ZAVORÉ
ZAVORÉ
✦
Where Artistry Begins
Real slaked lime, not emulsion·Supplied in its maker’s own colour range·Tracked delivery across the UK and worldwide·Limewash installed by our own team across the UK·Speak to a specialist · 07592 929191·Real slaked lime, not emulsion·Supplied in its maker’s own colour range·Tracked delivery across the UK and worldwide·Limewash installed by our own team across the UK·Speak to a specialist · 07592 929191·
Limewash · Breathable Lime

Limewash walls, brushed on in real lime

Limewash is slaked lime thinned with water and brushed onto a wall. It is not paint. The lime soaks in, carbonates back to stone, and leaves a soft, cloudy, matt surface that moves with the light.

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✓ Its maker’s own colour range ✓ Secure checkout ✓ Order by 12pm · ships in 24hrs
LimewashVenetian PlasterTadelaktMicrocementSculptural PlasterArtificial RockMetallic PaintsEst. 2021 LimewashVenetian PlasterTadelaktMicrocementSculptural PlasterArtificial RockMetallic PaintsEst. 2021
5
Years serving
the trade
7
Finishes in
the range
Worldwide
Tracked
shipping
24h
Shipping, ordered
by 12pm
Zavoré

Providing luxury finishes for the most prestigious addresses in the world

Explore the House

Three ways into limewash

Buy the materials and tools, have our own team install them, or start with a sample board. Every limewash finish is supplied and installed by Zavoré.

01 · Supply

Materials & Tools

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02 · Installation

Installed by Our Team

See our work
03 · Sample

A Sample Board

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Bestsellers

The limewash the trade buys most

The materials behind a limewash finish, each one tested by our own applicators before it ships.

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Where The House Has Worked

Limewash delivered, UK and worldwide

Each dot is a project the house has installed. Limewash ships tracked across the UK and worldwide. Turn the globe and click a dot to see where it is.

Projects installed
Where It Belongs

Where limewash belongs

A finish is chosen the way a fine fabric is chosen, by how it looks and how it feels under the hand. These are the rooms and surfaces limewash suits best.

Explore All Our Finishes
Colour

Limewash colours, in its maker’s own range

Limewash is supplied in its maker’s own colour range. Judge it on a dry board in daylight, never on a wet wall.

✦Maker’s range

Chosen for lime, the palette runs to earths, ochres, umbers and soft greys.

✦Sample board

Order a board and judge the colour dry and in daylight before you commit.

✦Your light

Two walls in the same room read differently, depending on the light they get.

Order a sample boardA screen will never match a wall exactly. Judge the colour on a dry board, in daylight, in the room it is for.
Try Before You Buy

Samples, before you commit

Order a limewash sample board and see it in your own room, in daylight and in lamplight, before you commit a whole wall.

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Order by 12pm · ships within 24 hours
Selected Work

Limewash, on our walls

Photographs of our own limewash projects will be added here as they complete.

The Gallery

The house at work
Colour

The colour library
Samples

A sample board in your colour
Installation

Book a survey
The Journal

Limewash, written down
Installation

Limewash, installed by our own team

Limewash is the one finish on this site we will happily tell you to do yourself. It is brushed, it is forgiving, and a patchy first coat is fixed by a second. Buy a board, try it, and you will know within an hour. Where we would take it on is height, exteriors, or a whole house where keeping a wet edge across long walls matters. Call 07592 929191 and we will say honestly which of the two you have.

Step One · Survey · Across the UK

The Survey

Tell us about the room and our own team comes to see the wall before anything is specified.

Surveyed ByOur own team
CoverageAcross the UK
ProjectsResidential and commercial
See how installation works
Survey / on site
Book a Survey
Step Two · Specification

The Specification

We specify the limewash, the preparation and the colour for the surface you actually have, so the finish suits the wall it goes on.

Specified ByOur own team
MaterialLimewash
Speak To Us07592 929191
Email sales@zavore.co.uk
Specify / for your wall
Ask Us
Step Three · Installation

The Installation

The same team lays it, residential and commercial, anywhere in the UK.

Installed ByOur own team
CoverageAcross the UK
ShowroomBy appointment
See our installations
Install / by our team
More Info
✦ Surveyed, specified and installed by our own team ✦Residential and commercial projects, anywhere in the UK.
Rather Do It Yourself?

We supply, too.

Every limewash material on this page ships tracked across the UK and worldwide, and a working installer picks up the phone, Monday to Saturday.

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5Years of
Craft
The Material

What limewash
actually is

Limewash is lime putty or hydrated lime let down with water until it brushes like thin milk.

It carries very little pigment, so the colour is always soft and never flat: you see the brush, the overlap and the wall underneath. It goes on in two or three thin coats, each one almost invisible wet and pale as it dries, and it keeps hardening for weeks as carbon dioxide turns the lime back into limestone. It is vapour open, which is why it belongs on solid brick, lime plaster, stone and old cob rather than on a sealed modern surface. It is also mildly caustic while wet, so gloves and goggles are not optional.

A. ZavoréFounder & Master Applicator
Limewash · 01

What limewash paint actually means

Search limewash paint and most results are an emulsion with a chalky finish and a lime sounding name. It brushes easily, covers in one coat and behaves like paint because it is paint. Real limewash behaves differently. It is thinner, it looks patchy and alarming while wet, it dries pale and it takes a fortnight before the colour settles. In exchange you get a surface that breathes, that ages instead of peeling, and that has a depth no acrylic gets near. If you genuinely want a tin to open and brush, our lime paint is the one to buy. It is real slaked lime, and it goes on with a brush like the tin you were looking for.

Limewash · 02

Walls limewash will stick to

Lime needs something mineral and absorbent to bond to. Bare lime plaster, old lime render, solid brick, stone, breeze block and unsealed clay plaster all take it well. A fresh skim will take it if it has not been sealed, though it drinks unevenly and wants a mist coat of thinned limewash first. What it will not do is sit on a vinyl silk emulsion, an oil painted surface, a sealed skim or anything with a film on it. The lime has nothing to grip and it dusts off. If a wall has been painted in the last twenty years, assume it needs stripping back or a mineral primer before you start.

Limewash · 03

How limewash goes on the wall

Limewash is brushed, not rolled. A wide block brush with long bristle lets you lay it on in loose, crossing strokes, and it is those strokes that make the finish. Damp the wall first so the lime does not flash off, then work thin, far thinner than feels right. The first coat will look like dirty water and you will doubt it. Let it dry, look at it the next day, then put a second and usually a third coat on. Each one deepens the colour and evens the cloud. Keep a wet edge across a whole wall, because a join left to dry mid wall will show for good.

Limewash · 04

Colour, movement and what to expect

Lime holds only pigments that can survive its alkalinity, so the palette runs to earths, ochres, umbers and soft greys rather than anything bright. That is the look: chalky, slightly uneven, alive across a wall. We tint to your colour and send a reference with the order, but be ready for limewash to dry lighter than it looks wet, and to keep shifting for a few weeks as it carbonates. Judge it on a dry board in daylight, never on a wet wall. Two walls in the same room will read differently depending on the light they get, and most people end up liking that more than they expected.

Limewash · 05

Living with limewash

Limewash is soft. It will mark if you rub it, and a wet cloth taken to a scuff usually makes a paler patch rather than a clean one. It is not a wall to lean a bike against. The upside is that it repairs by being painted again: a thin coat over the damaged area blends in where emulsion would leave a rectangle. It never flakes, because there is no film to lift, and it slowly weathers instead. Outside on brick or render it is excellent and self renewing, and it wants redoing every few years rather than being stripped. Inside, most rooms want nothing more than the occasional touch in.

Where It Is The Wrong Answer

Where limewash is the wrong answer

Limewash is the wrong answer in a kitchen splashback, a shower, or any wall that gets handled daily. It marks and it is not washable. Skip it over vinyl silk, gloss or a sealed skim unless you are prepared to strip back first. And if you want a perfectly even, uniform colour with no movement in it, do not buy lime. Buy emulsion and be happy.

Limewash is cheap to try and hard to judge from a screen. Order a sample board in your colour, stand it against your floor in daylight, and see whether the movement is what you want. Or call 07592 929191.
Order a Sample Board
The House Timeline

Five years, one standard

2021

The First Walls

The work starts in Birmingham under another name. Inside the first year it reaches London, Manchester, Kent and Surrey.

2022

The Team Grows

Three new members join the studio, giving us the hands to take on larger projects without dropping the standard of the finish.

2023

The Academy & The Supply Line

The Academy opens its doors, and a supply agreement is signed with our materials producer. Quality secured at the source.

2024

The Commercial Turn

The workshop makes its name in commercial decorative finishes across the UK, quietly supplying fellow applicators and proving every material on its own projects before it went on sale.

2025

The Range Goes Public

Tested on the job, refined and trusted by the trade first, our own materials go on open sale to the public.

2026

The Name Goes Up

Five years of work, one supply line and one school, finally under a single name. Zavoré: the full range, the Academy and the Colour Library in one place, and the next wall always ahead.

✦Est. 2021
An independent house, family run since day one
ItalyMilled
Venetian plaster from Italian mills, in the Venetian tradition
3In One House
Materials, installation and training, under one roof
✦Showroom
Visit by appointment and see every finish in person
24hDispatch
Order by 12pm and it ships within 24 hours wherever we can
Beyond Limewash

We also craft every other finish

Venetian plaster leads the house, and our team installs every finish below.

Venetian PlasterThe house finish Polished PlasterStucco veneziano MarmorinoLime and marble grain TravertinoTravertine effect TadelaktMoroccan lime MicrocementSeamless surfaces Concrete EffectBeton stucco Clay PlasterRoman clay in lime Liquid MetalMetallic plaster Artificial RockStone effect plaster Sculptural PlasterReady made and bespoke Bas ReliefSculpted by hand MosaicsDesigned and installed MuralsPainted by hand GildingGold and silver leaf Lacquered WallsHigh gloss lacquer Cornice & CovingFitted, restored and matched Feature WallsEvery finish, one team The HouseEvery finish, one home
For The Trade

Trade accounts for plasterers and decorators

Approved decorators, plasterers, contractors and designers buy with a Zavoré trade account. Ten percent off every material, taken off automatically the moment you are signed in to your trade account, consistent colour on every Venetian plaster reorder, colour matching to any reference, and the members only Rewards Room, where every pound counts towards titles and rewards. Academy students walk in the day they finish their course.

Open a Trade Account The Rewards Room
Before You Order

Your questions, answered honestly

Not usually. Most tins sold as limewash paint are emulsion with a chalky finish and no lime in them worth the name. Real limewash is slaked lime and water, it soaks into the wall instead of sitting on it, and it carbonates back to stone. Ours is the real thing, brushed on and tinted to your colour.
Not directly. Lime needs an absorbent mineral surface to bond with, and a vinyl or acrylic emulsion gives it a film to sit on top of, so it dusts off. Either strip back to bare plaster or brick, or put a mineral primer down first. If you are unsure what is on the wall, wet a patch and see whether it drinks or beads.
Two as a minimum, three most of the time. Each coat is thin, much thinner than paint, and the colour builds slowly. A single coat will look streaky and weak, which puts a lot of people off before they have finished. Let each one dry fully before the next, and judge the colour only when the last is dry.
No, and nothing sold as washable limewash is really lime. It is a soft mineral surface and it will mark. The trade off is that it repairs invisibly: brush a thin coat over the area and it blends, where emulsion would leave a patch. For a bathroom or a splashback, ask us about tadelakt or microcement instead.
Delivery
FreeCollect from the studio
£50Zavoré personal delivery, Birmingham and an hour around us
By weightUK tracked courier, priced at checkout
By quoteInternational delivery, email us for a price
£150Emergency same day between Manchester and London. We go further for an additional charge

Delivery is charged on every order that ships, and collection from the studio is free. We deliver nationally and internationally. UK delivery is priced at checkout by weight. International delivery is quoted for each order, so email sales@zavore.co.uk with what you need and where it is going and we will send you a price.

Look at our delivery options
The Zavoré Journal

Limewash, written down

Five years of technique, published openly. We would rather you got it right first time than had to buy the material twice.

Limewash 6 min read

How to Apply Limewash, Brush, Coats, Colour and Common Mistakes

How to apply limewash properly: brush choice, the cross hatch stroke, surface prep, how many coats, wet edges, how the colour dries and whether to seal.

Read Article
Limewash 6 min read

Limewash vs Paint, Breathability, Depth, Wear and Real Cost

An honest limewash vs paint comparison: what each is made of, breathability, depth, wear, repair, mould and why most limewash paint is really emulsion.

Read Article
Limewash 6 min read

Choosing Limewash Colours, Light, Scale and Testing Properly

How to choose limewash colours: why lime dries lighter, how pale and deep shades behave at scale, north and south light, and how to test on...

Read Article
Buy with Complete Confidence

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30 Days, Damage On Us

If it arrives broken, send a photograph and we replace it. If anything is ever wrong with your order we will happily replace it.

Tracked 24hr Dispatch

Fully insured and tracked to your door or site, anywhere in the UK and worldwide. International orders, including Europe, are quoted by email before they ship. Write to sales@zavore.co.uk for a price.

Real Human Support

Ring us and a working installer picks up, Mon to Sat. Ask which finish suits your wall, how much you need, or what to do when you are mid job. No call centres, no scripts.

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The Zavoré Journal

Techniques, releases & course dates

One considered email a month. Finish breakdowns, new materials, and first access to course seats.

Near You

Limewash near you

Limewash in London·Limewash in Birmingham·Limewash in Manchester·Limewash in Glasgow·Limewash in Liverpool·Limewash in Nottingham·Limewash in Kent·Limewash in Essex·Limewash in Surrey

Limewash in Leeds·Limewash in Bristol·Limewash in Sheffield·Limewash in Edinburgh·Limewash in Cardiff·Limewash in Oxford·Limewash in Cambridge·Limewash in Brighton and Hove·Limewash in Leicester·Limewash in Newcastle upon Tyne·Limewash in Bath·Limewash in York·Limewash in Cheltenham·Limewash in Coventry·Limewash in Reading·Limewash in Milton Keynes·Limewash in Southampton·Limewash in Bournemouth·Limewash in Exeter·Limewash in Norwich·Limewash in Derby·Limewash in Harrogate·Limewash in Chester·Limewash in Belfast·Limewash in Aberdeen·Limewash in Swansea·Limewash in St Albans·Limewash in Windsor·Limewash in Plymouth·Limewash in Winchester

Elsewhere in the UK, see every area we cover. Want to learn it? See the Limewash course.

Questions & Answers

More questions, answered

Is limewash breathable?
Yes, limewash is vapour open, which is why it belongs on solid brick, lime plaster, stone and old cob. It lets moisture move through the wall instead of trapping it behind a film. A sealed modern surface is a poor home for it. Our guide to limewash against emulsion compares the two.
What surfaces can you limewash?
Limewash bonds to mineral, absorbent surfaces such as bare lime plaster, old lime render, solid brick, stone, breeze block and unsealed clay plaster. A fresh skim works if it has not been sealed, though it may need a thin mist coat first. It will not grip vinyl silk, oil paint or a sealed skim.
Can I limewash brick?
Yes, solid brick is one of the best surfaces for limewash, inside or out. The lime soaks in and carbonates back to stone, leaving a soft, cloudy, matt finish. Damp the wall first so the lime does not dry too fast. Read how to apply it in our limewash guide.
Can limewash be used outside?
Yes, outside on brick or render it is excellent. It slowly weathers rather than peeling, and it wants redoing every few years rather than being stripped. It needs a mineral surface to bond to. See our limewash installation page if the job is large or high up.
Does limewash peel or flake?
No, limewash does not peel or flake, because there is no film to lift. It soaks into the wall and slowly weathers instead. That is the opposite of an acrylic paint, which can blister and peel. If a patch is damaged, a thin coat brushed over it blends in.
Why does limewash look patchy?
Limewash looks patchy because it is thin and carries very little pigment, so you see the brush, the overlap and the wall beneath. The first coat can look like dirty water and dries paler than it looks wet. Let each coat dry, judge the colour when the last is dry, and keep a wet edge across each wall.
How long does limewash take to dry and cure?
Each coat has to dry before the next, and the colour keeps shifting for a few weeks while the lime keeps hardening as it takes carbon dioxide from the air. Colour usually settles after about a fortnight. Judge it on a dry board in daylight, never on a wet wall. Cold, damp rooms slow drying.
What colours does limewash come in?
Limewash is supplied in its maker's own colour range, which runs to earths, ochres, umbers and soft greys, because lime can only hold pigments that survive its alkalinity. Bright colours are not the point. Read our guide to choosing limewash colours and order a sample board.
Can limewash be used in a bathroom or kitchen?
Not in a kitchen splashback or a shower, because limewash marks easily and is not washable. A bathroom wall away from direct water can work, but for wet areas we suggest tadelakt or microcement on a properly waterproofed wall. Ask us about the room.
Can limewash be touched up?
Yes, and it is one of its strengths. Limewash repairs by being painted again, so a thin coat over a damaged area blends in where emulsion would leave a visible rectangle. A wet cloth on a scuff usually leaves a paler patch, so touch in rather than scrub.
Can I limewash a wall myself?
Yes, limewash is the one finish we happily suggest you try yourself. It is brushed on, it is forgiving, and a patchy first coat is fixed by a second. Wear gloves and eye protection, because lime is caustic while wet. We would take on height, exteriors or a whole house. See limewash installation.
Can I limewash a new build?
Usually not directly. Modern walls are often sealed with a vinyl or acrylic paint, which gives the lime nothing to grip. Bare plaster that has never been painted is different. Wet a patch and see whether it drinks or beads. Ask us and send photos through our contact page.
Can limewash be used on ceilings?
Yes, limewash can be brushed on a ceiling over a suitable mineral surface, and it gives a soft, cloudy finish. It is thin, so protect the floor and wear eye protection. Read our guide to limewash on ceilings.
Is limewash safe to apply?
Take care, because limewash is mildly caustic while wet. Wear gloves and goggles, and protect your skin and floors. Keep it off skin and out of eyes, and rinse splashes at once. Our guide to limewash problems and fixes covers common mistakes.
Does limewash suit period and old houses?
Yes, limewash suits period cottages, farmhouses and any building with solid walls that need to breathe. It sits well on old lime plaster, brick, stone and cob, and it ages gracefully instead of failing. See clay plaster for another breathable option.
Can you limewash my house near me?
Our own applicators install limewash across the UK, travelling from our base in Birmingham. Check every area we cover, then send photos and your postcode through our contact page. We will say honestly whether the job suits a DIY approach.

Providing luxury finishes for the most prestigious addresses in the world

Venetian plaster, limewash, microcement, tadelakt, metallics, sculptural plaster and gold leaf, supplied and installed by our own team, with Venetian plaster taught at our Birmingham studio.

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For The Trade Three ways to earn with us
Trade accountTen percent off every material in the shop, and a specialist on the phone. Partners & affiliatesGet listed where customers find you, or sell our materials and earn on every order. The Rewards RoomEvery order earns. Samples, tools and an apron, on the house.
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