The most largely ignored areas of the home (during home improvement planning) are walls and ceilings. Often, we're busy thinking about new flooring, new cabinets, or even new landscaping. But for the most part, the walls and ceilings are left as is - receive a fresh coat of flat paint at most. Why? There could be any number of reasons, but for the most part, our walls and ceilings have traditionally played a very static - non-interactive visual role. Thus we've become accustomed to their rather 'ho-hum' existence. Some people go so far as to intentionally avoid ceiling and wall construction for fear of lowering a home's future sale value.

Extremists for example, refuse to modify these areas at all - banning the idea of hanging anything on them what so ever. The rest of us however, are quite comfortable with decorating walls with family photos, fine art, and a knickknack here or there. Although these are acceptable ways to create visual interest in the home, they don't really integrate the walls and the ceilings into the overall decor of the home the way that stucco does.

Stucco is a home ornament and can be applied to every wall and ceiling where as photos, artwork, and knickknacks cannot. Because it can be colored and textured, it provides a little visual entertainment for the home dweller or visitor no matter what room we may be in.

Definition

Stucco is a plaster made mostly from Portland cement, sand, and lime - and it's used to cover exterior and interior walls or surfaces. Left unpainted, dried stucco is generally white or off-white and extremely hard to the touch - making it an ideal coating for exterior surfaces like concrete blocks or steel.

Stucco as a material is sometimes called Plaster, but the act of putting stucco on a surface is also known as surfacing. Because surfacing merely means coating any surface with any kind of material, stuccoing specifies the material that's being used and is more appropriate to indicate the type of finish that's being applied.

History

Early Baroque architecture exhibits the use of stucco. Baroque churches in particular used stucco as a part of architectural art form, but Islamic mosques and Indian architectures used stucco (for similar reasons) in the past as well.

Current Usage

Today, stucco is used less for architectural purposes, but for more aesthetic reasons instead. It's used to cover exterior surfaces (like the outside walls of a home) and interior surfaces (like inside walls and ceilings).

Application

If you're thinking about applying stucco to your interior (or exterior) walls and ceilings, you can talk to your contractor about the method that's best for your kind of home. Traditionally, 3 coats of stucco are applied but if your contractor uses stucco fused with acrylics and glass fibers, only one coat may be necessary.

You can also talk to your contractor about creating textural effects during the application process so that you can create visual interest throughout your home. Your contractor will know what's appropriate and can discuss the practical and valuable options available.