Warm, off-white raw or skimmed plaster, common on unpainted interior walls.
Undertone: Bare gypsum finishing plaster dries to a soft pink-brown; lime plaster is off-white to pale grey; clay plasters take the colour of their earth, from buff to deep ochre.
Real-world variation: A skimmed wall is mottled, with darker trowel marks and patches where it was worked longer. That unevenness is the appeal of leaving it bare and the reason it cannot be matched with one flat paint.
Finish: Unsealed plaster is matt and dusty; a clear sealer or wax darkens it and brings out the mottling, much as wetting it does.
Lighting: Fresh plaster is dark when wet and lightens over days as it dries, so its colour on the day it is finished is not the colour it settles at. Raking light shows every trowel mark.
Safe directions: Off-whites, warm greys, muted greens and timber sit easily with plaster's pink-brown.
Bolder directions: Deep green, charcoal or dark blue joinery against bare plaster walls gives a strong contrast that keeps the plaster looking deliberate.
Caution: Painting directly over new plaster before it has dried, or without a thinned first coat, causes patchiness and peeling — and a colour judged against wet plaster will look different once it dries.
Commonly paired with
Similar lightness for a subtle, tone-on-tone pairing with minimal contrast.
Commonly paired with
Similar lightness for a subtle, tone-on-tone pairing with minimal contrast.
Commonly paired with
Similar lightness for a subtle, tone-on-tone pairing with minimal contrast.
Commonly paired with
Similar lightness for a subtle, tone-on-tone pairing with minimal contrast.
Commonly paired with
Enough lightness contrast to read as two distinct colours without feeling harsh.
Commonly paired with
Enough lightness contrast to read as two distinct colours without feeling harsh.
Commonly paired with
Enough lightness contrast to read as two distinct colours without feeling harsh.
Commonly paired with
Enough lightness contrast to read as two distinct colours without feeling harsh.
Commonly paired with
Strong lightness contrast and saturation for a bold, graphic pairing.
Commonly paired with
Strong lightness contrast and saturation for a bold, graphic pairing.
Commonly paired with
Strong lightness contrast and saturation for a bold, graphic pairing.
Commonly paired with
Strong lightness contrast and saturation for a bold, graphic pairing.
Commonly paired with
A low-chroma neutral lets the original colour stay the visual focus.
Commonly paired with
A low-chroma neutral lets the original colour stay the visual focus.
Commonly paired with
A low-chroma neutral lets the original colour stay the visual focus.
Commonly paired with
A low-chroma neutral lets the original colour stay the visual focus.
Commonly paired with
A saturated accent from a different hue family for a deliberate pop of contrast.
Commonly paired with
A saturated accent from a different hue family for a deliberate pop of contrast.
Commonly paired with
A saturated accent from a different hue family for a deliberate pop of contrast.
Commonly paired with
A saturated accent from a different hue family for a deliberate pop of contrast.
Undertone caution: check a suggested colour against this material’s actual undertone in your own space, not just its broad colour family — real materials vary more than one representative swatch can show.
Lighting and finish both change how these pairings actually look — see the lighting guide and finish guide.
Always view a physical sample against the real material before committing to a large surface.
The binder (white lime or gypsum) and the sand or marble dust in it; historic stucco took its colour mainly from the sand, sometimes from earth pigments or a limewash.
Bare plaster is a porous, strongly scattering matte surface, so it follows the colour of the light closely and shows every change in wall texture under raking light.