American Clay Plaster is one of the easiest ways to add warmth, texture, and character to your walls. While the finish looks high-end, it's a project many DIYers can tackle themselves with the right tools and techniques. In this guide, I'll walk you through the step-by-step process so you can create beautiful clay plaster walls in your own home.
I am an interior designer by degree and an American Clay applicator. I absolutely can't say enough wonderful things about this product.
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This project I'm showing you wasn't my typical clay wall. This wall's purposes was to be used as a photography backdrop instead of having to put up canvases in this professional photographers family room. I had to view this project as more of an art piece than "just doing a wall"
Believe it or not the hardest part for me is the "getting ready" part. Mixing up all the clay (80 lb bag of clay!) and getting all the pigments right with the binder is always time consuming.
I tend to just dump in the pigment and then mix it with my plaster drill, adding water until the clay gets to be about a milkshake consistency.
I have always bought very expensive Japanese trowels from the American clay website but I found these on Amazon that look almost identical! If I update my trowels I will be buying these.
Or this set
This project consisted of 3 colors - Bryce Canyon, Palomino Valley, and Acacia. This was the first time I used American Clay's newer product Enjarre and Up and EZ binder. Enjarre is their only one coat system and for those on a tighter budget it makes doing clay on the walls a doable option. The instructions in the first photo is if you use Loma or Porcelina. Those require two coats of clay. Enjarre is the only one that just requires one coat.
Here are the before shots!
Get ready to see the transformation from country STENCILS to Tuscan BEAUTY!!!
I troweled on a rotation of Bryce Canyon and Palomino Valley to give added depth and texture to the wall.
I'm sorry, isn't this clay is the most mouth watering, luxurious thing you have ever seen? Makes me want to eat it! (which by the way you CAN, this stuff is so natural.)
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| Enjarre one coat mixed pigments of Bryce Canyon, Palomino Valley, and Acacia. |
After I covered the walls in the 2 darker tones (which was tricky since the clay color wet isn't the clay color dry, so it is kind of like you are painting blind!) I skip troweled on the Acacia color in spontaneous areas. Once the lighter color dried for a while I used a clean plastic trowel to blend it into the darker colors
Here is the wall finished with the first coat and still wet. (Remember the clay always dries a LOT lighter.)
Here are the AFTER shots! It is so textured and rich! Can you also see this is a powder room, or a wall in your kitchen? Give me a call and I'd be happy to do it!
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| Previously they had to hang canvas as a backdrop on their plain wall. |
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Detailed instructions DIY AmericanClayTape off like you were going to paint. Mix one bag of primer sand with a gallon of the Gardz Drywall Primer. Apply sanded primer to the entire area. One bag of American clay Loma covers 180 ft. You will need two layers of Loma. Once the sanded primer is dry, you can apply the mixed wet Loma clay. Pour the entire bag of Loma clay into a large bucket. Add water and pigment to make it the consistency of a thick milkshake. Trowel one layer @ the thickness of a credit card over the entire area. Once that has dried, do your 2nd layer of American clay Loma over the top. Once that is at least about 60% - 100% dried, lightly mist about a 3-ft by 8 ft area with water (I usually use a weed sprayer container) and compress the clay with the trowel. Do this over the entire wall. Take off the tape and you are done! |
What are your thoughts? :-) This is my own home in American Clay
Do you like the rich deep terra cotta color or do you prefer lighter more subtle color like this room I did?
Feel free to Contact me for any information regarding the clay or other design questions.