This week I had the opportunity to try some plaster wall color from American Clay. Their colored plasters are marketed as a natural alternative to traditional house paints (though writing “traditional” to refer to latex paint instead of plaster feels silly - colored plaster is what people rich enough to afford color on their walls used for most of civilized history).

The product is intriguing. I love the timeless, worn look of colored plaster, and I’m actively trying out as many non-poisonous wall-coloring products as possible. Colored plasters bypass the off-gassing issues of conventional paint.

American Clay suggests that homeowners do not apply the products themselves but instead hire "artisans/applicators who have experience" using their products. Applying the sample colors to the tiles the company sent wasn’t hard - an imperfection is part of this look. But perusing the reader questions on the American Clay website will help you decide if you have the patience and ability to do this job yourself.


The plaster comes dry; you mix it with water until it’s “the consistency of pudding” and then smooth it onto the wall with a trowel. It stays moist for a long time (hours, in my climate) so you can take your time applying the color and rework any mistakes. The tiles the company sent me to try the colors on were quite rough, which made it easy to adhere the appropriate thickness of plaster. I wondered if they’d stick to painted walls as well, so I tried the plaster out on my own walls (I then wiped it off with water - no permanent damage) and it wasn’t much harder to get the right coating on the wall. But the application process detailed on the company's website is more complicated than just smoothing on the plaster. Most walls will need a base coat of special sanded primer. And there are a variety of finishing techniques that the final coat can be treated with for many different looks.

I tried three styles of plaster, Porcelina, Loma, and Marittimo. They vary primarily in the fineness of their grain. The color range is limited, but beautiful. None of the colors are too clean (“clean” colors, without a variety of pigments, often look tinny and wrong, while colors with a variety of pigments in them change slightly in different lights and look much more natural). Any of American clay colors will look beautiful in a home.

The Porcelina finish plaster is fairly simple to apply oneself. It smoothed on easily, and settled into a lovely matte finish. But the thicker and chunkier Loma and Marittimo, because of their higher sand quantities, are harder to work with. They are thicker and rougher. Their look is also more specific. I wouldn’t put them in a home that wasn’t built of adobe. But the finer Porcelina plaster would look nice in any home, especially one with 14-foot ceilings in Italy.


The look of colored plaster is not equivalent to paint. It’s much less perfect. It’s rustic. The texture of any of these three finishes would be at home in an adobe-walled home in the Southwest, or in California. I’d also recommend any of the finishes for a home lacking significant architectural details. Plaster color can give a new home a feeling of substance and permanence. But if you live in an older home with molding, pieced doors, and Victorian or Arts and Crafts details, only the Porcelina finish would compliment your home. And then, you’d need to be careful to finish it quite smoothly.

American Clay also provided me with some straw and some mica to add to the plaster. I love the mica - it gives a nice sheen which would be lovely in a dark living room. The straw is a nice touch for historic renovations, where the look of horsehair plaster, or plaster with straw is sought. When I remodel an eighteenth-century tavern (let me dream, please), I’ll use this!

Finally, you should be aware that these finishes are not as durable as paint. If you dampen a rag to wipe crayon off the wall, the plaster rubs off with it. Apply only after your children have outgrown the need to color your walls.

Overall, I’d recommend the Porcelina plaster by American Clay as a good substitute for conventional paint. You can order a kit of samples to try out from the company website, and find someone who sells it, too. The finish is beautiful, and, if you have the time and inclination to do it yourself, application seems fun. And if you're building a new home in Taos, you need to hire a starving local artisan to apply this for you - your street cred depends upon it.

The approaching holidays often encourage us to try to update our home, just a bit, for the inevitable visitors. You might be tempted to buy some new linens, vases, or knickknacks from a big-box store. I propose you consider something a tad more challenging, and much longer lasting: Original art.

Every home makeover show includes the creation of questionable, cheap “art” to hang on the mark’s walls. Original artworks, even hastily constructed, formulaic paint splotches, make a room feel pulled together and personal.

So if you’re not rolling in money right now, you needn’t despair. But you also don’t need to get out the paint rollers and make a mess. The country - your city or town - is teeming with artists anxious to sell (or even barter) their work. Many have online presences, and I’ll list some below, but I encourage you to talk to friends and friends of friends and find some local artists to patronize too. This needn’t be through galleries; art colleges usually have holiday shows featuring student’s art under $100. The cheapest way to buy is to find the artist you like, go to their studio, and ask if you can buy directly from them. Ask to see drawings and watercolors. Find some photographers you like. Works on paper are usually cheaper than works on canvas.

When you are working directly with artists, do be sensitive about prices. Artists who are signed to gallery representation or are currently in art shows may not have the latitude to offer lower studio prices, so it is best to establish this upfront. Alternately, galleries can take significant commissions on sales (up to 50%), and artists may rely on increased profits from direct sales to offset a very small profit on works sold through a gallery.

Poke around the following links and find some lovely stuff that’s far less expensive than your weekly grocery bill.

20x200: You’ll want to sign up for the mailing list to buy from Jen Beckman’s online gallery. She releases limited editions of photographs and prints by different artists on Tuesday and Wednesdays at 2 pm. The 200 $20 prints often sell out immediately, so be quick with your trigger finger, and you can amass a collection of significant artists for Starbucks’ change.

Tiny Show Case: This online gallery curates a very of-the-moment selection of small prints that would look happy in an Domino Magazine photo shoot but it also includes some less pop-oriented and thoughtful landscapes.

Duane Keiser: Duane Keiser is known as a pioneer in the painting-a-day blog world. He paints one small painting within an hour every day, or hereabouts, and lists them for sale on ebay. His paintings are small, intimate, and lovely. Prices usually start around $100.

Two artists following in Keiser’s footsteps are Abbey Ryan and Jeff Hynes. Their daily paintings are similar to Keiser’s in size and scope, and both painters are sensitive and competent.

Many other painters have started to work this way. Hynes has a list here. The Daily Painters Guild (some of the best of this bunch), The Daily Paint Works, and Daily Painters websites collect dozens of painters (of varying quality) working in this mode and price range.

In the early 1970s, before our neighborhood was designated a National Historic District and modern construction was forbidden, a builder demolished a bungalow and built an underground house. Not much of it was truly underground. The house was sunk into the ground, and then dirt was piled up about six feet all around and so densely planted that it was hard to see the structure from the street. The Underground House was under-appreciated by adults in my neighborhood, but beloved by children. It was magical.

Evening walks were often rerouted to accommodate my request to walk by the underground house. In the summer it was practically invisible, but in the winter, you could glimpse some glass and even peer into a lit window. Underground living seemed fantastic, even before I’d read The Hobbit. What could be cozier than retreating to a burrow?

Our local underground house was demolished two years ago, just when underground houses began to receive positive press—except for a tent, they are perhaps the most environmentally-friendly dwelling humans can construct. Since they are built partially underground, they are cheaper to heat and cool than conventional homes. Energy savings can be up to 80%, and with solar elements, it’s easy to live completely off-grid.

This building technique isn’t just for the geodesic dome crowd. Like the newly-hip tree house and yurt, underground living is chic again. This month’s Cookie Magazine shows an elegant, modernist version of (partially) underground living in London with an indoor pool, and child-friendly features like a slide, in addition to steps, to descend to the lower level. Older underground homes provide environmentally conscious living for the historically conscious crowd. Centuries-old, and brand-new cave dwellings in Andalusia, Spain are attracting savvy Europeans looking for a low-maintenance second home, and these modern troglodytes were recently profiled in The New York Times.

But, really, few of us are about to go and build, or buy, an underground house. The concept, however, seems worth introducing to your kids (perhaps you’re raising the new suburban developer!). You can do this the glam way; travelers can stay in caves in Spain, Italy, and Turkey. Or you can suggest the concept through play or housekeeping.

I propose two budget options:

• Underground house. Build an underground house of your own, but a very tiny one, for some treasured toys. Mound some dirt over a box or some cans to make a cave. Children might start adding light-shafts, windows, or create a warren or rooms.



• Root cellar. You can also exploit the constant temperature underground by building a root cellar, the traditional (and green) alternative to chunking the old fridge in the garage. Unlike the spare fridge, the root cellar is the perfect place to store winter vegetables, which you might have grown yourself, or, in your unbridled enthusiasm for a good deal, bought 30 pounds of at Costco. A root cellar can be elaborate, but an old trunk, lined with some newspaper and buried up to the lid in your backyard, works quite well in the cooler months for the modern family. The beer won’t freeze, and the turnips won’t mold. If all that digging seems extreme, you can also use a corner of your basement, but choose the damp one, and be sure the vegetables get some ventilation.

Enthusiastic, or whimsical? Check out the plans for a hobbit hole at Stormbear.