9 min readI have always been drawn to moody paint colors for bedrooms. In high school, I begged my dad to paint my room purple after seeing this shade pop up in all the interiors of my favorite shows, from What I Like About You to Sabrina the Teenage Witch. When my partner and I moved into our first apartment together, we painted our living room wall a deep blue—Waterloo from Sherwin-Williams—and used a minty green for our bedroom. Simply put, no color is too adventurous for us.
Thus, when we moved into the home we have now, we knew we wanted to lean into a colorful palette once again. This time, we also decided to try limewashing. Unlike acrylic paint, limewash is made from natural minerals (limestone), so it doesn’t contain VOCs, and it’s an eco-friendly way to add personality to your home. I love the way limewash dries, giving your walls a chalky look, and I had seen enough of this technique on social media to be convinced this was the right move.
After a bit of research, I bought the paint and never looked back. I’ll share my full journey to limewashing ahead, but here are two things I want you to remember: trust the process (a phrase I said to myself repeatedly during the first coat of paint) and be patient. The process is not as quick as using regular paint, but the payoff is so worth it—and 100x better.
Where to Start
First, do some light research so you know exactly what limewash paint is and how it will make your home look/feel. (You can read our limewash paint guide!) Once you have a good grasp on the topic, decide which room (or rooms) you want to limewash and calculate the square footage so you know how much paint to buy. Also, know that limewashing is a marathon, not a sprint. I wanted to limewash two bedrooms and an office, not thinking it would take an entire weekend for each room. It did.
When I was deciding which brand of limewash paint to use, two names kept popping up: Portola Paints and Color Atelier. I went with the latter simply because Color Atelier has a showroom in Brooklyn, New York, minutes from where I live. When I popped in to look at the sample boards and spoke with the employees there, I was immediately sold on the colors they had and how easy the limewashing process actually seemed using their paints.
That said, I don’t think you can go wrong with either brand, as they both offer samples to test and have good reviews. What it comes down to is convenience, pricing, the colors you want, and how the paint looks in your space.
I was confident that the Color Atelier limewash would look gorgeous in my apartment if I did everything correctly. My husband and I selected three colors: Blue Fog, Pamplemousse, and Wabi—for this shade, we chose two different strength intensities so we could layer a lighter coat over a darker coat, per an employee’s suggestion.
Blue Fog
Pamplemousse
Wabi
The Tools You Need for Limewashing
After you get your paint, make sure you have the right brushes and bucket/paint tray to pour paint into. Limewash has a watery consistency, so you need a block brush with bristles that can hold the paint without dripping.
I bought my brushes (two 5-inch brushes and one round brush) directly from Color Atelier along with my paint for ease, but you can probably find more affordable alternatives at places like Amazon. Make sure the brush is high-quality, so it doesn’t break or shed bristles on your walls as you paint.
With Color Atelier’s paints, you don’t need to prime your walls before painting, with a few exceptions. According to the brand, “Color Atelier Limewash Paint can be applied directly over porous, absorbent surfaces such as bricks, cement, and stucco. Surfaces that have been previously painted, like drywall, should be primed with our Mineral Primer. On new drywall, always use a water-based, stain-blocking primer before our Mineral Primer.”
My Color Atelier order also came with wooden stir sticks. Limewash paint separates because it’s made of natural minerals, so for the minerals not to settle at the bottom, you need to stir the paint every so often.
The Process
Prepping
The most annoying part about painting, in general, isn’t applying the color itself; it’s the lead-up to it. We didn’t want to limewash the baseboard or door trim in the rooms, so we had to use painter’s tape to safeguard these areas. We used a lot of FrogTape, and I found that the yellow option peeled off better for us than the green or blue.
We lined the floor with plastic so that the limewash paint wouldn’t splatter on our hardwood floors. We took off all the outlet covers and covered the outlets with painter’s tape so paint wouldn’t get in them. We also removed our flush mounts because we wanted to limewash the ceiling for a more cohesive and continuous feel. If you choose to do this, you will need a ladder to reach up!
Since we decided to limewash after we had already moved into our new apartment, we also had to move all of our furniture out of the room we were painting.
Painting the Guest Room
Once the prep work was done, we poured the paint out, dipped our brushes in, and got to work! We started with the guest room first, using Blue Fog. This was our biggest room, and we spent a total of around 15 hours painting over a two-day period. Since you can’t use a roller and painting is done strictly with a small brush, limewashing requires a lot of time.
Based on all the videos I watched and my chat with the Color Atelier employees, the general rule of thumb for painting with limewash is to make big X patterns on the wall and spread the paint outwards so it feels very thin. You want to connect the edges of your Xs while the paint is still drying, too.
Making "X" marks in one of the rooms:
Since my husband is taller, he would stand on a ladder and paint from the top down, meeting me in the middle, as I painted from the bottom up. I don’t think it matters where you start as long as you’re consistent with the X pattern you’re making and don’t let the coat of paint dry too much in between making the marks.
I’m not going to lie, two hours in and my wrists/hands were hurting from gripping the brushes, and my husband’s neck cramped up from looking upwards while painting the ceiling. Still, we trudged on, determined to finish this monstrous room. We let the first coat dry overnight and applied a second coat the next day, repeating the whole process.
I learned quickly that limewash paint is very forgiving, so even if you end up using too much paint in the beginning (this happened to us in our very first corner) or not moving your brush in the right pattern, it will still look fine in the end. The beauty of limewash is that it gives your walls a cloudy, imperfect textured look, so a “mistake” to you is simply additional character to anyone else looking at the room.
Once the paint had completely dried, we were 100 percent mesmerized by the result and so proud of our work. (Is this how Michelangelo felt after completing the Sistine Chapel?!?) The room felt serene and moody, and the cloud effect came through so pretty in the space. We left the trims in this room white because we thought the color paired nicely with the blue—but also, we were tired of painting!
Painting the Bedroom
We went with a pink-orange limewash for our primary bedroom. This was a true leap of faith because part of me was worried the color would feel too “girly” for both of us. We took a full weekend to limewash this room in Pamplemousse.
Once we finished, though, we did not like how the eggshell-white baseboards and doors contrasted with the pinkish hue. A few days later, we went to Sherwin-Williams and asked them to color-match—basically create a custom paint blend for us that would complement the Pamplemousse limewash. After we received the can, we spent another couple of hours on the third day painting the trim and doors.
This last step really tied the room together, giving it a designer-approved look. When the doors are closed, the paint color is continuous and blends in with the limewash. Of course, since we’re not expert painters, there are minor spots on the doors where the paint kind of bled through the painter’s tape, and we haven’t changed out our painted door hinges courtesy of the landlord's special. But, all in all, I felt like we did as good a job as any TaskRabbit.
The grapefruit shade, coupled with the texture in this room, makes it a happy space, which really helps our moods when we’re stressed out by life. I love how the sunlight filters into this space, too, depending on the season—we get the best glow in the winter. The color also reminds me of walls you’d see on the Amalfi Coast or in Tuscany, which feels transportive. Coincidentally, we already owned artwork featuring the rolling hills of Tuscany from a street artist in Florence, so we hung this above the bed, leaning into the Italian villa vibe.
Painting the Office
After getting through two rooms, the office was a breeze. We loved how color-matching the trim to the limewash paint looked, so we chose to do it for this room too. For the office, we wanted a non-distracting, neutral background for work calls, so Wabi felt appropriate.
Color Atelier describes this shade as “a soft off-white with the tiny addition of umber and black; it feels warm and reads like a very pale taupe.” We opted for two different strength intensities of paint, 100 percent standard and 50 percent lighter, thinking the cloudy effect would show more.
We underestimated how much paint we would need for this room, so during the second coat, we thinned out the paint with a small amount of water to make it last. Also, the handle on one of our brushes broke at this point, so I had to clutch it at an odd angle to use it, stopping periodically to shake out hand cramps.
The cloudy effect is faint, but because our other two rooms are so full of color, this third room is actually a nice reprieve. I love how bright and light the space feels, and our friends all love this room the most, so I feel like it is a crowd-pleasing hue.
If we were to redo our rooms, I would actually use Wabi in our primary bedroom, too. We realized later on that this space doesn’t get as much light in the summer as it does in the winter because the sun is higher in the sky; the rays don’t penetrate through our one small window in the bedroom in the same way. If we had used Wabi, the room would feel larger and brighter rather than cozy and cocooning during the summer months.
My Final Thoughts
Two years after we limewashed, we hate everything. I kid!! I actually have zero regrets about using the limewash technique in our rooms, and my husband is still very fond of our pink-orange bedroom. All three spots have their own personalities thanks to the colors we chose, and I don’t think our home would have the same character if we just used regular paint.
I always tell people who ask about the process that it’s time-consuming but so worth it if you’re willing to put in the effort. Of course, you can hire people to do this for you, too, but there’s something to be said about painting your own home by yourself or with a friend/partner. It feels extra rewarding.
Plus, every time we give an apartment tour, friends and family always compliment our walls. It’s a nice feeling to have other people notice and appreciate the work you personally put into making a home feel like yours. I’ve even inspired my own sister to limewash one of her rooms—she just texted me asking to borrow my brushes.
