Painting the house in "Horchata"
In the last few weeks, our house has gradually been turning white. The painters have arrived and are washing our walls with calestina.
An ancient technique used throughout the world, calestina is a cal (slaked lime)-based paint that has been used in Mexico for centuries. It works well in Mérida's humid climate because it's not waterproof. Any moisture rising up inside the walls simply evaporates through the calestina without causing it to bubble in the way latex paint does. As an extra bonus, the escaping humidity dissolves the cal at a microscopic level and allows it to shift, thus filling any cracks appearing in the concrete.
Not something you buy premixed in the store, calestina is made on site by mixing cal with water and a little binding agent to hold it together. The binding agent varies from country to country. In our research, we have found people using everything from milk to honey. Here in Yucatán, the mix seems to be a little vegetable oil (Negrita won the day) and some wood glue.
Our painters began weeks ago by "hydrating" the cal with water in a big blue drum. When done it looked a lot like horchata, except with leaves and dead insects floating around. After a few days, it was time to decide if we wanted to add any pigment to the mix.
Although we toyed with a splash of bright color here and there, we ended up settling for a natural "horchata". The house is about showcasing original details and rustic textures so a clean white palette was the best option for allowing these details to shine.
We did, however, opt for a very subtle hint of orange - not enough to notice - just enough to warm the white so our house doesn't look like some cold minimalist gallery space. Orange is a good fit that complements all the natural limestone, wood and vegetation we have on site.
As it's not an off the shelf product with a rainbow of paint chips to agonize over, our "hint of orange" was a hard concept to convey to our painter. We figured it out by mixing a strong peach-colored tint with a splash of paint from the drum. From there, we created swatch after swatch on the wall, halving the tint each time. It took us 6 swatches to get down to the white we wanted. Here are some of the early attempts:
Three coats of calestina have now been applied upstairs. Here is what it looks like in the guest bedroom:
We're really pleased with the outcome. Not only have we achieved the clean palette we originally envisioned, the calestina has also delivered a soft and luxurious texture to the space.
