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👨👩👦 Family Owned & Operated
🇫🇷 Founded by a French-certified painter
Portola is a Los Angeles paint company, and its Roman Clay and Lime Wash are favorites with designers. Colors are hand blended in small batches. If your designer has specified a Portola color, here's what you need to know before it goes on the wall.
Portola Roman Clay
What it is: a smooth clay finish with a soft, matte, suede like look. 66 standard colors.
Where it works: interior only.
Wall prep: this is the part that decides the result. Roman Clay shows every flaw underneath, so it needs a very smooth wall, ideally Level 5 drywall. Textured walls need skim coating first.
Primer: a stain blocking primer before the clay.
Application: applied with a putty knife or trowel. Stainless steel knives are standard; on light colors, plastic knives help avoid gray marks.
Coverage: about 20 to 25 square feet per kilo for two coats. It's sold by weight in 1, 5, 10 and 20 kilo sizes.
Top coat: optional. Portola's Roman Clay Topcoat makes the wall more washable, which we recommend in kitchens, bathrooms and busy hallways.
Portola Lime Wash
What it is: a lime based finish with a soft, cloudy movement. 61 standard colors. Interior and exterior; outside, it weathers into a patina over time.
Primer: Portola's Limeproof Undercoat in most cases. On new drywall, a water based stain blocking primer first.
Application: a stain brush, two overlapping coats, keeping a wet edge so you don't get lap lines.
Coverage: about 150 to 200 square feet per gallon for two coats.
Sealer: Portola's Matte Wall Sealer is suitable for white and light colors only.
Not for: wood or metal.
Our honest take
Portola's colors are excellent, and designers often already own the fan deck. In our hands the Lime Wash runs thinner than Meoded, so it can take extra coats to reach the same depth. That's a working preference, not a flaw. If your designer specifies Portola, we apply it, and we'll tell you upfront if another product would give the depth you're after.
Hire an applicator in Orange County
Roman Clay and Lime Wash look simple in videos. On a real wall, the prep, the primer and the hand decide whether it reads high end or patchy.
Related: Meoded vs Portola vs Vasari · Roman clay walls in Orange County · Limewash painters in Orange County · Venetian plaster in Orange County
