Wall texture is in

While “popcorn” ceilings and stucco walls aren’t likely to make a comeback anytime soon, textured walls are one of the top trends of 2021. The look to emulate is an “excavated” style - exposed plaster and texture that imitates a charming, antique aesthetic.

Thankfully, we’re not reliant on century-old technology to get the look. After the huge popularity of their coloured, cement-based coating, Micro-topping - which is used on driveways and paths - Permacolour formulated a cement paint that is suitable for vertical surfaces.

“Micro-colour is becoming really popular for doing walls inside the house. You can do any surface; even bathroom walls,” says Permacolour’s Brian O’Keeffe.

It can be trowelled on to plasterboard, HardiTex or precast concrete and can be used on both interior and exterior surfaces.

Brian developed the product several years ago, when the cement-based Micro-topping was proving popular on hard surfaces indoors.

“Clients were often having trouble obtaining something different for their walls, or they wanted a different colour or look for their hard surfaces. Not only does it look great, but depending on how it's trowelled, you can get different levels of texture on the surface.”

“We developed Micro-colour to work much the same as Micro-topping, but with additives to ensure it trowels with ease onto vertical surfaces,” says Brian.

The way it is applied dictates the final look of the surface, so hard trowelling can give the look of a burnt trowel finish and light trowelling can impart more of a layered look.

It’s popularly used in showers, as it can be directly applied onto the waterproofed substrate and is far less labour intensive than tiling, but can achieve an equally interesting look.

The coating is available in 24 standard colours, or can be colour-matched to existing features, as desired.

Recently, it was used to texture the walls of a new Chinese restaurant at Auckland International Airport.

“The effect of the coating gave the restaurant a layered look, which worked really well with the metallic epoxy floors they chose to do.”

Metallic epoxy floor coating is a relatively new product to land in New Zealand and is another of the coating effects that are changing the way people design hard surfaces.

“It hasn’t been around for that long but it’s very popular in America and Europe. You just pour it onto the floor and spread it out. It’s self-levelling and gives you a 3D effect.”

The epoxy comes in 15 colours and is suitable on concrete, or for timber floors lined with a tile liner or HardiTex.

Find out more about the latest coatings for hard surfaces.