Silk Plaster Team – Silk Plaster

Silk Plaster at BATIMAT 2026 in Paris: Hall 1, Stand N050

Silk Plaster Team — Thu, 03 Sep 2026 21:05:16 +0000

Silk Plaster at BATIMAT 2026 in Paris: Hall 1, Stand N050

From 28 September to 1 October 2026 we’re exhibiting at BATIMAT, the international building and construction show at Paris Expo, Porte de Versailles. You’ll find us in Hall 1, stand N050, on the Latvian national pavilion. Visitor passes are free, the link is at the bottom of this page.

Four days in Paris. Hall 1, stand N050, on the Latvian national pavilion.

Who we are, in one paragraph

Silk Plaster is a manufacturer of decorative wall coverings. We produce under our own brand and under our clients’ brands, as private label and white label. Over 90 percent of what leaves the factory is exported, and we supply distributors in more than 60 countries.

Working with us is simple. From Riga we ship sea containers to ports worldwide at competitive rates, and we run road transport across Europe. So the delivery comes with the product. It isn’t a separate problem for you to solve.

What’s on the stand

The current Silk Plaster range, with applied samples on real materials rather than colour chips, and technical people on hand for the questions a brochure can’t answer.

Product	What to look at
Liquid wallpaper	The classic collections, plus our newest development: liquid wallpaper tinted to order. We’ll have the tinted boards next to the base colour so the difference is visible.
Rubber Paint	Water-based elastic 4-in-1 paint, now in a DIY format. Live demo on metal, wood and plastic.
NAPPA and decorative paints	NAPPA, SABBIA, SETA 8, DAMASCO and RICCI VELVET on 30 × 30 panels, with the full fan deck.
Lime plasters	MARMORINO CARRARA and TRAVERTINO NATURALE.
Microcement	The complete system, including the two-component PU varnish, shower and floor build-ups. Fully tintable.
MixArt	Facade plaster and an interior stone-effect finish.
Primecolor	Washable matt wall paints, scrub class 1.
Acoustic Line	Sound-absorbing decorative finish for offices, hospitality and public spaces.

We’ll also bring the retail set that went on the shelves of Leroy Merlin France this July, in the “enduit de coton” category: eleven references in their retail packaging, the French instruction leaflet and the sample panel the stores use. It’s a ready-made shelf solution for a DIY chain, and it’s easier to discuss when you can pick up the box.

Who we’d like to meet

Distributors, DIY and retail chains, paint merchants, private-label buyers, contractors and applicators, and architects or designers who specify finishes.

Things we can settle on the stand: partnership terms for your country, a product matrix tailored to your market, own-brand production, and launch support. Launch support means the practical part: display stands with painted samples, sales-team training, technical documents, and the social-media content that did most of the work for us in France (the creator video passed 1.3 million views).

Book a meeting

The stand will be busy, so a fixed slot is better than luck. Contact us through the partnership form on silkplaster.eu, tell us the day that suits you and a line about what you sell, and we’ll confirm a time. Any day from Monday 28 September to Thursday 1 October works.

Get your free visitor pass
Contact us and book a meeting
Our page in the BATIMAT catalogue

BATIMAT 2026
28 September to 1 October 2026
Paris Expo, Porte de Versailles
Hall 1, stand N050, Latvian national pavilion

SILK PLASTER GROUP SIA, Spilves 6B, Riga LV-1055, Latvia.

Rubber Paint now has a stand of its own

Silk Plaster Team — Fri, 21 Aug 2026 11:38:36 +0000

Rubber Paint now has a stand of its own

Our elastic coating is in noticeably more DIY stores this summer, and it stopped arriving as a quiet row of buckets. It now comes with a full display stand carrying real coated samples on real materials. That piece of printed board has turned out to matter almost as much as the paint in it.

The stand sits on the shelf upright, at eye level, next to the product. Six colours, each one painted on the material a customer would actually be painting.

What actually changed on the shelf

Rubber Paint has been sold through retail partners in the Baltics for a while. Through this summer the number of stores carrying it went up sharply, and so did the amount of shelf we get in each of them.

The old setup was a row of buckets and a printed shelf label. It worked, in the sense that people who already knew what rubber paint is could find it. Everybody else walked past. Paint aisles are crowded and a white bucket does not explain itself.

So we built the stand. It is close to two metres of vertical board, mounted at the end of the shelf run where people slow down anyway, and it does one job: it shows the finish before anyone has to buy it.

Seen from the aisle. The application photos run down the left, the colours down the right.

Every stand is finished by hand before it ships. The swatches are painted, not printed.

Real samples, on the materials people are painting

The swatches are not colour chips. Snow White N1 is painted on a piece of raw timber, so you can see how the film sits on grain. Caribbean Night Black N8 runs over a profiled roofing strip with a rusted edge showing at the top, which is exactly the surface most of our customers are trying to save. Jarl Grey N7, Anthracite N0, Arabica Brown N6 and Emerald Green N2 fill the rest of the board.

Underneath there are three pictograms and nothing else: use it inside, outside and on roofs, elasticity from 70 percent, very strong adhesion. Three claims is all a stand can carry. Anything more and people stop reading.

We learned this the expensive way on an earlier retail launch in Western Europe. Store teams told us plainly that customers hesitated at the packaging and committed after touching a physical sample. It was not a close call in the data either. Almost nothing sold off the box alone.

A batch waiting to go out. These ship alongside the pallets, so a store gets the display and the stock in the same delivery.

Local from the front of the pack

The buckets on those shelves are not export packs with a sticker on them. The product name reads in the local language on the front, with the full description on the back in Latvian, Lithuanian and Estonian. Small thing, but it removes the moment where a shopper turns a pack over looking for words they recognise.

Three sizes cover most of what people come in for: 1 kg for a door or a bit of trim, 4 kg for a fence or a balcony, 12 kg for a roof or a facade.

Ready to use in finished colours, and tintable from the Snow White base when a customer wants something that is not on the board.

TikTok is doing most of the talking

This is not a product you can argue somebody into. You show it.

A rusted metal door before and after. A dried film stretched between two fingers until it looks unreasonable. Water beading on a fence that was grey and splitting a week earlier. Those clips do in nine seconds what a technical data sheet cannot do in two pages, and they are the reason people are now walking into stores already knowing the name.

Our Baltic account posts them at @silkplasterbaltic, mostly in Latvian and Russian, under #gumijaskrasa. If you sell this category, that feed is free content. Partners are welcome to reuse any of it.

The stand itself became a video too, which we did not plan. Here it is.

See it applied

Four surfaces, four short videos, no narration needed.

The written step by step for all four surfaces is here: How to apply Rubber Paint. Everything else lives on our YouTube channel.

What the paint actually is

Type	Water-borne elastomeric coating, ready to use
Elasticity	Stretches from 70 percent, so it bridges hairline movement instead of splitting over it
Service temperature	Minus 60 °C to plus 90 °C
Consumption	200 to 400 g/m² over two to three coats, depending on how absorbent the surface is
Finish	Matt, water repellent, EN 13300 Class 1 wet-scrub resistance
Emissions	A+ indoor air emission class
Surfaces	Roofs and roof tiles, facades, masonry and brick, concrete, foundations and balconies, wood and fences, metal over an anti-corrosion primer, plastics, pipework
Colours	Ten ready-to-use colours, plus RAL-based tinting from the Snow White base
Made in	Riga, Latvia

Where this goes next

More stands are going up through the autumn as stores work through their own merchandising schedules, and the same display is being adapted for a chain in Bulgaria where the listing is in progress. The 12 kg pail is the format we expect to grow fastest, because once somebody trusts the product on a door they come back for the roof.

If you sell paint, this is an easy category to add.

It reaches a different buyer than decorative finishes, roofers, facade crews, property managers and people maintaining their own houses, while shipping on the same pallets through the same warehouse. We supply the stand, the samples and the social content with it.

Tell us what surface you would test it on and we will send a set.

Write to eu@silkplaster.eu

SILK PLASTER GROUP SIA, Spilves 6B, Riga, Latvia. Photographs taken in partner stores and at our Riga facility, summer 2026.

Silk Plaster is on the shelves at Leroy Merlin France

Silk Plaster Team — Fri, 21 Aug 2026 11:38:27 +0000

Silk Plaster is on the shelves at Leroy Merlin France

Our liquid wallpaper is now listed at Leroy Merlin France under the French name enduit de coton. Ten colours, a primer and a trowel, in the stores and on leroymerlin.fr. Then a creator video went past a million views and our inbox stopped being manageable.

Cotton and cellulose fibres, mixed with water and spread by hand. This is what French shoppers are now finding in a Leroy Merlin aisle.

What you can actually buy in France

The range went live on leroymerlin.fr and in the pilot stores across July and August 2026.

Optima, Sand and Dune are the matt ranges, seven colours in total: white, beige, light grey and dark grey. Art Design is the satin one with a visible shimmer, in white, ecru and pearl beige. Alongside them sit our SP Primer as a sous-couche and the transparent trowel, which is the piece that makes the whole thing possible for someone who has never done it before.

Fourteen stores carry the range in this first phase, plus the full assortment online. Every pack is rated A+ for indoor air emissions and carries French instructions on the back.

Six months, and most of it was paperwork

The fun version of this story is about a video. The honest version is mostly about spreadsheets.

It started on TikTok, of all places. Our own team had been making trend videos of the mixing, the trowel and the reveal, and that is what set the whole thing in motion. What came after was a lot less cinematic: a cooperation offer in February 2026, a run of video calls with the wall décor category team at Leroy Merlin France, then the supplier account, logistics data for the warehouse, and product data typed in field by field in Leroy Merlin’s internal tools. Months of it. Nobody films this part.

On 3 July the first pallets left our warehouse in Riga. The pallets were signed for at the central distribution centre on 15 July, and the stores started putting the range out from 20 July.

The product changed on the way to France

Not everything on the pack was our idea, and the range is better for it.

There are French instructions on the back of every pack now, redrafted five times with the category team and the quality engineer for decorative products until the coverage figures, the pictograms and the regulatory wording were all correct. The front sticker says “Fabriqué en Europe” instead of “Fabriqué en UE”, because it reads more clearly to a French customer. That request arrived after the print order had already gone out; we changed it anyway.

We added SP Primer to the range so that what sits on the shelf is a complete system rather than almost one. And the merchandising panel, 85 cm high by a metre wide, carries real material samples on the label holders so people can put their fingers in the fibres before they decide.

That last one turned out to matter more than anything printed on the box.

The store teams were right about the packaging

One of the stores wrote to us early on with a blunt piece of feedback. Looking at the pack alone, the team there couldn’t judge the colour. They were right, and it’s the reason the sample kits exist in the first place: something like 98% of our sales happen after somebody has touched the material. New kits went out on priority delivery and were on the shelf there two days later.

In another store, someone chased down a sample box the courier had failed to deliver and had it on display the morning it arrived. Not one of those conversations was about price. They were all about getting the material in front of people’s hands.

Then the video

Leroy Merlin France ran the launch with the DIY creator @juste_cree_le. The collaboration reel is a woman in dungarees mixing a bucket of what honestly looks like porridge, then spreading it on a wall. It went past a million views.

Watch the reel on Instagram

@leroymerlin ran it across a full day of stories and let the audience do the talking:

“ASMR strange product.” The poll options: “But what IS this thing?”, “Asmoche?”, “Show usss”.

“It’s… wallpaper?!” The moment the trowel goes on the wall.

“This stuff is insane, I’ve got too many ideas.” A starter kit followed, because the questions kept coming.

“It’s just stunning.” The finished wall, no seams, no bubbles.

Then it spread without anyone paying for it. @marie.myhome found the packs in her local store and posted them as a discovery rather than an ad:

“New concept @leroymerlin: liquid wallpaper! You mix it with water and apply it with a trowel - I’m testing this very soon! Do you know it?”

What came next was the part we weren’t ready for. Homeowners near Lyon asking where to buy it. Decorators in Paris asking about delivery times. A contractor asking whether the wall needs sanding first. (Usually not. Clean, dry and sound is enough.)

Why a French DIY chain took on a category that didn’t exist there

Liquid wallpaper is an ordinary product in the Baltics and still a curiosity in Western Europe. That gap is why we’re here.

It goes on with a trowel instead of a paste table, it has no seams, and it hides a tired wall that a roll of paper would only make look worse. It’s cotton and cellulose rather than vinyl, which matters to a lot more people now than it did ten years ago. For a retailer it fills a shelf between paint and wallpaper that not much else occupies.

France was the test of whether that travels west. A month in, it looks like it does.

If you sell wall finishes, now is a good time to talk to us

We’re getting more enquiries than at any point in the company’s history, and we’re opening partnerships in DIY retail, distribution and the professional trade.

For DIY and retail: Liquid Wallpaper, Rubber Paint, Mixart.
For professionals: Microcement, Travertino slaked-lime plaster, Marmorino Carrara.

Tell us which country you sell in and we will send the right catalogue and prices.

Become a partner

eu@silkplaster.eu · +371 20 700 222

SIA SILK PLASTER GROUP, Spilves 6B, Riga LV-1055, Latvia. We have been making liquid wallpaper and water-based decorative wall coatings since 1997 and sell in more than 40 countries.

Bathroom Wall Finishes: Why Microcement and Marmorino Are Replacing Tile Systems

Silk Plaster Team — Fri, 07 Aug 2026 06:53:19 +0000

The bathroom is the hardest room to spec. It has to handle daily steam, splashback, thermal shock and cleaning chemicals, and still look like a place you want to spend time in. For two decades that meant tile, grout and silicone. In 2026 a growing share of specifiers, architects and applicators are finishing bathrooms - including shower walls, wet zones and splashbacks - in seamless decorative coatings instead.

“Clients used to ask me how to get their bathroom to look like a spa. Now they ask me how to get it to look like the photographs they see online - no grout, no joints, stone-like walls that feel warm. The only way to deliver that is microcement or Marmorino. Tile cannot do it.”

That shift is driven by three things - the look of a single continuous surface, the hygiene benefits of eliminating grout lines, and the fact that mineral decorative systems have finally matured into genuinely waterproof, abrasion-resistant, specifier-friendly products. This guide explains which Silk Plaster system belongs in which part of the bathroom, and why.

Why Bathrooms Are Moving Away From Tile

Tile is not failing. It is being out-designed. Four pressures are pushing it out of premium residential and hospitality bathroom specifications at the same time.

Grout is the weak point. Grout absorbs moisture, darkens, harbours mould and needs re-sealing every two to three years. A seamless surface removes the failure mode entirely.
Cold feel. Ceramic and porcelain feel cold to the touch even in heated rooms. Mineral plaster feels closer to natural stone - warmer underhand, softer underfoot on floors where it is specified.
Substrate movement. Plasterboard flex and thermal movement cause tile cracks along unsupported walls. A flexible polymer-modified microcement layer absorbs micro-movement without fracturing.
Design language. Clients want the Aman, the Six Senses, the curated villa look. That is an uninterrupted mineral surface - not a grid of rectangles.

The question is no longer whether to use a seamless finish. It is which system to use, where, and how to protect it.

Microcement: The Wet-Zone Workhorse

Microcement is Silk Plaster’s answer for floors, shower trays, walk-in showers, vanity surrounds and anywhere water will sit or pool. It is a polymer-modified mineral mortar applied in several thin coats, reinforced with 150 g/m2 fibreglass mesh over tiled or jointed substrates, and sealed with the PU 2K Varnish TOP 890 two-component polyurethane topcoat. The finished surface is only a few millimetres thick, monolithic, and suitable for wet areas when correctly specified and sealed.

Three technical points matter when specifying microcement for a bathroom:

The primer and mesh stage is non-negotiable. The substrate must be primed with the system primer - Aqua Oteks deep primer where microcement goes over tiles, BaseQ primer on other substrates - and reinforced with fibreglass mesh across every plasterboard joint. Skipping this step is the single most common cause of bathroom microcement failures.
Do not skip the 2K polyurethane topcoat. Silk Plaster’s system is waterproof when it is finished with PU 2K Varnish TOP 890, its two-component polyurethane topcoat. The topcoat is what closes the surface and makes the finish suitable for a wet zone.
Texture is a specification choice. Microcement can be finished smooth or lightly textured. For a shower floor, agree the texture and topcoat with your applicator before work starts; for walls, smooth is standard.

Explore the Microcement Silk Plaster product range for the full primer, base coat, finish and varnish specification.

Marmorino: The Dry-Wall Luxury Option

Marmorino Carrara is the right choice for everything in the bathroom that is not a wet zone - the wall behind the vanity, the ceiling, the feature wall opposite the bath, the corridor leading in. It is a true Venetian plaster built on 24-month slaked lime and fine carrara marble dust. Applied in two trowel passes and burnished to a soft satin or polished marble sheen, it reads as natural stone rather than as a coating.

Three reasons Marmorino belongs in the bathroom specification even though it is not used in the shower:

It regulates humidity. Lime-based plaster is vapour-permeable. In a bathroom with good extraction it actively absorbs and releases moisture, reducing condensation on walls.
It suppresses mould without biocides. The high alkalinity of natural lime creates conditions that mould and bacteria struggle to colonise. That is particularly relevant on the ceiling, where humidity collects.
It elevates the entire room. A Marmorino feature wall transforms a functional bathroom into a signature space. It is why hotel spa designers return to it across every price point from boutique to ultra-luxury.

Browse the Marmorino and Venetian plaster range for colour and texture options.

Travertino Naturale: The Textured Feature

For a bathroom that wants the look of a hewn stone hammam or a quarried Italian villa, Travertino Naturale produces a textured, open-pore finish that reads convincingly as natural travertine. It suits feature walls, niche cladding and the wall behind a freestanding tub. Travertino can be sealed with a matt hydro-oleophobic treatment to make it splash-resistant, which extends its usable zone to everywhere except direct shower spray.

A Simple Specification Table

Use this as a working map when specifying a bathroom in 2026:

Zone	Recommended Silk Plaster system	Why
Shower walls and floor	Microcement + PU 2K Varnish TOP 890	Seamless and fully sealed; mesh-reinforced substrate absorbs movement
Wet-zone walls adjacent to shower	Microcement + 2K polyurethane	Continuity of finish; handles splash and steam
Vanity splashback	Microcement or Marmorino with sealer	Both work; Marmorino adds warmth, microcement adds continuity with the floor
Feature wall / ceiling / corridor	Marmorino Carrara or Travertino Naturale	Humidity regulation, mould resistance, design elevation
Floor (whole bathroom)	Microcement with a suitable floor texture	Seamless, warmer underfoot than tile, flexible over heated screeds

What Developers, Applicators and Owners Each Get Out Of It

The developer gets a specification that reduces long-term complaints - no grout discolouration, no silicone replacement, no tile cracks from substrate flex. Maintenance calls on finished bathrooms drop sharply once tile is removed from the equation.

The applicator gets a higher-margin scope of work, with the opportunity to take a single project from primer to sealed finish without involving a tiler, a plumber for grout repair or a separate silicone specialist. Partners trained on the Silk Plaster system deliver bathrooms faster than a traditional tile-and-grout crew on anything over eight square metres.

The owner gets the bathroom they saw online - seamless, warm, stone-like, easy to wipe clean, resilient to the next redecoration. Repairs, when needed, are local and invisible rather than requiring a whole row of tiles to be lifted.

Making It Happen on Your Next Project

If you are specifying a bathroom now, the cleanest route is to zone it: microcement everywhere water sits, Marmorino or Travertino everywhere water does not. Silk Plaster supplies both systems as matched families, so colour co-ordination between wet and dry zones is straightforward.

For studios and developers who want to add seamless bathroom finishing to their own scope of work rather than subcontracting it, the Silk Plaster partner programme covers technical training, sample kits and project support. Request dealer information through the partner page, or browse finished product references on the Silk Plaster homepage.

How to Apply Rubber Paint

Silk Plaster Team — Tue, 28 Jul 2026 10:41:13 +0000

Best practice

How to Apply Rubber Paint

SILK PLASTER Rubber Paint is a flexible, elastomeric waterproof coating that stretches more than 70% of its original size and performs in temperatures from -60C to +90C without cracking or peeling. Because it bonds to such a wide range of substrates, indoors and out, this guide covers four real applications filmed on location: a wood door, a metal surface, a roof, and a facade, each with its own preparation steps and technique.

Every surface behaves differently under a flexible coating. Use the tabs below to find your surface and read the preparation steps, then scroll down to watch the matching video and follow the full application guide.

View SILK PLASTER Rubber Paint colours and products

Wood Door

Exterior wood doors expand and contract with humidity and temperature, and a coating applied to them needs to move with the timber instead of fighting it. The elastomeric film of SILK PLASTER Rubber Paint is well suited to this, since it stretches with seasonal movement rather than cracking along the grain.

Sand the door back to a clean, dry surface and remove all loose paint, varnish, dust and grease. Fill any cracks or gouges in the timber and let the filler cure fully before continuing.
Prime bare or repaired wood with a wood suitable primer, paying attention to end grain and panel joints, which absorb the most moisture. Let the primer dry completely.
Apply SILK PLASTER Rubber Paint in two thin, even coats with a brush or roller, working along the grain. Allow the first coat to dry fully before applying the second.

Is the surface ready? Watch our video of a real wood door application below.

Metal

Bare or previously painted metal corrodes from underneath a coating long before any damage becomes visible on the surface, so preparation matters more here than on any other substrate on this page.

An anti-corrosion primer is mandatory before applying Rubber Paint to any metal surface. Skipping this step allows moisture to reach bare metal under the paint film, and rust will eventually lift the coating from the inside, even though the surface looks fine at first.
Remove rust, loose scale and old flaking paint back to a sound surface, then degrease it thoroughly. Any oil or grease left on the metal will stop the primer and paint from bonding properly.
Once the anti-corrosion primer has fully cured, apply Rubber Paint in two even coats by brush, roller or spray, allowing full drying time between coats.

Is the surface ready, and is the primer down? Watch our video of a real metal application below.

Roof

Roofs see the most extreme conditions of any surface on this page: direct sun, standing water and constant temperature swings, so both the weather on application day and the condition of the substrate need to be right before you start.

Clear the roof of moss, debris and loose material, and repair any cracks or flashing gaps before coating. Rubber Paint bridges hairline cracks but is not a substitute for structural roof repair.
Apply only in dry weather, with no rain forecast for at least 24 hours, and avoid application in direct midday heat or when the surface is too hot to touch.
Apply in two to three thin coats rather than one thick coat, letting each coat cure fully. Thin coats dry evenly and bond better than a single heavy application.

Is the roof ready and is the weather right? Watch our video of a real roof application below.

Facade

Facades combine large surface areas with constant weather exposure, so consistent preparation across the whole wall matters as much as the coating itself.

Repair cracks, gaps and damaged render first, and make sure the facade is clean, dry and free of loose or flaking material before priming.
Prime porous or previously painted render so the coating absorbs evenly across the whole facade. This prevents patchy sheen once the paint has dried.
Apply Rubber Paint in two even coats suited for exterior exposure, working in manageable sections and keeping a wet edge to avoid visible overlap lines.

Is the facade ready? Watch our video of a real facade application below.

IMPORTANT!

Rubber Paint is a ready to use coating. Do not dilute it with water or thinners, this weakens the elastomeric film and reduces its stretch and waterproofing performance.

Apply only in dry, frost-free conditions, and avoid direct application in extreme heat or direct sun on a hot surface. Check the current SILK PLASTER Rubber Paint technical data sheet for the exact application and curing temperature range before starting.

Always work in a ventilated area, and use gloves and eye protection, particularly when spraying.

Stir the paint thoroughly before use and periodically during application, especially after opening a can that has been stored for a while.

Allow full drying time between coats, and full cure time before exposing the surface to rain, foot traffic or immersion, such as pools and water reservoirs. Recoating too early traps moisture under the film.

Store cans sealed and upright, away from direct sunlight and frost, following the storage conditions on the can label.

On metal, the anti-corrosion primer step is not optional. See the Metal tab above for details.

Best practice

Application on Wood Door

Watch how Rubber Paint is applied to a wood door from start to finish. View Rubber Paint colours and products

Prepare the door

Sand back to a clean surface, fill any gouges, and wipe down to remove dust before priming.

Prime bare and repaired wood

Prime bare timber and any filled areas, then let the primer cure fully before opening the paint can.

Apply two coats

Brush or roll Rubber Paint along the grain in two thin coats, letting the first coat dry fully before the second.

Best practice

Application on Metal

Watch how Rubber Paint is applied to a metal surface, including the mandatory anti-corrosion primer step. View Rubber Paint colours and products

Apply anti-corrosion primer first

This step is mandatory on metal. Let the primer cure fully before applying Rubber Paint, skipping it allows corrosion to develop under the finished coating.

Clean and degrease the metal

Remove rust, loose scale and old paint, then degrease the surface so the primer and paint can bond properly.

Apply two coats of Rubber Paint

Brush, roll or spray two even coats over the cured primer, allowing full drying time between coats.

Best practice

Application on Roof

Watch how Rubber Paint is applied to a roof in real weather conditions. View Rubber Paint colours and products

Check the weather

Apply only in dry conditions with no rain expected for at least 24 hours, and avoid coating a roof that is hot to the touch.

Clear and repair the surface

Remove moss and debris, and repair cracks or flashing gaps before coating starts.

Apply two to three thin coats

Thin, even coats cure more reliably on a roof than one thick coat. Let each coat dry fully before the next.

Best practice

Application on Facade

Watch how Rubber Paint is applied to a facade, from surface repair to the finished coat. View Rubber Paint colours and products

Repair the render

Fill cracks and gaps and remove loose or flaking material before priming the facade.

Prime the surface

Prime porous or previously painted areas so the whole facade absorbs the coating evenly.

Apply two coats, keeping a wet edge

Work in manageable sections and keep a wet edge between passes to avoid visible overlap lines.

silk plaster news

latest news and articles

Read about the latest news, products, and design trends.

News

Silk Plaster at BATIMAT 2026 in Paris: Hall 1, Stand N050

Silk Plaster exhibits at BATIMAT, Paris, 28 September to 1 October 2026. Hall 1, stand N050, Latvian pavilion....

News

Rubber Paint now has a stand of its own

Rubber Paint is in more DIY stores across the Baltics this summer, and it arrived with a full...

News

Silk Plaster is on the shelves at Leroy Merlin France

Our liquid wallpaper is now listed at Leroy Merlin France as "enduit de coton". Ten colours, a primer...

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It is possible to become a distributor for SILK PLASTER. You can find SILK PLASTER in more than 900 boutiques located all over the world. Numerous multi-brand stores also retail our products as well as thousands of private traders. We are always actively working to expand our distribution network and would be very happy to hear from you!

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Silk Plaster × Archideco Riga, B2B Partnership for Premium Latvian Interiors

Silk Plaster Team — Sun, 14 Jun 2026 14:58:02 +0000

The market for decorative plaster in Latvia is shifting. Sales in the DIY segment continue to grow, but new construction and a clear move toward the Do-It-For-Me (DIFM) model are rewriting the rules for how premium interiors are specified, supplied and installed. Homeowners, developers and architects increasingly want a finished, beautiful result - not a shopping list - and they want a partner who can deliver both the material and the craftsmanship behind it.

That is exactly the gap Silk Plaster set out to close in Riga, and it is why our decorative plaster partnership with Archideco Riga has become one of our strongest B2B references of the year.

Premium interiors deserve a finish that is crafted, not simply supplied.

Why Archideco - and why now

Archideco Design Centre is one of Latvia’s most respected destinations for architects, interior designers and developers. Its showroom at Strēlnieku 8-3 in Riga brings together furniture, finishes, lighting and accessories from leading European brands, and its Designer’s Library is a working environment where architects sit down with clients and specify entire projects from a single curated source.

Our Commercial Director, Edgars, had been tracking the rise of the DIFM model in the Baltics for some time. When Archideco announced its new space, the decision was easy. Archideco delivers turnkey premium interiors better than anyone in the region - and Silk Plaster manufactures exactly the kind of seamless, design-driven decorative plaster those interiors demand. It was a match before the first meeting.

A skeptical first meeting - and what changed

Edgars reached out to Archideco’s Managing Director, Sandra, and asked for thirty minutes. “Come and show us what you do,” she said. By her own admission she was skeptical. The assumption in the design community was that the finishes she needed - true seamless microcement rated for wet zones and floors, decorative paints with a genuine Nappa-suede touch, silk-fibre wallcoatings, dimensional sand effects, seamless liquid wallpaper - had to be flown in from Italy or Spain.

Sandra, Archideco Riga’s Director, with the Silk Plaster team at the new showroom.

We brought samples, project photography and the technical data sheets. Then we brought Sandra to the factory.

The Silk Plaster catalogue she saw included:

Microcement - a seamless, mineral-based system rated for floors, walls and wet rooms.
Nappa - a decorative paint that reproduces the soft, matte touch of suede leather.
Seta8 - a silk-fibre coating with the depth and movement of woven textile.
Sabbia - a fine-sand finish with directional, swirling reflections that change with the light.
Liquid Wallpaper - a seamless applied wallcovering with no joints, fully repairable in place.
Travertino Naturale - a 24-month-aged lime plaster for sculptural, light-catching walls.

Every product is manufactured in our own Riga, Latvia (EU) facility, with full technical documentation, sample service and on-site application support for specifiers. The products are high quality, and a local team of professional craftsmen is available.

An exclusive decorative plaster supply agreement for commercial projects

Since that visit, Silk Plaster has become Archideco Riga’s curated supplier of decorative plaster for its commercial pipeline. Through Archideco, our materials now reach:

Developers and large construction groups specifying premium finishes at scale,
Office fit-outs that need acoustic, hard-wearing wall treatments,
Medical clinics with hygienic, seamless surfaces,
Restaurants and hotels where the wall finish is part of the brand experience.

For Archideco, the partnership extends a portfolio that was already strong in furniture and lighting into the wall-and-floor surface category, backed by a single accountable European manufacturer for every specification.

Featured piece - Travertino Naturale by Sandra

Travertino Naturale by Sandra - Silk Plaster lime plaster, 24-month controlled ageing.

Beyond running Archideco, Sandra is a working artist - and this feature panel is one of the first installations to use our Travertino Naturale system. Mixed and aged for two years before application, the material catches light along its directional troweling and reads completely differently morning to evening. It is a quiet, exact demonstration of what the product is capable of in the hands of a designer who knows it intimately.

Liquid Wallpaper - a seamless, premium wall finish

Among the finishes drawing the most attention at Archideco is Silk Plaster’s Liquid Wallpaper - a seamless, applied wallcovering with no joints, no repeating print and no visible seams. It is mixed and troweled in place, so the finish wraps a room as one continuous, tactile plane.

Unlike printed papers, Liquid Wallpaper is a premium, made-to-measure decorative plaster system: silk and cellulose fibres are blended into a soft, dimensional surface that catches the light, softens acoustics and can be repaired invisibly in place. Every wall is mixed to order, so no two finishes are ever identical - each one is genuinely unique.

For specifiers, that is exactly the appeal: a high-quality, luxurious and fully seamless solution for feature walls, hospitality interiors and residential projects where a flawless, jointless finish is non-negotiable. Explore the key benefits of liquid wallpaper for specification.

Inside the new Archideco showroom

The Archideco Designer’s Library, with ALPI veneer samples.

The opening of Archideco’s new space brought together architects, designers, developers and trade press from across the Baltics. Silk Plaster surfaces appear throughout the gallery, alongside curated brand partners across furniture, lighting and home fragrance. The Designer’s Library - with its private meeting room and coffee corner - is built for the kind of in-person specification work that turnkey interiors require.

See the new Archideco Riga showroom on Instagram

Silk Plaster was also featured in the printed Archideco Designer’s Library magazine, alongside ALPI veneers, with editorial coverage of our textile-fibre wallcoatings and their acoustic, thermal-comfort and humidity-management performance.

Working with the Archideco board

Edgars and Silk Plaster’s team with Anna Orlova, the Archideco Riga owner and director.

Beyond the day-to-day supply relationship, the joint roadmap with Archideco’s leadership covers staff training on application standards, a co-branded sample library for architects and a project-reference program that gives specifiers visibility into completed Baltic installations.

What the partnership means for Silk Plaster’s B2B customers

Specifiers across the region now have full access to Silk Plaster’s commercial range of decorative plaster, with local samples, local specification support and local trade pricing through Archideco. For developers, architects and contractors working anywhere in Latvia, the route in is simple: visit Archideco’s Strēlnieku showroom, or contact our European B2B team directly.

We are actively expanding similar B2B partnerships with design centres across the EU. If your studio or showroom would like to become a regional reference partner for Silk Plaster, we would be glad to talk.

ARCHIDECO INTERIOR RIGA

Strēlnieku iela 8-3, Centra rajons, Rīga, LV-1010

Entrance from E. Melngaila Street

+371 26 22 54 74

Mountain house with liquid wallpaper: tynk bawełniany and tynk japoński in Poland

Silk Plaster Team — Sun, 19 Apr 2026 12:08:32 +0000

Our customer in the Polish Tatras wanted the downstairs hallway and stairwell of their new timber-framed house to feel like part of the landscape outside. The family had spent months picking finishes that would match the wooden stairs, the hand-carved sheep figure on the landing, and the black and white photo mural of Tatra shepherds they planned to install up the wall. Paint felt flat. Standard vinyl wallpaper felt wrong against raw pine beams. They chose Victoria 701, a white-cream textile wallpaper that goes on as a wet mix and dries into a soft, seamless coat. This is how the job went, and why the product suits a chalet-style mountain house.

Victoria 701 silk plaster next to the Tatra mural in the stairwell.

Why silk plaster works in a mountain house

Mountain houses breathe differently. Temperatures swing, humidity moves with the weather, and wood shifts through the seasons. A wall finish has to move with the house, not fight it. Silk plaster is a liquid wallpaper made from cellulose and textile fibres with a plant-based binder. In Poland the material is usually sold as tynk bawełniany (cotton plaster) or tynk japoński (Japanese plaster). It arrives dry in a bag. You mix it with warm water, leave it to rest overnight, then trowel it onto the wall. There are no seams. No overlapping strips, no pattern to line up, no corners where paper peels after a winter. On the stairwell in the photos, the finish runs unbroken from skirting to ceiling. Because it is a fibre-based coat rather than a film, the wall can still exchange moisture with the air. Hallways and mudrooms in mountain homes often have condensation problems, and a textile wallpaper tolerates this far better than vinyl.

Victoria 701: what it is and why we chose it

Victoria is one of the white and cream ranges in our catalogue. The 701 reference is a warm chalky white with very fine silk fibres that catch the light at an angle and flatten out when you look at it head-on. In a room with strong architectural features, this is what you want. The wall is the backdrop, not the subject. Next to dark timber stairs and a black iron wolf-shaped sconce, Victoria 701 reads as linen rather than paint. You can see the texture in the photo above: the wall to the left of the mural has a gentle stipple that softens the corridor. The customer ordered by SKU. If you want the same finish in your own project, the product page is here: Victoria 701 - silk plaster. Each bag covers roughly four to five square metres at the recommended trowel thickness, and a stairwell of this size took three bags.

Geometric wolf sconce against Victoria 701. The cotton-fibre texture is visible at close range.

Tynk bawełniany and tynk japoński explained

Polish buyers often search for this material under two different names. Tynk bawełniany translates literally as cotton plaster, which describes the fibre content. Tynk japoński, or Japanese plaster, is the older trade name and comes from the application method. The trowel-on technique was popularised in Japan during the late twentieth century and spread across Eastern Europe from there. Both names point to the same product family. Silk plaster, textile wallpaper, liquid wallpaper, tynk bawełniany and tynk japoński all describe the cellulose and textile decorative coating our factory has been making since 1997. If you are sourcing for a home in Zakopane, Podhale, Nowy Targ or elsewhere in the Tatras, look for any of these terms on local distributor listings. The specification sheet is identical.

How the work went

The owner did the preparation personally. New plasterboard, two coats of white primer, then the boards were left to dry for a full weekend. They mixed a single bag at a time with five litres of warm water, hand-kneaded the fibres for ten minutes, and rested the mix in a covered bucket for twelve hours. Application took one person around three hours per wall, working wet-on-wet so the joins disappeared. Because the material stays workable for several hours after trowelling, small errors are easy to correct. If a corner looks thin, you wet the surface, add a little more mix, and feather it back in. There is no repainting, no tearing off old paper, no filling of nail holes with compound that never quite matches. For a house still being decorated room by room, that repairability matters. Drying took thirty-six hours in the heated stairwell at 19 °C. The family moved the ceramic sheep and hung the Tatra mural the next morning.

The finished stairwell. Victoria 701 on the side walls, sheep mural on the feature wall.

Eco credentials that matter in a mountain build

Anyone building in a protected mountain region knows the paperwork around emissions and materials can be strict. Victoria 701 is water-based and VOC-free, and it carries hypoallergenic certification. There is no formaldehyde in the binder. You can sleep in the room the same night the wall is finished. For a family with small children, or for a rental cottage taking guests at short notice, that matters on the ground, not only on paper. The cellulose fibres come from paper pulp. The silk content is a textile by-product. The mineral additives are inert. When the wall is eventually removed, the material is not classified as hazardous waste in EU regulations, which simplifies renovation years later.

The finished look

The ceramic sheep watches visitors from the landing.

The photos do most of the talking. The stairwell mural of grazing sheep in the Tatra high pastures gives the house its identity. The Victoria 701 walls on either side are quiet. They hold the light from the bulb lamp without bouncing it harshly, and the warm white sits well against the honey-coloured pine treads. The ceramic sheep on the landing fits the mood the family wanted: a working mountain house rather than a showroom. The geometric wolf silhouette in black steel and the bare bulb above it finish the room. None of this would have worked against a loud wall colour. Silk plaster earns its keep here because it steps back and lets the rest of the house speak.

Order Victoria 701 or request a sample If this is the finish you want in your own home, workshop or chalet rental, the Victoria 701 product page has full coverage calculations, colour cards and trade pricing. Samples ship within a week. For quantity advice on a specific room, contact the Silk Plaster team and we will reply within one working day. Browse the wider range: liquid wallpaper collections · all textile wallpaper products.

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From Dubai Expo 2020 to the Sheikh’s Council: How Decorative Paints Dealership Built proven Business with Silk Plaster

Silk Plaster Team — Fri, 17 Apr 2026 08:49:35 +0000

Every decorative paints partnership has an origin story. Some begin with a formal pitch. Others start with a cold email. The partnership between Silk Plaster Factory and one of our most accomplished dealerships in the Middle East started with a handshake at Expo 2020 Dubai, the largest world exposition ever held in the region. It was October 2021 when Expo 2020 finally opened its doors after the pandemic delay. It was our honour to be present at the Latvian Building. The event brought together exhibitors and visitors from 192 countries across a purpose-built campus in specially built Dubai South. Silk Plaster was there to introduce our full range of European-manufactured decorative wall coatings to the Global and Gulf construction market. UAE construction market known for its appetite for premium finishes, rapid project timelines, and uncompromising quality standards. Our stand displayed everything: Marmorino Carrara polished to a mirror finish, Travertino in raw stone and beton techniques, liquid wallpaper in dozens of textures, limewash in soft mineral tones, and the Deco Wallcovers range of velvet, silk ottocento, and suede-effect finishes. Notably our company displayed the know-how and core product, which is SILK PLASTER Liquid Wallpaper. It was the breadth that stopped people. Most brands at the expo offered one category either paints, or plasters, or wallcoverings. We had all three, manufactured in-house in Europe, under one united wall decoration brand.

Video: Our Stand at Dubai Expo 2020

Among the thousands of visitors who walked through the exhibition halls, a team of entrepreneurs with deep roots in the UAE construction and fit-out industry spent serious time at our stand. They were not casual browsers. They came with questions about substrate compatibility in Gulf climates, about VOC compliance under UAE municipality codes, about minimum order quantities and lead times from our factory in Latvia. They understood that the decorative coatings market in the UAE was dominated by Italian stucco lime plaster brands with high price points and long supply chains, and they saw an opportunity to offer something better: a European manufacturer with the same quality, broader product range, faster delivery, and a genuine interest in building a long-term decorative paints dealership business rather than simply shipping containers. That first conversation lasted over an hour. By the end of it, we had exchanged contacts and agreed to continue the discussion. Within days, the emails started product catalogues, technical data sheets, pricing structures, and territory questions. It was clear this was not a tentative enquiry. It was the beginning of something serious.

The Visit to Riga: Seeing the Decorative Paints Factory, Building Trust

Conversations are one thing. Commitment is another. Our partners did what every serious distributor should do they came to see us. They did not expect that it would be very warm summer, so the cooling down didn’t really work. The visit to Riga, Latvia, was a turning point. Our production facility is where raw materials: natural cellulose fibre, textile silk, mineral aggregate, high quality slaked lime, pigments, and binding agents are transformed into finished products. Walking the production floor, our guests saw firsthand how liquid wallpaper compounds are mixed, dried, and packaged; how lime-based plasters are formulated to achieve specific textures and working times; and how quality control operates at every stage from incoming raw material inspection to final batch testing. But the factory visit was only part of the picture. Equally important was seeing completed projects in Latvia and the Baltics, real interiors where Silk Plaster products had been living on walls for years. Restaurants, offices, private homes, and public buildings, all demonstrating how the materials perform over time in real conditions. Our partners could touch the surfaces, see how they had aged, ask the building owners about maintenance, and understand the difference between a product that looks good in a sample box and one that delivers lasting performance on a real wall. They also spent time with our technical team. Application techniques were discussed in detail how to achieve the beton effect with Travertino, how to burnish Marmorino to different levels of gloss, how to apply seamless microcement coatings on floors, how to navigate decorative paints market and how to tint decorative paints, how to apply liquid wallpaper seamlessly across large surfaces, and how to use limewash to create the clouded, mineral depth that architects increasingly specify for commercial interiors. These are not skills you learn from a PDF. They require hands-on training, and we provided it. By the time our partners flew back to Dubai, the relationship had shifted from commercial interest to genuine trust. They had met the people behind the brand, seen the production, tested the materials, and understood the technical support structure that would back them in the field. The dealership agreement was signed shortly after.

Our UAE partners at the Silk Plaster headquarters in Riga, Latvia

Catch 22 Restaurant | Dubai City Centre, Al Zahia

We would not be able to reproduce all of the projects completed lately, but here is complete interior fit-out for Catch 22, a restaurant in Dubai’s Al Zahia district. In a city where hundreds of new restaurants open every year, the owners understood that the interior needed to do more than look attractive on opening night it needed to create a sensory identity that would distinguish the venue, photograph well for social media, and survive the daily demands of a high-turnover hospitality environment. Our dealership team proposed a specification that combined two contrasting textures to define different zones within the restaurant: Soft Touch Ricci Velvet a decorative wallcovering that produces a rich, velvety surface with a subtle, light-catching shimmer. Applied across the main dining area feature walls, Ricci Velvet gave the space a warm, intimate atmosphere. The tactile quality is what sets it apart from conventional paint or wallpaper guests instinctively want to touch the wall, which creates a memorable, multi-sensory dining experience. Under the warm restaurant lighting, the velvet fibres pick up and scatter light in a way that flat-painted walls simply cannot replicate. Lime-based Intonachino (Travertino) in beton technique a mineral plaster from the lime-based plasters range, applied using a concrete-effect technique that produces a raw, industrial-modern texture. Used across bar areas, columns, and transitional zones, the beton finish provided a deliberate contrast to the softness of the velvet walls. The tension between the two materials one warm and textile, the other cool and mineral defined the spatial character of the restaurant without the need for additional decorative elements. As a lime-based plaster, the Intonachino is inherently breathable, naturally antimicrobial due to its high pH, and carries a European fire classification all critical properties in a commercial food-and-beverage setting where health, safety, and building code compliance are non-negotiable. The project was delivered from A to Z by the dealership: initial design consultation with the restaurant’s interior designer, material specification, procurement from Silk Plaster’s factory, surface preparation, professional application by trained applicators, and final quality inspection. The result was a venue that stands out in Al Zahia’s competitive dining scene and a proof-of-concept project that opened the door to larger, more ambitious commissions.

Catch 22 Restaurant Project Overview

Wall Finish Detail at Catch 22

Intonachino (Travertino) in Beton Technique

Lime-Based Plaster Finish

The Completed Ricci Velvet Interior of Catch 22 Restaurant, Dubai

Penthouse Residence at the Palm Jumeirah, Dubai

The second covered project today took the dealership from commercial hospitality into Dubai’s most exclusive residential market: a penthouse on Palm Island (Palm Jumeirah). Palm Jumeirah is not merely an upscale address. It is a global symbol of architectural ambition. The residents who choose to live there expect interiors that match the extraordinary setting: premium materials, flawless execution, and a level of personalisation that off-the-shelf solutions cannot provide. The penthouse project required a full interior wall treatment across multiple rooms, living areas, and utility spaces, each with different functional and aesthetic requirements. Four Silk Plaster product lines were specified and applied throughout the residence: Art Design liquid wallpaper one of Silk Plaster’s most popular liquid wallpaper collections was applied seamlessly across bedrooms, the main living areas, and children’s rooms. Art Design combines natural cellulose and silk textile fibres with decorative mineral flecks to produce a surface that is visually rich yet understated. The material is zero-VOC, which matters in a family home where indoor air quality is a genuine concern, not a marketing checkbox. Liquid wallpaper is also self-repairing: if a section is damaged by a piece of furniture, a child’s toy, or a renovation you simply wet the area, smooth it out, and let it dry. It returns to its original texture with no visible patch, no colour mismatch, and no need to repaint an entire wall. For a family living in a premium penthouse, this practical resilience is as valuable as the aesthetic finish. Nappa Trowel a trowel-applied decorative finish from the Deco Wallcovers range was used on accent walls in the master suite, home office, and entertainment areas. Nappa Trowel produces a smooth, leather-like surface with a refined sheen that closely mimics the look and tactile quality of natural leather, without the maintenance challenges, cracking risk, or cost of genuine hide panelling. The trowel application technique allows the applicator to control the depth and directionality of the texture, creating a bespoke finish that is unique to each wall. In Dubai’s climate, where temperature and humidity fluctuations can be extreme, a decorative coating that delivers a premium aesthetic while remaining dimensionally stable and easy to maintain is a genuinely practical specification. Sabbia a sand-textured decorative plaster from the Deco Wallcovers range was specified for transitional areas, hallways, and secondary living spaces. Sabbia produces a fine, granular mineral texture that evokes natural sandstone fitting for a Dubai residence where the desert landscape is part of the architectural dialogue. The material is subtle enough to complement the more expressive finishes used in the primary living spaces while adding its own tactile warmth. Like all Silk Plaster decorative wallcovers, Sabbia is breathable, low-VOC, and carries full European fire classification documentation. Matte washable Primecolor5 paint Silk Plaster’s professional-grade architectural paint was specified for corridors, utility areas, staff quarters, and surfaces requiring frequent cleaning. Primecolor5 delivers a deep matte finish with full washability: it looks premium but can withstand daily wiping, cleaning products, and the kind of incidental contact that utility spaces endure. Low-VOC, available in a custom-tinted colour range, and compatible with all standard substrates, it provided the practical workhorse counterpart to the decorative finishes used in the primary living spaces. The combination of liquid wallpaper, decorative paints, textile wallpaper, and architectural paint four distinct product families, all sourced from a single manufacturer simplified procurement for the penthouse owner, ensured colour consistency across the entire interior, and eliminated the coordination headaches that inevitably arise when sourcing from three or four different suppliers with different lead times, different colour-matching systems, and different technical support teams. One dealership, one manufacturer, one logistics chain and a cohesive interior as a result. The project was managed end-to-end by the local dealership: from initial colour and texture consultation through to final handover and client walkthrough.

Penthouse Living Area with Art Design Liquid Wallpaper

Nappa Trowel Decorative Finish

Anti-reflex matte ceilings with Primecolor5 Paints

Primecolor5 Premium Matte Paint

Video: Nappa Trowel Finish at the Palm Jumeirah Penthouse

Sheikh’s Council of the UAE showing the Government-Level Trust

The third project is the one that defines the trajectory of this dealership and demonstrates what a decorative paints dealership business with Silk Plaster can ultimately become. A commission for the Sheikh’s Council of the UAE, a government institution where material selection is subject to the highest standards of quality, safety, fire performance, and aesthetic authority is not an opportunity that comes to new market entrants. It is earned through a documented track record of successful project delivery, verified product compliance, and the kind of professional reputation that institutional procurement committees take seriously. The specification called for the MS Collection of liquid wallpaper Silk Plaster’s premium textile wall coating range. The MS Collection combines natural silk and cellulose fibres to produce surfaces with exceptional depth, colour richness, and a refined tactile quality that conventional paint or wallpaper cannot replicate. The material carries European CE certification, fire classification to EN 13501, and full material safety documentation the kind of formal compliance paperwork that government procurement requires and that many decorative coating brands operating in the Gulf region simply cannot provide. Being selected for a UAE government project validated everything the dealership had built since that first conversation at Expo 2020: the product knowledge, the application expertise, the project management capability, and the confidence to propose premium European materials to the most demanding clients in the market. It was proof that the business model works and that the right product range, backed by genuine manufacturer support, can take a dealership from a trade-fair handshake to institutional trust in under four years.

Application process MS Collection Liquid Wallpaper

Trowel liquid wallpaper application of the MS Collection

Video: The Completed Sheikh’s Council Project

What This Decorative Paints Partnership Demonstrates

This story from a sight to liquid wallpaper leading to the meeting at Expo 2020, through a factory visit in Riga, to three landmark projects across Dubai illustrates what a decorative paints dealership business with Silk Plaster can become when the right partner meets the right product range. The factors that made it work are worth noting, because they apply to any entrepreneur or contractor considering a Silk Plaster dealership in their own market:

Product breadth from a single manufacturer. Marmorino, Travertino, suede washable limewash effect NAPPA, liquid wallpaper, textile coatings, and architectural paint coming all from one source. This means one logistics chain, one technical support contact, and consistent quality across every product category. When a client’s project requires both mineral plaster on feature walls and washable paint in the corridors, the dealership does not need to source from multiple suppliers. Everything comes from one factory, with matched documentation.
Full technical compliance. UAE compliant documents, CE marking, European fire classification, VOC testing, and complete material safety data for every product. In markets like the UAE where government and institutional clients require formal compliance documentation as a condition of tender this is not a nice-to-have. It is the entry ticket. Without it, you are excluded before the conversation begins.
Training and technical support from the manufacturer. The factory visit in Riga was not a courtesy tour. It was a structured training programme that gave our partners the application skills and product knowledge to deliver projects confidently from day one. That support continues: when a new technique is required, when a substrate presents challenges, or when a client asks a technical question that needs a manufacturer-level answer, the Silk Plaster technical team is available directly. Silk Plaster has thousands of recipes fully working to reproduce all design and architecture colours in specifications.
Scalability across market segments. The same product range that finished a restaurant in Al Zahia went on to serve a penthouse on Palm Jumeirah and a government council chamber. The dealership did not need to reinvent its supply chain or seek new product lines for each client segment. The range already covered hospitality, residential, and institutional 3 very different markets, all served by the same European manufacturer.

Build Your Own Decorative Paints Story

Silk Plaster is actively expanding its distributor and dealer network across Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. If you are a contractor, interior fit-out company, paint distributor, or entrepreneur looking to build a decorative paints dealership business with a European manufacturer that supplies everything from lime-based plasters and limewash to liquid wallpaper, textile wallpaper, and professional architectural paint we want to hear from you. Every partnership starts with a conversation. Ours started at Expo 2020. Yours could start today. SILK PLASTER Dubai is available. Please find Silk Plaster approved contractors in the UAE here. Apply to become a Silk Plaster partner or contact our commercial team directly at silkplaster.eu/contact-us to discuss territory availability, pricing, and how we can support your growth.

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Natural Lime Plaster Finishes, Indoor Air Quality and the WELL Building Standard

Silk Plaster Team — Mon, 13 Apr 2026 15:14:13 +0000

Why Clay & Lime Plaster Is Appearing in Wellness-Driven Specifications

Ten years ago, specifiers chose lime plaster and clay plaster for heritage restorations and little else. That has changed. As the WELL Building Standard, BREEAM, and LEED push measurable indoor air quality (IAQ) targets into mainstream commercial and residential projects, natural lime finishes have moved from conservation niche to specification shortlist. The reason is straightforward: lime plaster does things that synthetic wall coatings cannot. This article explains the material science behind that claim, ties it to specific certification credits, and identifies where Silk Plaster’s Marmorino Carrara and Travertino Naturale fit in a modern specification.

24-Month Slaked Lime: Why Ageing Matters

Not all clay plaster and lime plaster is equal, and the difference starts in the slaking pit. When limestone (calcium carbonate) is calcined at approximately 900 °C, it becomes quicklime (calcium oxide). Adding water converts it to slaked lime (calcium hydroxide) - the binder in every traditional lime plaster. But the quality of that binder depends heavily on how long it matures. Silk Plaster’s Marmorino Carrara uses lime slaked for a minimum of 24 months. Extended slaking produces finer, more uniformly hydrated particles. The practical consequences: better workability under the trowel, superior adhesion to the substrate, a denser finished surface with greater depth of polish, and a longer open working time that allows the applicator to build movement and texture without the material setting prematurely. Cheaper lime plasters, particularly those based on dry hydrate powder mixed on site, produce a coarser paste that carbonates faster but develops less mechanical strength and less visual depth. For specifiers comparing products on a technical data sheet, the slaking period is one of the clearest indicators of final finish quality.

Marmorino Carrara in grey - hand-polished aged lime plaster

Marmorino Carrara in beige - warm natural lime finish

Breathability: What It Actually Means in a Wall Assembly

The term “breathable” is used loosely in interiors marketing. In building physics, it has a precise meaning: vapour permeability - the ability of a material to allow water vapour to migrate through it without trapping liquid moisture inside the wall assembly. Lime plaster is highly vapour-permeable. Its open-pore microstructure allows moisture to pass through the wall when humidity is high and release back into the room when conditions dry out. This passive moisture buffering has measurable effects: research published in the National Library of Medicine (PMC) found that lime-plastered interiors with adequate ventilation maintained indoor relative humidity within a narrower, healthier band than interiors finished with nonporous coatings. The same study observed that mould growth was absent in well-ventilated, lime-plastered spaces - and present where vapour-impermeable finishes had been applied over the same substrate. This matters because modern buildings are increasingly airtight. Energy codes in the EU and UK demand minimal air leakage, which is correct for thermal performance - but airtight walls finished with nonporous coatings can trap interstitial moisture, creating concealed condensation and the conditions for mould. A lime finish on the interior surface of an airtight wall lets moisture migrate outward through the plaster rather than accumulating behind it. The wall is sealed against air but open to vapour. That distinction is the core of good hygrothermal design. Silk Plaster’s Travertino Naturale is the most breathable finish in the range. Its open-pore travertine texture - composed of lime hydrate, pure clay, selected marbles, and natural sands - maximises the surface area available for moisture exchange. Marmorino Carrara, while smoother and more polished, retains meaningful vapour permeability because the binder is pure slaked lime with no synthetic resin blocking the pore network.

Travertino Naturale wall finish - the open-pore structure maximises moisture exchange

Anti-Mould Properties: The pH Advantage

Lime plaster is naturally alkaline, with a surface pH typically above 12 during curing and stabilising around 9-10 over time as carbonation progresses. Mould spores require a pH below 8 to germinate. This means a freshly applied lime surface is actively hostile to mould colonisation - not through chemical additives, but through the inherent chemistry of the material. Compare this with standard gypsum plasterboard, which has a near-neutral pH and no antimicrobial properties. In humid environments - bathrooms, kitchens, poorly ventilated bedrooms - gypsum finishes rely entirely on mechanical ventilation and surface coatings to prevent mould. If the ventilation system underperforms or the coating degrades, mould establishes rapidly. Lime plaster provides a passive, permanent defence layer that does not depend on mechanical systems operating correctly. For healthcare, education, and residential projects where occupant health is a primary design driver, this passive antimicrobial function is a significant specification advantage.

Marmorino Carrara colour sample in dark chocolate - showing the depth of aged lime polish

WELL Building Standard: How Lime Plaster Supports Project Credits

The WELL Building Standard v2, administered by the International WELL Building Institute, evaluates buildings across ten concepts including Air, Materials, and Mind. Natural lime plasters contribute to credits in at least three areas: Feature A04: VOC Reduction. WELL requires that 100% of installed paints and coatings meet VOC content limits defined by the California Air Resources Board (CARB) SCM or SCAQMD Rule 1113. Silk Plaster’s lime finishes are manufactured using a VOC-free production process and contain no solvents or volatile organic compounds. They carry European emission certification including the most stringent indoor air quality testing standard in Northern Europe. The testing protocols is accepted under WELL v2’s Feature X06 (VOC Restrictions) via the EN 16516 compliance pathway, which references the EU LCI values. Feature X06: VOC Restrictions (Materials Concept). This feature awards up to four points for using low-emitting interior finishes. At least 75% of wet-applied products (by surface area or volume) must comply with CDPH Standard Method V1.2 or the equivalent EN 16516/AgBB route. A project finished primarily with natural lime plaster can meet this threshold without difficulty, since the material contributes zero VOC emissions to the indoor environment. Feature X05: Enhanced Material Restrictions. WELL rewards products with transparent chemical inventories. Lime plaster’s composition is inherently simple - calcium hydroxide, marble aggregate, natural pigments - making full ingredient disclosure straightforward. No proprietary synthetic additives need to be tracked or screened. Beyond WELL, these same material properties support BREEAM Hea 02 (Indoor Air Quality) credits and contribute to LEED v4.1 EQ credits for low-emitting materials.

Biophilic Design: The Sensory Argument

Certification credits address measurable chemistry. But there is a parallel specification argument rooted in biophilic design - the principle that human wellbeing improves in environments that reference natural materials, textures, and processes. Lime plaster delivers this on multiple levels. The surface is visually variable - tonal shifts, subtle veining, and the soft patina of a carbonating wall create depth that synthetic coatings cannot replicate. It is warm to the touch, not cold like ceramic or glass. And it changes slowly over time, developing a surface character that reflects the building’s age and use - a quality that biophilic design research associates with reduced cognitive load and increased occupant satisfaction. Travertino Naturale, with its open cavities and geological texture, is particularly effective in biophilic schemes. Marmorino Carrara, with its polished marble depth, suits spaces where the biophilic reference is stone rather than earth.

Natural side-light on Travertino Naturale - the open-pore texture catches light and shadow

A Note on Clay Plaster: How It Compares to Lime

Clay plaster is another natural wall finish that frequently enters the same specification conversations as lime. Like lime plaster, clay plaster is mineral-based, breathable, and free of synthetic binders - making it a popular choice in eco-building and wellness-focused interiors. Both materials support healthy indoor air quality by allowing moisture vapour to pass through the wall assembly rather than trapping it. The key difference is durability and moisture resistance. Clay plaster remains water-soluble after curing - it can soften if exposed to sustained moisture, which limits its use to dry interior walls. Lime plaster, by contrast, undergoes carbonation: the calcium hydroxide slowly converts back to calcium carbonate, producing a surface that is effectively stone. This makes lime plaster suitable for semi-humid environments (kitchens, hallways, entryways) where clay would be at risk. For projects where the specification calls for a fully natural, breathable interior finish with higher mechanical durability and moisture tolerance than clay alone, aged lime systems such as Silk Plaster’s Marmorino Carrara offer the best of both worlds: the natural, toxin-free qualities of clay plaster combined with the long-term performance of a carbonated mineral surface.

Dark Slate Marmorino

Ash Gray Marmorino Carrara

Taupe Marmorino

Marmorino Carrara colour samples - a selection from the Silk Plaster range

Specifying Silk Plaster Lime Finishes

Both Marmorino Carrara and Travertino Naturale are available through Silk Plaster’s decorative wall covers range. Key specification data:

Limestone content: Natural slaked lime (minimum 24-month ageing for Marmorino Carrara and same 24 month for Travertino Naturale)
Aggregate: Crushed Carrara marble (Marmorino) / natural sands, clay plaster, and marble (Travertino)
VOC emissions: Almost 0 - tested & certified
Application: Trowel-applied, 2-3 coats, stainless steel Venetian trowel recommended
Suitable substrates: Prepared plaster, render, concrete, plasterboard (with appropriate primer)
Suitable areas: Interior walls and ceilings in dry and humid environments (not direct water contact - for wet areas, specify Silk Plaster Microcement)
Manufacturing: Produced in Latvia, EU, under VOC-free production processes

For project samples, technical data sheets, or specification support, visit the decorative wall covers page or contact Silk Plaster’s specification team through the partner programme.

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See also: Lime Plaster: Marmorino Carrara and Travertino Naturale, an overview of the two lime-based finishes referred to above.

Venetian Plaster vs Microcement vs Mineral Lime: The Specifier’s Guide

Silk Plaster Team — Mon, 13 Apr 2026 09:04:55 +0000

Three Systems, Three Philosophies

Venetian plaster, microcement, and mineral lime plaster appear in the same specification conversations - but they solve different problems, behave differently under load, and fail in different ways. Choosing between them isn’t a matter of taste. It’s a matter of substrate, environment, traffic, and maintenance commitment. This guide breaks down where each system excels, where it falls short, and what the real-world cost and performance differences look like when the project is built, not just specified.

What Each System Actually Is

Venetian plaster (Marmorino, Stucco Lustro, Grassello, Stucco Italiano) is a calcium-carbonate-based decorative finish derived from slaked lime and crushed marble. Silk Plaster’s Marmorino Carrara uses 24-month aged slaked lime - the extended carbonation period produces a denser, more workable paste with superior depth of polish. The finished surface is mineral, breathable, naturally anti-mould, and develops a genuine stone-like patina. Application is multi-coat, trowel-applied, and demands skilled technique - particularly the burnishing passes that create the characteristic lustre. Microcement is a polymer-modified cementitious coating applied in thin layers (typically 3-4 mm total build) over existing substrates. Silk Plaster’s microcement system is factory pre-mixed - not a dry powder requiring on-site blending - which eliminates the batch-to-batch variation that causes colour shifts and black marks on finish coats. The system includes primer, base coats, finish coat, and a 2K polyurethane varnish for mechanical and chemical protection. The result is a seamless, jointless surface suitable for floors, walls, wet areas, countertops, and furniture. Mineral lime plaster (including Travertino Naturale) occupies a middle ground. Silk Plaster’s Travertino Naturale is a mineral lime-based system that replicates the texture of natural travertine stone - including the characteristic open pore structure. It’s fully mineral, breathable, and offers a textured matte finish that reads very differently from the polished depth of Venetian plaster or the smooth monolith of microcement.

Head-to-Head Comparison

Criterion	Venetian Plaster (Marmorino Carrara)	Microcement	Mineral Lime (Travertino Naturale)
Typical thickness	1-2 mm	2-3 mm	2-4 mm
Suitable substrates	Prepared plaster, gypsum board, mineral surfaces	Concrete, screed, existing tiles, plaster, wood (with correct primer)	Prepared plaster, gypsum board, mineral surfaces
Floor use	No - walls and ceilings only	Yes - with 2K varnish protection	No - walls and ceilings only
Wet area suitability	Shower walls with sealer; not for direct water contact	Full wet area use - showers, basins, pool surrounds - with 2K varnish	Dry to semi-humid areas; not for direct water exposure
Breathability	Excellent - fully mineral, vapour-permeable	Moderate - polymer-modified, sealed with varnish	Excellent - fully mineral, vapour-permeable
Anti-mould	Natural - high pH inhibits mould	Via sealed surface - mould cannot penetrate varnish	Natural - high pH inhibits mould
Mechanical durability	Moderate - walls, not high-impact	High - 2K varnish gives abrasion and chemical resistance	Moderate - texture hides minor wear
Skill level	High - burnishing requires trained applicator	Medium-high - pre-mixed formula reduces variables	Medium - two-pass with texture tool
Cost per m² (material)	€15-€35	€30-€40 (incl. 2 component varnish)	€12-€25
Best for	Feature walls, reception areas, luxury residential	Bathrooms, kitchens, floors, renovations over tiles	Living spaces, bedrooms, hospitality, heritage

Where Each System Wins

Venetian plaster: when the surface is the statement

Nothing replicates the optical depth of a well-burnished Marmorino. The calcite crystals in aged lime paste refract light in a way that polymer-based finishes cannot - the surface appears to glow from within rather than reflect from the top. For a hotel lobby feature wall, a residential living room accent, or a high-end retail interior where the wall finish carries the design intent, Venetian plaster is the correct specification. The trade-off is clear: it’s a wall finish only. It won’t survive foot traffic, direct water immersion, or heavy mechanical contact. And the application is slower - three to four coats with burnishing passes - which means higher labour cost per square metre. In our case Marmorino Carrara requires at least 2 coats.

Warm Sand Plaster

Chalk Cream Marmorino

Sage Green Gray

Marmorino Carrara colour samples - available in a range of tones from Silk Plaster

Microcement: when performance governs the specification

If the brief says “seamless bathroom floor and walls in the same finish,” microcement is the only option on this list. It bonds to existing tiles (eliminating demolition cost and waste), handles direct water contact when sealed, and withstands foot traffic on floors when protected with 2K varnish. Silk Plaster’s pre-mixed system specifically addresses the biggest risk in microcement work - black marks on finish coats caused by trowel oxidation - through a white-base formula with extended open time. The trade-off: microcement is a sealed system. Once the 2K varnish goes on, vapour permeability drops. In environments where wall breathability matters - historic buildings, lime-rendered substrates, spaces with limited mechanical ventilation - this is a genuine limitation, not a marketing distinction. Indicative material cost runs €20-€40 per m² including varnish, depending on colour and coverage rate. Labour adds €30-€60 per m² depending on market and complexity. On renovation projects where microcement overlays existing tiles, the total installed cost often comes in lower than demolition plus new tiling - and delivers a seamless result that tile grout lines never will.

Seamless microcement kitchen floor

Microcement floor in a contemporary living room

Microcement bathroom - walls and floor

Microcement hallway with underfloor heating

Mineral lime: when the building needs to breathe

Travertino Naturale’s strength is its mineral composition and textured character. In buildings with solid masonry walls, limited mechanical ventilation, or heritage restrictions on impermeable coatings, a fully mineral lime plaster is the technically correct wall finish. The high pH of the cured lime surface naturally resists mould colonisation - no biocide additives, no sealed surface needed. The texture also does practical work: the open-pore travertine effect disguises minor substrate imperfections and creates visual warmth without the sheen of polished Venetian plaster. For bedrooms, living rooms, boutique hotel interiors, and wellness spaces, the matte mineral texture reads as natural and calm. The trade-off: mineral lime is not suited for wet areas, floors, or high-traffic surfaces. It’s a wall and ceiling finish for dry to moderately humid interiors.

Travertino Naturale - decorative mineral lime plaster by Silk Plaster

Specification Decision Tree

Is the surface a floor? → Microcement. Venetian plaster and mineral lime are wall finishes only. Will it receive direct water contact (showers, splashbacks, pool areas)? → Microcement with 2K varnish seal. Does the building require vapour-permeable wall finishes? → Venetian plaster (Marmorino Carrara) or mineral lime (Travertino Naturale). Both are fully mineral and breathable. Is the design intent a polished, high-lustre surface? → Venetian plaster. The burnished calcite surface creates a depth of finish that sealed systems cannot replicate. Is the design intent a natural, textured stone effect? → Travertino Naturale. The open-pore travertine texture provides visual warmth without polish. Is this a renovation over existing tiles or substrates? → Microcement. The system bonds directly to existing surfaces with appropriate primer, avoiding demolition.

Combining Systems on a Single Project

These are not competing products - they’re complementary systems in the same specification toolkit. A residential bathroom project might specify microcement on the floor and shower walls (for waterproofing and seamless drainage), Marmorino Carrara on the vanity feature wall (for lustre and depth), and Travertino Naturale in the adjoining bedroom (for breathable mineral texture). Each product does what it does best, in the zone where its properties matter most. Silk Plaster manufactures all three systems. The colour palettes are designed to coordinate across product lines, and Silk Plaster liquid wallpaper extends the range further for spaces where soft textile texture is the design priority.

Next Steps

Browse Venetian plaster and mineral lime systems → Browse microcement systems → Become a professional partner →