i-chic - You sure you haven't already started to warm up for that party? LOL. Enjoy. I'm looking forward to hearing your advice as I'm planning on doing some plastering, too (though not in my kitchen).

500?
geeze Louise! you must have some kitchen! I will look forward to hearing back from you tomorrow.

LOL ok i'm finally recovered from the weekend, which ended up being a total of three parties...sheesh we're too social. And the 500 was at our business office heh heh I think we'd have to stack them in our kitchen if we tried for that many.

OK Venetian plaster 101 Iggy style....First, it's ok to be used as a kitchen surface, but I highly recommend that you do a final two coats of paste wax (this will allow you to be able to wash the walls easily...I'd actually like to see the commercial quality wax used, verses standard paste wax, but that's up to you).

Ok, so for use of real (made with marble dust) venetian plaster, yes it's a great surface for kitchens. It's relatively easy to apply, but I'd suggest you practice on some spare drywalll to get your technique down. On the artsparx website there are great instructions, and be sure to invest in a couple of good plaster knifes. I don't like the larger ones myself, but instead prefer about a six inch flexible with rounded edges. Apply the plaster slowly and with great care to get a really thin later on A good first plaster layer will show lots of wall board. You should be on coat 3 before you don't see white anymore if you're doing it right. Burnish and sand between layers (after totally dry) if you end up with any bubbles or cracks (this is what happens if you have an area that gets too thick). It takes some time to finish a VP room, but when finished you won't regret the time spent. The walls will feel like silk, and you'll constantly see guests petting them (they do in my powder room all the time).

You could go one step further and do a marmarmino finish if your walls are going to be close to any moisture areas (ie not protected with a backsplash in water areas). Marmarino is suitable for bathrooms and kitchens. The difference between it and VP is only that it has lime in the mixture, which repels future mold growth. It's overkill in most kitchens, but worth mentioning. I personally was using just VP in my kitchen and saving the marmarino for the bathrooms.

Now onto Valspar and similar products. They're made with sillica, not marble or lime. Frankly after using the real stuff, I'd never use fake VP again. The finish is not as nice, very dull, no luster, and it's hard to apply. It gets dry on you in seconds (this is really hard to deal with when plastering). I practiced with it twice and hate it, really just hate it. Applying real VP is a moderate skill, applying that crap is an advanced skill.

There are a few folks who sell VP, but I do like both the price, and the quality of the stuff on artsparx. They shipped mine up on a pallet (I was doing a whole house) and were very accomidating given my difficult location. A year later and it's still in great condition (meaning it hasn't dried up in the can which your other products will often do). Their custom color mixes are great (they'll match anything, or you can order a wheel and pick your own). And the price is quite reasonable.

Don't underestimate the work involved. You need to commit to doing layers and layers of plaster, applied by hand (you get good muscles heh heh) and then sand, burnish and check every inch between coats for a quality finish. But it's not brain surgery. Slow, thin and patient and you'll have a gorgeous wall.

thanks igloochic. they just finished nailing the wood floors yesterday. i have to say the smell is starting to get to me too. Its an overwhelming sawed wood smell.

Anyway, i may start taking down my wallpaper next week. Can you tell me if or how muchprep work that I need to do to my walls after the wallpaper? This will be the major pain.

i think I've been to artsparx site before. i've bee interested in doing a room with this for awhile now. When i saw the valspar at lowe's, I just picked up a gallon of it. I hate waste it, but if i remember right I really liked thr colors from the artsparx site. thanks for the information.

You need to be sure to get rid of all the residual glue and paper bits left on the wall after the paper is gone. I'd prime over the final product, just to be sure you won't have any issues with the finish (if there is any residual glue the primer will show it and you can fix just those areas, verses doing all the VP work and losing large patches due to glue issues).

If you use the Valspar....half way through think of me waving an annoying finger with an "i told you so" look. It can be done, but you'lll not enjoy it at all! I thought the same, and tried to use the valspar to teach my apprentaces with...but it was so hard to work with they did terribly with it...and great with the real stuff. I wish you luck either way :) But Please Please Please...practice on an extra piece of drywall and do all steps until you have a finished product. You'll be happy you did so when it comes to the actuall wall. Once you get a feel for VP it's easy, but until you do, your sloppy work will haunt you. You want to keep that on the practice board.

OK, I sure don't want to imagine anyones finger shaking at me. I will go on over to artsparx.com. So, you teach people how to work with this? It never ceases to amaze me how fortunate i am to have found this site. Thank you so much!