The Italians knew plaster.

Frescoes – paintings executed on fresh plaster – that were buried for 2,000 years by the volcanic ash of Mount Vesuvius outlasted the ancient Roman civilization that created them. Hundreds of years ago, Italian craftsmen plastered cathedral walls inside and out, and protected monuments with plaster that can be seen today, softened with the rich patina of age.

These days, Venetian plaster (also called Italian plaster or decorative stucco) is once again becoming a fashionable way to finish walls in an exceptional and beautiful style.

”We wanted this room to stand out,” says Sarah Stevenson of the powder room that has deep blue Venetian plaster on the walls.

It does stand out. The plastered walls are dramatic. They glow with a translucent depth and deep shine. It’s hard to not run a surreptitious finger along the smooth, glowing surface.

”Oh, it’s okay to touch the walls,” says Stevenson. ”The plaster is stain-resistant, water-resistant, and doesn’t show fingerprints.”

Italian plaster is made from limestone and marble. Limestone – a sedimentary rock consisting mostly of calcium carbonate – is taken from quarries and rivers and fired in kilns. The resulting chemical changes turn the stone to putty when it is mixed with water. The putty is seasoned wet for up to a year before being processed into a finished plaster. It is then mixed with marble that has been ground into very fine particles, and then pigment is added. The result is a very hard and very luminous plaster.

Joe Stevenson, the husband of Sarah and the owner of White Star Enterprises, a plastering company in Bend, says that Venetian plaster has such amazing visual depth because of the lengthy process that is required to apply it properly.

”It takes six or seven layers to create the depth that you see,” he says, pointing out the marble-like sheen of the wall. ”You have to be really patient.”

Venetian plaster is applied in very thin layers, about one-sixteenth of an inch at a time. It’s applied with a special stainless-steel trowel. Finally, it is hand-polished with a coat of special wax that seals the surface and makes it highly water-resistant.

Joe says that it took two days for him to plaster a 6-foot-by-6-foot powder room.

”You probably want a professional to put this stuff on,” he says.

He points out that while Venetian plaster is beautiful, it’s also expensive, costing from $8 to $15 a square foot when put on professionally.

Sarah says that there is a wide variety of quality when it comes to Venetian plasters.

”You have to be careful about the kind of Venetian plaster you get,” she says. ”There are a lot of different qualities out there.”

The couple recommends that people ask to see working examples of the plaster before hiring someone to do the work.

”You can really see the difference,” says Sarah.

There is a nice example of Venetian plaster in the lobby of the St. Charles Medical Center-Bend. The deep red of the plaster glows with the translucent light that is reminiscent of Michelangelo’s frescoes.

”I like the shine,” says Sarah of her powder room. ”It’s really unique.”