As a kid, my favorite thing about going to public school was the snow days. (Except when we had so many that they crept into our summer vacations, that is.) Thankfully, as an adult I can appreciate the snow for more than its uncanny ability to shut down school. Anyone on a significant stretch of the east coast is getting a good dose of snow right now, and we were no exception. We got a good 14″+ here, and it’s beautiful.
These past few weeks, we’ve been busy planning our Natural Building Workshops schedule. 2016 is a particularly exciting year because this is the very first time we’ll be hosting courses at our new homestead location outside Berea, Kentucky. I’ve been anticipating this day for several years now, and it’s finally happening. The Year of Mud’s new headquarters will be the source of a lot of amazing building activity and workshops for years to come.
You can make a drywall interior look like an earthen home with nothing more than a couple coats of simple clay paint. Clay paint can transform your space — it’s a very versatile material and can be used on a variety of surfaces, including exposed wood, plywood and drywall. In my previous post, I described how you can make a beautiful, non-toxic clay paint using three simple ingredients.
If you haven’t yet read the recipe yet, go ahead and start there. If you’re ready to get mud on your walls, read ahead for instructions for how to apply your new paint to your desired surface!
For some reason, it’s taken me a long time to try mixing up and using a clay paint (also known as a clay alis). Whatever the reason is, after attending the Natural Building Colloquium in October and talking to several folks about the ease of applying clay finishes on drywall, I knew I finally had to try it out in our new home here in Kentucky. Clay paint has many possible applications. Perhaps one of its best uses is to give an otherwise boring interior wall an earthy pick-me-up. It’s actually quite compatible with drywall, as you’ll see.
Read ahead for a recipe and instructions for making your very own clay paint.