface preparation apply 1 or 2 thin coats. Protek Wax products are very workable and have an easy application. This will allow time to create the decorative elements and proper finishing details. Application is done with a combination of spatulas, sponges, and stainless-steel finishing trowels. This will allow correct layering and translucency between coats.
Burnishing Wax
Used indoors for burnishing lime-based mediums. It has a good compatibility level for protecting these finishes and can be burnished to add translucency, as well as sheen, to the finish. it has no unpleasant smell, is fast drying, washable and stain-resistant. This light paste is easy to apply with sponges, spatulas & trowels. For interior use only.
Color and Coloring: Waxes are normally tinted into the base with universal colorants. Our Metallic Wall Waxes can be modified by the same method.
Stonewash Powder Pigments are an alternative method of introducing colour over plaster surfaces.
It is a natural oxide colorant that is nonfading and soluble in water. When applied as a wash over waxes, it will attain varying degrees of Patination, leaving almost mystic cloud of red colour as seen below.
Dramatic Colour Effects Achieved Combining Plaster & Stonewash Pigments, then sealed with a Top Coat
Bronze Patina is easily achieved putting a Gold Base Wax followed by a mix of Green Stonewash mixed with Burnt Umber washed and sealed with Satin Wax.
Red Plaster with Black Wash
The texture above is a dramatic rendering of a clouded wash over red plaster for a feature wall.
The wash is black and sealed with any wax to accentuate the relief.
Copper & Weathered Top Coat Effects
Copper finishes are among the most popular for Hodes over a stove or feature walls over a fireplace. The process is simple but has many small steps.
Steps to create Copper Finishes
- The background is Black Venetian Plaster rolled and lightly smoothed leaving a lot of pitting.
- The whole thing is coated with Copper Wall Wax using a sponge in two (2) successive passes.
- A) Wash over the whole area with Black Stonewash Pigment diluted to a paste. AND for B) Verdigris Copper design styles requires that you apply the copper as previously described but leave out the black stonewash pigment.
- After it dries rub it back to expose the now Antiqued Copper. Now is the fun part using a corner of the sponge like a brush apply veins randomly in several iridescent waxes such as, Old Gold, Russet, Green and IRI Gold.
- Finally seal with Satin Wax Clear Sealer directly below.
Copper Finish With Black Stonewash
At this point we are going to apply a Clay Paint called Bimini with a brush or roller sparingly and allow it to dry two hours or more. Then with a damp rag, rub off some of the paint, (yes clay paint lets you do this) so the patina looks real and has reacted with the surface, by burying the edges to feathering it out.
If you want it to look old and used, apply a coat of black stonewash and rub back once dry, then varnish with flat varnish, add satin wax to areas if you want the copper to pop. Alternatively, one can add Green Patina using our Bimini Clay Paint. Once dry this can be reduced or rubbed out with a damp rag to create the illusion of weathering.
We are NOT going to use an acid oxidation. We are going old school, using a method that gives complete control to the applicator. Apply the Black Acrylic Venetian Plaster by roller, deciding where you may want to have less texture and more flat areas. It is easier in this case to do two coats, the first thin and not much texture, the second heavier and knocked back with a stainless-steel trowel, flattening smoothed areas, allow to dry.
Apply 2 coats of Pewter Wax or if a lighter effect is required use Silver Wax all over all the surface. Allow an hour so it dries well. Using ‘rust’ (a colour of our clay paint) apply it randomly, as you would find on a rusted piece of galvanised steel, rub in with a wet rag when dry. The result is too stark so you need to apply Black Stonewash Pigment with a sponge on it, rubbing into the wax, once dry. For the final coating we recommend our dead Flat Varnish rolled on.
Alternatively, Rust Design Styles can be achieved using Texturstone Plaster as a base giving a grungy feel tinted to an orange colour. The wax that you need is Pewter Stonewashed with a Dirty Orange Stonewash a mix of Red Oxides, Yellow Oxide & Oxide Brown. The shading can be done with Black Stonewash. Seal with Zero Gloss Varnish.
Leather & Snakeskin Top Coat Finishes
For a leather texture look, start by picking a strong colour as a plaster base, perhaps a red. With a roller apply a thin coat, allow it to dry. Apply in small area and while still wet apply thin plastic film torn in pieces about a foot square.
Push this into the texture, overlapping the edges of each piece of plastic, and leave for about 30 minutes, remove slowly, pulling at a low angle to the surface.
Allow to fully dry several hours. Use a paste made from Burnt Umber Stonewash Pigment and water, then apply a solid coat with a sponge. Allow to dry, rub a sponge onto the surface exposing random areas of red.
To create snakeskin, use an appropriate color for the texture, instead of plastic use cheesecloth with plaster trowelled into the cheesecloth.
After its removal, apply a Gold or Silver Wax. Then apply Natural Umber or Black Stonewash Pigment rubbing in with a sponge.
Seal with Satin Clear Wax, in two coats.
Application Recommendations
Protek strongly suggests that all installers follow procedures laid down in our Technical Data Sheet (TDS) or after taking a program given by one of our Plaster Pros.
We recommend that contractors use our primer coats under Acrylic & Lime-Based Plaster before applying Waxes Finishes to get the best and most efficient use. Protek also manufactures Sharktooth primer specifically formulated for priming plaster products.
