We work in collaboration with Olympia’s ION Ecobuilding to
provide a range of options including their Participation Paints.
What is a Natural Finish?
A natural finish is like paint, but uses non-industrial ingredients. Industrial products use synthetic ingredients, such as petroleum, latex, acrylics, synthesized tints, and heavy machinery. Natural products use materials such as clay, natural pigments (iron oxide, commonly known as rust, is one), sand, casein (milk protein), wheat paste, and a whole lot more! Sometimes, we’ll acquire the materials locally (maybe from your own yard) or order them from as local a source as possible.
Why Choose a Natural Finish?
1) Natural finishes are beautiful. No industrial product comes close to matching the earth tones of natural finishes. The texture options are virtually endless and hands-down beat the typical “popcorn” texture.
2) They’re local. By mixing paints ourselves, digging or harvesting materials, or buying them from nearby sources, we keep money in the local community, cut down on transportation, and take a powerful step towards forming a sustainable, independent local economy.
3) Unlike conventional products, natural finishes are easy to repair. The greater thickness of the finishes and workability allow more room for patching or simply covering. To put it in perspective, think of all the work that needs done when your drywall cracks or gets dinged – gouging, taping, patching, sanding, more sanding, and maybe some more sanding, then finally recoating.
4) They feel better. There’s a sense of peace being in a room with a natural finish. Maybe it’s the texture, or pigments, or maybe the complete lack of toxicity – whatever it is, there’s a special aura to naturally finished rooms. Many of the finishes help to control humidity by taking in moisture from the air when humidity is high and releasing it when humidity is low.
5) Natural finishes are normal (in a bigger picture kind of way). For thousands of years, homes have been finishes with casein, clay, sand – the materials at hand. Over half of all the houses in the world are built of natural materials. The paints of today are mostly an experiment – and given the difficulty in repairing, damage to our health, and effect on our envirnment, we posit the experiment has been mostly a failure.
What finishes are available?
Participation Paint’s Casein Paint: Paint made from milk protein. It dries to a matte finish and dry hard and durable. For areas with a lot of moisture, we can seal with linseed or other natural oils, to increase water resistance, ease in cleaning, and sheen.
Participation Paint’s Clay 
Alis: This wonderful thicker-than-paint uses wheat paste, kaolin clay, fine sand and natural pigments. The texture it leaves behind is gorgeous, from it’s unique roller stipple to brushing patterns such as arches, circles, figure eights – you name it. The clay in alis also helps to regulate humidity – it absorbs moisture when the room is humid and releases it when it’s dry.
Plaster: Earthen Plasters are like an alis, but much thicker – they’re troweled on. The texture options are greater than an alis and the humidity-controlling properties are much greater. 
Often, we’ll use neighborhood sourced materials for earthen plasters in special spaces, on accent walls or for permeable wall systems, such as a straw bale or Faswall walls. These wall systems serve a plethora of functions, such as preventing mold growth and vapor permeability.
Earthen Floors: Earthen floors are durable, beautiful, and unrivaled in their ability to be easily repaired or recovered. Wood floors scratch and need refinished and eventually get sanded down to nothing, concrete floors aren’t really patchable (at least, look terrible when patched!), linoleum and other synthetic floors are oftentimes toxic, use nasty chemicals in their production, and aren’t salvageable – once they get some wear, it’s to the landfill!
Polished Earthen floors are made of local sands, clays and fibers and are treated with oils and wax. They can go over a wooden sub floor or replace non structural parts of a concrete slab and can be used with radiant floor heating systems.
