In modern hospitality, a restaurant’s atmosphere is just as crucial as its cuisine. Designers are moving away from sterile, flat surfaces, embracing texture and warmth to create immersive dining environments. The solution? Plastered walls. This ancient technique has resurfaced as the definitive choice for creating beautiful, bespoke restaurant walls that offer unparalleled depth, ambiance, and a sense of old-world luxury.

Why are designers choosing an organic plaster finish for walls over paint or wallpaper? The answer lies in authenticity.

• Monolithic Aesthetics: Plaster is applied by hand, covering vast areas—from floor to ceiling—without a single seam or grout line. This seamless texture creates a powerful, monolithic look that feels architectural and permanent.
• Tactile Beauty: Unlike paint, a plaster finish for walls has a subtle, light-catching movement and a velvety, cool-to-the-touch surface. Every trowel stroke leaves a slight imperfection, ensuring that no two square feet are identical, giving the space soul.
• Natural Ambiance: Materials like lime plaster absorb light rather than reflecting it harshly, contributing to a soft, diffused glow that makes every guest and dish look better.

In the following article, we’ll be reviewing some of the most striking plastered walls implemented by leading interior designers in Toronto restaurants, highlighting how they elevate the commercial dining space.

One of the most dramatic examples of the power of plastered walls in Toronto is Sara Restaurant, designed by Odami studio.

The central design goal was to create a space where guests could “disconnect from the outside world” to find a sense of calm and deep connection. To achieve this profound sense of place, the designers utilized custom plaster walls as a primary tool:

• Custom, Hand-Applied Plaster Texture: In the intimate, vaulted main floor dining space, Odami studio developed and applied by hand a custom plaster texture. This material choice amplifies the feeling of shelter and intimacy, transforming the inherited Victorian townhouse structure into a calming, almost cave-like environment. This highly-textured plaster finish for walls grounds guests and channels the haptic qualities of the land.
• Aesthetic Contrast: The plastered walls on the main floor are anchored by a strict horizon line of oak wainscoting and banquette tops. Below this line, highly-textured materials like wood and velvet ground the space, while the custom plaster finish takes over above, contributing a crucial sense of weightiness and artisanal texture.
• Intentional Minimalism: This approach showcases a purposeful blend of the tactile with the calm of minimalism. The plaster walls are essential to the design’s success, providing immense texture without relying on unnecessary decor or visual noise that would “disturb the eye or mind.”

The interior demonstrates how a custom, seamless plaster finish for walls can fundamentally define the experience, making the very surface of the restaurant walls the key architectural and emotional feature.

The design for Eloise was executed by the woman-led Toronto firm Westgrove, which sought to create a distinct yet connected dining experience. For Eloise, Principal Keri MacLellan notes the inspiration came from old-world interiors—a vision perfectly realized through the use of plastered walls.

• Evoking History: The plastered walls work in harmony with traditional architectural details like wood paneling and mouldings. This combination creates an immediate sense of history and classic European elegance, providing a soft, textured contrast to the linear wood elements.
• The Soft Aesthetic: Eloise’s palette is intentionally soft and airy in blush and taupe. The plaster finish for walls supports this aesthetic by offering a matte, muted, and luminous backdrop that enhances the feeling of tranquility and refinement, unlike the darker, sultrier tones of its adjoining space, Bar Cart.
• Creating Sophistication: By using plaster walls, Westgrove avoided a harsh, modern look, ensuring the large 86-seat room feels intimate and steeped in a subtle, old-world glamour that elevates the entire restaurant interior design.

The beauty of a plaster finish for walls lies in its versatility as a backdrop. Its subtle, matte texture is the perfect foil for high-contrast, modern elements:

• Gold Leaf and Shine: Against the soft plaster, modern metallic accents—such as the molten, gold-leaf ceiling by craftsman Andrjez Kisza, a design by Futurestudio, or sleek lighting fixtures—pop with crisp definition. The plaster grounds the space while the metal adds a touch of necessary sparkle.
• Wood and Mouldings: Plaster provides an organic contrast to the linear, engineered look of wood paneling and mouldings, ensuring the room doesn’t feel stuffy or overly polished.
• High-End Fixtures: In places like Chica Restaurant (designed by Mo Studio), textured plaster walls and ceiling frame high-end fixtures and furniture, elevating the entire space into a cohesive, contemporary whole.

Beyond aesthetics, using a high-quality plaster finish for walls in a restaurant provides practical benefits:

• Improved Acoustics: The rougher, porous nature of many plaster finishes helps to absorb sound waves, dramatically improving acoustics and reducing echo—a crucial factor for an enjoyable dining experience.
• Durability & Longevity: Plasters like lime plaster are incredibly durable and resistant to wear. They develop a beautiful patina over time and can be spot-repaired and resealed far more gracefully than drywall or paint.
• Hygienic Surface: Lime plaster is naturally breathable and has mild antibacterial properties, making it a hygienic, safe choice for restaurant walls.