Ombre et lumière - Couleurs et matières is a company that specialises in interior decoration using lime based finishes. The creators, Laurence and Alexander are both passionate, demanding aesthetes, who love noble materials. Their story is atypical and they share a passion: Know-how and respect for tradition. They practice their art throughout France and are not intimidated by country borders, working voluntarily in other countries.
Their ambition is to demonstrate that the noble and living material that is lime, is in perfect harmony with contemporary architecture and offers many possible modern applications. Since the dawn of time, man has sought to decorate his walls, to give them a meaning, an identity.
By personalising the application of lime plaster, we can transform an interior in a remarkable and unique way. It is possible for us to create as many recipes for decorative coatings as there are different situations or applications. There are a thousand ways to plaster and the same number of different preparations.
Your interiors can make sense. Lime finishes make sense. They are beautiful, durable, ecological, healthy…
Every project is different, unique and personal. Your lime plaster interior will never look exactly like the interior of anyone else, because the effect of the materials and the techniques will never be the same. This is a characteristic of lime : it is a material that lives and breathes with your walls, it has nuances not only of colour but also of depth. It reacts to changes in temperature and humidity of the air and to that of the supporting surface with which it is united. It is affected by the dosage of pigment and the miscibility of the earth and minerals used.
In addition, the application of a coating of lime requires qualities that leave little room for improvisation. Indeed, working with lime is anything but intuitive. It is know-how and experience that produce aesthetically pleasing results when working with lime. Lime finishes remain the privileged domain of refined decoration, velvety with a unique finish that only lime can produce.
Lime respects tradition and the environment ... Today, preserving our environment though ecologically sound behaviour, reducing the greenhouse effect by reducing our energy consumption and increasing our use of non-polluting products are all part of our current concerns. Paradoxically, we are, therefore, obliged to insulate our interiors. And, in doing so, we often forget the importance of having walls that breathe. As a result we find that there is more and more pollution of our interior spaces.
Indeed, environmental studies have shown that our homes no longer breathe and that the composition of the materials and coatings used in our interiors are having an ever-increasing influence on our health. It is time to take a closer look at the products to be used on our walls before deciding to give them depth and colour. They have an important influence on the quality of ambient air and especially on the regulation of ambient humidity. The hygiene of the house, the health of its occupants and respect for the environment have become the concern of some paint manufacturers. Some have become aware of the environmental issue and have changed their range of products and have given them special "eco" labels signifying conformity to French standards (look for NF on the labels).
Lime has certain indisputable qualities. Permeable to air, lime coating is waterproof. It allows the walls breathe by encouraging exchanges humidity, thus reducing moisture. Antiseptic, it disinfects.
Lime also provides good thermal and sound insulation.