Getting a decent finish with plaster

[Spoiler]

Hi,

Having completed a course on plastering, i'm going to plater my utility room\downstairs toilet.

As I want to stand & admire my work each time i take a slash, i thought about leaving the plaster finish on the wall & not painting it (ok, i've stolen this idea from DIY SOS. They did a kitchen this way).

Does anyone have any tips for getting a quality finish on the final coat? I seem to remember being told that you can pull the trowel really fast over the finished surface & it gives it a polished look (bit of a bitch to paint though). Is this right?

Cheers, Spoiler

[Andrew Gabriel]

Not really. You work on polishing it whilst it's going off. When you've done what you can at any one stage given how far it's gone off, leave it alone to go off some more -- don't work the same spot continuously.

Yes, you can polish it to the point where it's like a sheet of glass and the paint won't stick. That's not a smart move;-)

Wasn't this covered on your plastering course?

[Suz]

It is if you're not going to paint it.

[Harris]

I plastered my first wall about a month ago... never done any plastering before and it looked fantastic. so fantastic I didn't want to cover it either..

My plan was to make a small wooden frame, like a picture frame and fix it to the wall, then paint around the rest of it... that way it would look a bit like a painting!!

quality Idea I thought, but my girlfriend wasn't too impressed, so we painted the lot... I've only got pictures to remember it by now!

[Fishter]

Fantastic idea. If the flat is yours, tell your girlfriend she can decorate one room, and you will decorate another. The rest you can collaborate on ;-))