Venetian Plaster sample of column work done with Marmorino

Venatian Plaster in Hampton Roads

Antonino Giangrasso created a finish using Venetian plaster in combination with lime paint and mineral colors to create an aged textured finish.

VIRGINIA BEACH – The two tradesmen stopped in their tracks to inspect the old world finish with plaster in total admiration.

“You can touch it,” Giangrasso suggested.

One customer. ” that’s amazing,” he said quietly.

“Beautiful,” his partnered agreed.

Catching subcontractors in open awe on the job site may seem an unlikely event. But Antonino Giangrasso has been drawing admirers and winning praise from the field and model home as of late.

Giangrasso works with Venetian plaster, a smooth decorative finish that is tinted, laced with crushed marble, and applied in short, random strokes with a trowel. Using several coats over about four days, Giangrasso can turn a 16- by 18-foot room of flat, bland drywall into a rich, marble-like showpiece.

The finish is reminiscent of Old World Europe, and has been used for centuries by Italian aristocrats, said Giangrasso.

“I like the effect,” he said. “It’s not strong nor synthetic.”

“It looks like something in the Bellagio, the prettiest hotel in Las Vegas, or the Taj Mahal,” decorator said. “It’s a piece of art.”

“People can’t keep their hands off it,”.

Giangrasso has been applying Venetian plaster to interior walls locally for about 9 years. Some of his work has been high-profile.

“It’s just a very elegant look,” Margaret, a customer said. “When you use wallpaper, no matter how good the person is, you still see the seam.”

The plaster dries seamless. Yet the coats lend a sense of depth and movement. Giangrasso likens those variations to that of clouds.

It sells houses,” she said as she decided on hiring Turovskiy to plaster the dining room and columns of a model home at Virginia Beach, which Beco of Chesapeake built. There, his work has drawn “oh, wows” from prospective buyers and requests for his business card.

The pre-fabricated, round wood columns that Giangrasso finished with Venetian plaster stir the greatest interest, Allen said. “People want to touch them,” she said.

Graves-Tcholinski has seen Venetian plaster used in Beverly Hills, Calif., and Las Vegas. Schoch said it’s used widely in Florida.

“I think it just started coming this way,”

Antonino Giangrasso does murals, frescoes, faux paintings and trompe l’oeil. For 10 years, he has drawn renderings of new homes for builders using their floor plans.