Gold Foil over Textured Wall Panels
Isle of Man
2025
Foil and real metal
This page is for the finishes where the metal is actually metal — transfer foil, and sheet metal laid on and worked by hand. It is the top end of the metallic work we do, and it behaves differently from anything sprayed or trowelled.
Transfer foil
Foil takes its pattern from whatever is underneath it. On a set of wall panels we combed a ridged texture into the plaster first — fine vertical lines the full height of the panel — and that texture is the whole job. The gold goes on as transfer foil: a sheet is held flat against the panel and rubbed down by hand, then peeled back. Where the hand presses hardest the gold releases onto the raised ridges; where the texture dips away the foil never makes contact and the pale plaster stays bare. What comes out is a broken, weathered gold rather than a flat gilded sheet.
The same idea over a heavier texture, in a foil that shifts colour rather than staying one metal, gave the bar at Onchan its finish: a rich textured bronze with the foil breaking over it into blues, coppers and golds depending where you stand. Up close you can see exactly where the foil took and where it did not.
Real metal
Pure nickel is applied as metal and worked by hand — not a glitter and not a flake. On a feature wall in Santon it runs over the whole wall: across the face, round the returns, and into the backs and shelves of the open recesses, taking in the television and the fire below it without a break anywhere. Up close it is all movement, the trowel marks catching bright silver against darker grey, so the wall changes as you walk past it.
The same idea in a smaller compass gives you pure metallic fire breasts, which is what we did either end of a grey and silver hallway.
Looking for metallic plaster instead?
Metallic effects achieved in the plaster — metallic Venetian plaster, and the metallic waxes worked over Marmorino and the rest — are on the Venetian Plaster page under surface enhancements. Metallic-coloured flake finishes, in copper, bronze and gun metal, are Sealed Flake.
Key Characteristics
Real metal and transfer foil
Laid on and worked by hand
Takes its pattern from the texture beneath
Broken, weathered or bright, as wanted
Movement changes as you walk past
Wraps returns, recesses and shelves
Top end of the metallic finishes
Interior feature areas
Tie-dye foil at the bar in Onchan
Foiling on film
Ideal Applications
Hi-tech modern rooms
Dining rooms
Offices
Restaurants and showrooms
Bathrooms
Feature walls
Prestigious interiors
Accent areas
Technical Specifications
- Material Transfer foil, or real metal applied by hand
- Metals Gold foil; pure nickel
- Substrate Prepared plaster, textured or smooth as the effect requires
- Light Interaction Changes with viewing angle and raking light
- Suitable Surfaces Interior walls, returns, recesses and shelving
- Application Laid on and worked by hand, panel by panel
Projects Featuring This Finish
Interested in This Finish?
Tell us about the room and we can talk through how this finish can transform your space.