Decorating with Cast Plaster

Amaze yourself with the EASE of these REAL plaster columns!

 When I was growing up, my Mother had beautiful, hard bound books of antique architecture that I would stare at for hours on end. I knew when I grew up, I would have a home similar to the visions on those pages. Well, it's taken me nearly 50 years to get there but at last, I've arrived!

As you know by now, I am in the process of re-decorating our home in Idaho so we can move there in 2009. The master bedroom has long, very plain walls that have NO architectural interest what so ever. Not even a stitch of molding!

Columns were the answer in my mind!

Salvaged from an old building in ruin, I found luscious column tops and created our first "column top" mold. See the mold: Large Acanthus Column Top Mold

I cast two of them and painted them the same color as the wall. I then  mounted them against the ceiling, 8 feet apart.

 (When mounting a piece of this weight, you must first drill little holes in a few places, (yes, the dry plaster drills just fine without breaking, but do use a gentle touch) butter the back with joint compound, put them in to place and then tap the nails in lightly with a hammer and using a counter sink to sink the nail heads down under the plaster exterior. This helps to hold them tightly in place while the joint compound dries).

Then from my trusty "Home Depot" store, I bought two 1"x6" by 8 foot boards and hauled them home. I attached them with nails and joint compound to the wall just under the column tops. Now I will use the same column tops "upside down" as my column bottoms (but I can't do that until the new carpet is in).

To finish, I spread joint compound in to the crack between the columns, smoothing it out so as to create a solid and smooth transition from the wall to the columns edge, let it dry then painted the entire thing the same color as the wall.

Now I had incredible, REAL columns on my walls! And I did all this in just 1 hour!!! Can you believe that??? I was giggling and jumping for joy as I progressed so quickly knowing full well you could do the same!

What hit me next was the need for a hand painted mural in between those columns and look what resulted! See that project in the murals section.

Click photo to enlarge.

Now see them completed with paint and plaster stenciling!