Best Plaster for a rustic finish

[sailorf80]

I've got a 200 year old cottage down in rural France, the external walls being solid granite 1m thick in places.

As I've been doing it up I took the decision to dry line and insulate all of the internal surfaces of the external walls (the temperature regularly drops to -15 in the winter and it's a git to heat up).

I used the French steel rail studding system, glasswool insulation in the gap and polystyrene backed plasterboards. The house is immediately much easier to heat up quickly as a result, plus I use a lot less fuel to keep it warm.

I'm now at the stage where the whole of the ground floor can be plastered. Normally I would just look to skim and polish to a smooth finish but I think it will look a bit too pristine for what was traditionally a farmhouse. The French only seem to do the joints between boards which I'm not keen either.

Does anyone have a recommend for some way of making it look a bit more rustic. I've left some of the huge stones exposed around the window reveals to give it this look and reckon a bumpy surface would look good but I would want to use the best coating material for the job. I thought maybe one-coat, (but I've read a lot of negative stuff here about it) or even a fine render.

Any recommendations gratefully accepted.

 

[roy c]

Use bonding as that already has a coarse texture, you can have a practice of putting it on roughly until you get the appearance you desire. It will look good when painted and also give you a little extra thermal value Good luck...

 

[Richard C]

Use bonding as that already has a coarse texture, you can have a practice of putting it on roughly until you get the appearance you desire. It will look good when painted and also give you a little extra thermal value Good luck...

No criticism intended Roy but Bonding may be a bit on the soft side to leave as a finish, would Hardwall be better or even Browning but I've no personal experience using it

 

[roy c]

No problem Rich.
I have seen bonding used in "Olde Worldy" looking places to give the effect of a rough textured wall, and with a few coats of paint on it it looks well. At the end of the day when you skim onto bonding it is still a "Soft" wall, as is plasterboard.. ..It would depend on how many kids Sailorf80 has running around and bashing walls

 

[Richard C]

No problem Rich.
I have seen bonding used in "Olde Worldy" looking places to give the effect of a rough textured wall, and with a few coats of paint on it it looks well. At the end of the day when you skim onto bonding it is still a "Soft" wall, as is plasterboard.. ..It would depend on how many kids Sailorf80 has running around and bashing walls

 

[sailorf80]

Thanks for the advice fellas. I think I'll try the bonding. I've asked a similar question on a French Property forum and a guy reckons using a lime mortar/soft sand mix which apparently is traditional.
To be honest I'm more interested in the effect, the time and the cost than paying homage to traditional methods.
Taking half a dozen bags of bonding next time I go over sounds a bit less hassle. I never buy anything over there now, as most of the time I get a quid for a Euro
Oh and my kids are way past the age where they bump off the walls, getting them out of bed and off the couch is more my challenge these days...now when I were a lad....

 

[moonman999]

Decopierre in France (all over the place) Lime based breathable and local flickr.com have some sample photos etc and I saw a vid on youtube