Living Room Make-Over with Marrakech Walls

Our living room has been white for a while, and actually, I’m not that big of a white fan. My chaotic head loves peace, but not necessarily white. A year and a half ago, when we got the keys to our house, we wanted to keep it quiet and spacious. The choice for the good-old RAL9010 White was, therefore, an obvious choice. In the kitchen, we already went a little outside the box by opting for a wall of concrete. But I didn't dare to take on a real color yet.

Warm and Tranquility

Actually, we wanted to extend the concrete-finish effect to the living area as well. A little more warmth, but still quiet. Because we had good experiences with the paint of Pure & Original during the bedroom makeover, we wanted to work with this product again. However, dark blue made us a little too crazy, so the samples came back on the table.

I wanted a grey tone and doubted terribly between Warm Grey and Evening Shadow. There is already quite a lot of warmth in our house, the wooden floor, curtains, the grey wall in the kitchen.. So Warm Grey would fit nicely, but I didn't want it to look too “Country Living.” So after thinking and weighing in I opted for Evening Shadow, a grey with a cooler undertone. A bit more industrial.

After looking at the possibilities, we quickly tended towards the application of Marrakech Walls. The effect resembles concrete, but it is not a stucco, it is a 100% mineral paint based on lime, colored with 100% natural pigments.

You don't have to be a plasterer for it, and you can apply it yourself, which of course saves you money. My friend was a little - okay very - skeptical about whether this was going to work out well. Actually, I had no idea either, but I don't shy away from a challenge, so we went for it.

Installing the Marrakech Walls

The installation was as follows: we taped the wall with Frogtape. For me for the first time, and honestly, this stuff is fantastic. We have a "popcorn ceiling" which would typically leave a messy edge behind, but no such thing happened.

Anyway, we started to prep the wall with WallPrim, that we had colored in the same color as the Marrakech Walls. The mineral primer ensures that the Marrakech Walls adheres well and reduces the suction. We let this layer dry for a day. After that, we covered everything with plastic sheets and looked at the instructions.

The paint looks like a kind of paste, and we did not dilute it. Although it is quite thick, it is smooth and still splashes a little during the application. With a large block brush my friend smeared into the wall, I came after him with the Marrakech trowel. It is recommended to let the paint dry for 10-15 minutes. The drier it is, the easier it is to create a robust effect. However, I wanted to achieve a quiet wall with no big differences in color, with the look and feel of a luxury concrete. That's why I troweled the paint immediately after the application. Not only is the result smoother, but since the paint is not dragging it makes the job a bit easier as well. Pieces of the wall that I troweled when the paint was already a bit dryer are also darker in color than the areas I did right away. The variety gives a nice effect though, and we are thrilled with it.

Ready in two hours

It took us only two hours to paint this 170 ft2 wall. I spent at least one hour with the trowel (hi muscle pain). It dries quickly, and after a few hours, you can already admire the result. It's best not to look at it for a few hours because it dries up unevenly and I thought at least ten times that I had severely ruined it because it was so spotty. It says enough about me, the next morning it turned out there was nothing wrong, and in our opinion the result was amazing!

The effect is subtle, almost chic, but also a bit industrial. Exactly what we were missing in our space, so we are super happy!

The wall gets another small treatment, we sanded it slightly with a 400 grit for an even finish,

and then we soaped it in with Pure & Original Lime Soap, it protects the paint and is easy to maintain. Very nice with parties and any greasy children's hands, you can wipe it off.

Credits by Muk