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Where Artistry Begins
Lime plaster worked to read as cut travertine, with open pores and a faint horizontal bedding. Zavoré is based in Birmingham, and our artisans lay it in Bath.
Travertine is the stone Rome built with, and travertino in Bath brings a little of that quarry face into a city of its own pale limestone. Travertino is lime plaster worked to read as cut travertine, with open pores, a faint horizontal bedding and a honed matte surface. Zavoré supplies it tinted to your colour and our artisans lay it. We are based in Birmingham, where our Academy is, and photographs of the wall are where we begin.
Bath is built from honey coloured limestone, so the idea of a wall that reads as stone is natural here. Travertino gives that feeling indoors without the weight. It needs no lintel, no fixings and no substructure, which matters in an old building where floors and walls were never designed to carry cladding.
It also goes where slabs cannot. Georgian houses are full of curves, alcoves, bowed stair walls and arched openings, and plaster follows them in one continuous surface. A whole room can run without a single grout line.
We are not going to tell you it is stone. It is real lime and marble, worked by hand, and a cut slab has a depth and edge that plaster does not. Plaster wins on weight, shape and repair, because a damaged wall is worked back in.
The holes are not stamped or rolled. Material is laid in a broken, uneven pass so the trowel leaves voids behind, then a second pass drags across and partly closes them, so some stay open and some fill. The result is flat to a straight edge and pitted to the hand, just like honed travertine.
How open it reads is a decision. A heavily pitted wall and a lightly pitted one come from the same tub in different hands, so settle it on a board first. We can also tape out courses and work each block separately for a masonry look, or leave it seamless.
It is a finish read by shadow. Light skimming across a wall throws a shadow into every pore, so a recessed slot at the top, an uplighter or a window along the wall helps it show. Light straight down from the middle of the ceiling flattens it.
Entrance halls and stairwell walls are a strong fit, and so are chimney breasts and fireplace surrounds, columns, curved walls and alcoves. In commerce, hotel, restaurant and retail interiors can carry a feature wall that is lit from above or the side. See the travertino page for tub details.
Keep it away from a hob. Grease goes into open pores and stays there. Narrow corridors and wall heights that children reach also suit a closed finish better. Inside a shower it is the wrong choice, and tadelakt is the one built for that. Where hands, splashes or steam reach, we seal the wall, or use natural wax if you want more warmth.
A calm, flat, quiet wall is not what this is. It is the noisiest finish we sell, so use it where you want character.
Order a sample board at the pitting level you want and stand it against your floor in daylight. When it looks right, tell us about the wall. The sample board is the place to start.
Long walls need two people, because holding the pitting rhythm across a long wall, or picking it up the next morning, is the skill. Bath is some way from Birmingham, so we plan the work in blocks of days, with the team staying on site. Dates are agreed once the sample and price are signed off, and our Venetian plaster installation page covers the process. If the house is listed, the owner should check with the council whether consent may be needed.
It is a good finish to learn at the Academy, and a risky one to improvise on a room you care about. Everything we install, we teach, with courses at Birmingham, London and Manchester, listed on the training page. For more, see our decorative work.
Travertino is one note in a Bath scheme. Carved boulders and pool edges are described under artificial rock in Bath. Sculpted surfaces come from sculptural plaster in Bath and bas relief in Bath, and a smooth gloss contrast from lacquered walls in Bath. Pictures belong to murals in Bath, tiny pieces to mosaics in Bath, and metal leaf to gilding in Bath. The top of the wall is covered by cornice and coving in Bath. Our decorative finishes specialist in Bath page links the lot, and Venetian plastering in Bath covers the polished and marmorino family.
No, and we would not want you to think so. It is lime plaster worked to read as travertine, with the pores and bedding put in by hand.
Not near a hob. Open pores hold grease. A kitchen wall away from heat and splashes can take it if it is sealed.
The finish is read by shadow. Light across the wall shows every pore, and light straight at it from the ceiling flattens the texture.
Yes. It is plaster, so it follows curves, alcoves and columns in one surface where stone slabs would need cutting and mitring.
Order a board at the pitting level you want and stand it against the floor in daylight. Decide the texture there, then keep the board as the reference.
Reach us on 07592 929191, Monday to Saturday from 9am to 6pm, or write to sales@zavore.co.uk with photos of the wall, rough measurements and the postcode. The sample board is the quickest way to see the pitting.
Order a sample board tinted to your colour, or send photos and rough measurements of the walls in Bath and we will come back to you with the right finish and a clear quote.
For a quote, email photos and measurements of your walls to sales@zavore.co.uk or call 07592 929191, Monday to Saturday, 9am to 6pm.
See every area we cover.
Our main services: Venetian plaster installation, limewash installation, every decorative installation, Venetian plastering courses, the limewash course and our decorative finishes.
We also supply the trade by post, wherever you are. The shop ships tracked across the UK, and the Academy teaches the finishes in Birmingham, London and Manchester.
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.
One list, run by the people who make the material. No noise, and nothing we would not want to read ourselves.
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