The first record of ‘Marmorino Stucco’ – a polished plaster – is in a building contract dated 1473, for the nuns of Santa Chiara of Murano. Polished plaster is made from crushed marble and lime putty, which can be tinted to give a wide variety of colours. It can be applied in a range of textures from a polished effect to that of natural stone.

It’s a very small community of experts. There are no more than a couple of handfuls of people that do this. Applying decorative finishes requires the ideal blend of materials knowledge and technical mastery, together with a sharp eye and bold imagination. It’s a labor-intensive process using few tools, with the beauty of the end-result largely down to the artistic flair of the applicator.

A number of elements factor into the quality of a finish. You want to be comfortable that the service provider has previously achieved the level of artistry that you have in mind. You want them to source the finest materials on the market that can produce the level of work you have seen in the magazine. You want to know that they have allocated enough time to be in your home when it suits you, so they can perform their craft at the optimum pace, while keeping the day to day disruption of the home to an absolute minimum.