Any time you’ve been to stay in a high-end hotel or villa and marvelled at the smooth and seamless plaster under your feet, there’s a good chance what you were standing on was tadelakt. The traditional Moroccan plaster technique is well known for its waterproof qualities and has been historically used in bathrooms and hammans, both indoors and outdoors. But it also has a certain rusticity to it – a type of North African chic that belies its simplicity.
The word tadelakt means “to rub in”, and is essentially a Berber term derived from the Arabic tadlik, “to rub in or massage”. That offers a hint as to how the substance is made: lime plaster comprising sand, water and lime is rammed and polished, then treated with soap to make it water-repellent – in a nutshell, it’s plaster treated with fat to make it more durable. This process gives the substance a certain plasticity, making it easy to apply as paste when soft and shape into seamless curves that will then harden into, say, a basin or a ceiling. Shaping tadelakt is very labour-intensive, but once it has formed and dried, it’s extremely long-lasting. Baths, fountains and cisterns can be found across Morocco made from the stuff; typically used in North African riads, the lime itself comes from the Marrakech Plateau in the High Atlas Mountains.
Pigment can be added to tadelakt to give it a specific colour, though the norm is to leave it untreated, meaning the most recognisable instances are a pale pink-grey not unlike Farrow & Ball’s ever-popular ‘Setting Plaster’. Its finish is broadly smooth and polished, and it can be finished either shiny or matte depending on taste. Although it is generally more expensive and slightly more difficult to apply than, say, the tiles that might otherwise be found in Morocco, it’s a beautiful and organic material. It also requires regular re-soaping and cleaning in areas which are exposed to water on a regular basis, with stringent cleaning instructions that are essential to observe (no acidic cleaners! Marseille soap only!). In other words, this is a prestige material to use in a house.
So how should you use it in practice?
A first point to think about is colour. In former House & Garden editor Sue Crewe’s London house (left), simple blue tadelakt walls contrast a more complex tiled and patterned floor, while a wet room by Olivia Outred deploys a warmer, tinted honey-coloured tadelakt back wall in the shower while the rest of the room is non-slip stone.
In Lucy Williams’ west London Victorian terrace, Lucy indulged a very non-London fantasy of “having a big walk-in shower that felt a little bit Mediterranean”, which is a great example of the evocative feel that tadelakt can offer a bathroom. That said, her bathroom is a slight imposter – it is actually shaped from microcement, finished with a slightly glossy wax seal. As such, she says, it has “the slight sheen of tadelakt with the durability of cement”. Whether or not microcement is cheaper, we can’t authoritatively say, but it might well be worth investigating if you want all the benefits of the Moroccan technique and material without the pursuant costs and upkeep faff.
The space is also a perfect illustration of the potential to shape and mould (literally) the space where you might want a shower or a bath: the curved alcove seat, arched entrance, built-in shelf and honeyed colour of the cement all combine to give the shower tactility and grace.
Moving away from bathrooms for a moment, this house in London designed by d’Erlanger and Sloan features subtle tadelakt plaster walls in a bright and spacious open-plan kitchen. The walls were matched to Edward Bulmer’s “Portland”, itself named for and inspired by the famed English stone, and offer a subtle but distinct undulation. The feel of a Bedouin/Berber tent was extended into a cushioned, curtained snug just off the kitchen.
Tadelakt has become something of a calling card for Maddux Creative, whose bathrooms often pair the polished plaster with similar earthy tones, be they in the form of a freestanding copper bath or a couple of ornamental earthenware pots under the sink. Their work in the en suite bathroom of this house in Primrose Hill is also testament to the potential of the material to combine with encaustic tiles to fascinating effect.
In short, tadelakt is versatile and stylish, and despite being best suited to wet rooms and bathrooms the material can also be deployed elsewhere, be it in kitchens or even outdoor spaces. So, next time you redesign your bathroom and decide you want it to feel like a riad or a hammam – and who wouldn’t? – you know where to look.
