The first step was to prep the walls and apply the plaster. We used 15 gallons of joint compound to create the textures. We used the trowel, an old wallpaper smoother missing lots of fibers and the end of an old wisk broom. In this picture below we have taped off the upper trim and filled in the major cracks in the walls. Other than moving furniture away from the walls, this is the room as we first encountered it.In the picture below I am applying the plaster on the wall over the fireplace. The "plaster" is, as I said above, joint compound. Other than some repairs, cleaning out the caulk lines and taping, no other prep was needed. Flat paint was already on the walls. If there had been any gloss to the surface, I would have either sanded or primed everything.
The picture below shows the walls that have been stuccoed with the joint compound and which are still drying. This stucco process took two days and we let it dry 24 hours each time to be sure it was completely hard. We then scraped off the rough points and lightly sanded it before priming.
Below is a good shot of the dried finish, sanded, primed and before the two coats of the base color were added, which was a light cream in tone.
Here below, the base coat can be seen under the window pre-glazing and over the fireplace we have begun to add the glaze mixture. I mixed 2 parts latex glaze and 1 part dark brown latex paint. One of us would rub on the glaze working it into the crevices of the stucco and the other would come along and wipe off the residue, of course leaving some behind to create an aged look.
Below is an up-close shot of the texture. We all thought this looked like a little grass hut in a bamboo forest. Gwen and I spent lots of time looking over the textures finding fossils, snakes, dragonflies, flowers, birds, and lots of other interesting pictures in the finish.
After removing all the tape and cleaning the entire space, I then "antiqued" the oil-based trim using a product called "Restore A Finish" in the darkest shade they have. I would paint it on with a chip brush wait a few minutes and wipe with a rag. Sometimes I would have to do it several times until the color looked right. This can also be done with gel stains or even regular wood stains, shoe polish, thinned-down oil based paint, or any medium that can be done over the kind of paint that's on the trim. On latex you can use about anything, on oil you have to be careful.
This is a sample section of the room after all the stucco is glazed and the trim is antiqued. Of course, the room is not totally put back together as that is still in progress! Shutters are going to be installed and either antiqued like the trim or done in a dark wood to match the other lovely wood furnishings.
